Sermon Title: "Is It 'I Was Baptized' or 'I Am Baptized'?"
Date: January 11, 2009
Minister: Rev. Charles E. Ensley, Jr.

Lesson:  Mark 1:4-11

Unfortunately . . . – (I don’t believe I’ve ever begun a sermon with “Unfortunately”) — unfortunately, we do not have a baptism to celebrate on this Sunday when the Church traditionally observes the baptism of Jesus.  I have twins scheduled for the second Sunday in February, but none on the second Sunday in January.

It’s not like I go out seeking baptisms.  I have never met a new mother at the hospital with my calendar in hand asking when she wants to schedule her newborn’s baptism!  I figure the family will let me know when they’re ready, when the relatives can be in town, or when their child is older and they want him or her to remember it.  If you been here long enough, you’ve seen me baptize infants in arms, three- and five-year-olds, teenagers and adults.

I remember my own baptism.  Well, not actually remember it, as I was only four months old.  I remember the date, for it was my parents’ third wedding anniversary, August 29, 1948.  I was baptized at the same church where they were married, Pilgrim Congregational Church in Los Angeles, a church of the very same denomination in which I now serve as a minister.

It is important for any of us to note that we were not baptized as Catholics, Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Baptists or Presbyterians.  You may have been baptized in one of those churches, but you and I were baptized as Christians.

Contrary to those who believe Jesus instituted baptism, as he did with what we call communion, Eucharist, or the Lord’s Supper, baptism was already being practiced in Jewish culture.  That’s how our lesson begins today with a distant kin of Jesus, John the Baptist, “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”  John is an appropriate prophet to prepare the way for Jesus, because his message and Jesus’ message complement one another, as they both stress the importance of repentance in preparation for the coming of God’s kingdom.

At the same time, this baptism carries with it metaphors for cleansing.  Just as we take a shower or bath to get clean, being immersed in the river Jordan was symbolic of dying to your old self and coming up cleansed as a new person.

So now comes Jesus to be baptized, the one who, John proclaimed, “is more powerful than I…; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.  I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 1:7-8)  Jesus’ arrival at the Jordan and his baptism by John are narrated without fanfare or detail, compared to the crowd’s baptism earlier.  However, a sharp difference is noted between the crowd’s baptism and Jesus’ baptism.  Jesus’ baptism is not acknowledged as a confession of sin, but rather a divine declaration of Jesus and his coming ministry.  Two things happen simultaneously.  As Jesus rises up out of the water, the heavens are opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove.  “And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’”  (Mark 1:11)

This is an extremely significant moment in Mark’s Gospel.  It was written for a struggling group of Christians living in typical Greco-Roman households of the late first century.  The writer was a third-generation Christian who meditated on the story of Jesus and the call to discipleship in difficult times around the year 70 in the Christian Era.  Mark’s is the first gospel written, and is the shortest in the Christian scriptures, just 16 chapters.

What is unique about Mark’s Gospel is its notion of adoptionist Christology.  As noted earlier, there is no birth narrative in Mark.  Where Jesus came from and how he got here matters not to Mark.  The crucial event which designated him from the multitudes of people from the rural areas of Judea and from the city of Jerusalem to be baptized by John, it was only Jesus’ baptism that resulted in the voice from heaven declaring, “You are my Son, the Beloved…”  For Mark, at this very moment, God adopted Jesus as his Son and all that follows comes as a result of that.

When we hear again today that Jesus is baptized, we are filled to overflowing with a feeling of joy that God has revealed his Son, announced his love and proclaimed just how pleased he is with Jesus.

The meaning of baptism is that God accepts Jesus as his Son, and the happiness we feel over this acceptance shapes our entire memory of baptism.  Gone is the mix of emotions that were felt by the people at the Jordan River, replaced by deep joy that Jesus is God’s Son, the Beloved.  Jesus is now, for us, the Word of God in human form … the Way, the Truth and the Life … God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God.  After witnessing his baptism, we don’t have to wonder any longer about who Jesus is. We know his true identity.

The very same is true for us, as we remember our own baptism.  In this sacrament, we are connected to the body of Christ — the universal community of Christians in all the congregations any of us have ever been part of.  They are nothing less than the flesh-and-blood physical presence of Jesus in the world today.  “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” asks the apostle Paul.  “If we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:3, 5)  In this sacrament, we become children of God, no less loved and accepted than Jesus Christ himself.

Do you feel beloved by God?  Do you look back on your baptism, whether you can remember it or not, and feel you are blessed by it?  You should.  For it was not a one-time act with little future significance.  Let me tell you how.

Forty-five years ago, when I earned my Eagle Scout award, I remember my Scoutmaster telling us new Eagles at the Court of Honor that from then on, we weren’t to say, “I was an Eagle Scout,” but rather, “I am an Eagle Scout.”  It is an award we earned, a special designation, and time does not take it away.  That same admonition has been repeated endlessly to Scouts over the years.  I remember when I served on the Eagle Board of Review for our local council here in Long Beach, we told the boys that their award was something they could claim for all the future as an achievement.  Resume writers and professional head-hunters say it and the comparable Girl Scout Gold Award are the only high school awards you can claim on your post-college resumes as you seek employment.

Well, the same is true of your baptism.  It is not a once done/now it’s over/never-again-to-be-claimed event.  Your baptism marked you.  To say “I was baptized” relegates it to an insignificant past event.  To say, no matter what your age, “I am baptized” holds that event up as one marking your life forever.

More than anything else, baptism marks our birth as Christians.  It involves a process that is every bit as wet and messy as the physical birth that brought us into this world, but it is also every bit as permanent.  Through baptism, we are identified as children of God who are both loved and lovable, chosen by the Lord to be his people in the world. “The truth, even though I cannot feel it right now,” wrote the Dutch priest Henri Nouwen, “is that I am the chosen child of God, precious in God’s eyes, called the Beloved from all eternity and held safe in an everlasting embrace.”

The chosen child of God.  This is not just Jesus … it is each one of us.  Precious.  Beloved.  Safe in an everlasting embrace.  Our true identity.

Make this your memory of baptism.