Sermon prepared for
by Pastor Gregory S. Kaurin
Texts: 1st Peter
3:18-22
Sermon:
The Deeper Waters of Baptism
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I
think I’ve mentioned to you before that if you want to set a pastor’s teeth on
edge—in fact, the next time you see Pastor Steve say these words to him and
watch his reaction—just say, “Pastor Steve, we need to get our baby ‘done.’” Almost makes us pastors sound like hit-men!
Baptism
is a sensitive topic. I don’t care what
denomination you are; it’s sensitive. People
have actually spilled blood to defend their positions on it. I’ll admit to you: on the one hand, I
completely understand why there are so many differences among Christians,
differences that started way back in the 2nd Century AD. On the second hand, I am also defensive about
our own position on it—because I am convinced that an emphasis on God’s action
and God’s grace in Baptism is the best, most consistent and Biblical path for
Christianity.
There
are two “things” that go with Baptism, and these two things are true at all
times, whether you were baptized last week or when you were two weeks old. Both are Biblical. You can find them in the second lesson we
read from 1st Peter, one of the most interesting and strange
passages in the Bible.
The
words I want you to look at were parenthetical in Peter’s letter—just an
aside—but very important: “This, by the way,” Peter wrote, “is what Baptism
pictures for us: In Baptism we show that we have been saved from death and doom
by the resurrection of Christ…”
That’s
the number one thing: Baptism shows that we’ve been rescued from death and doom
by what? by our actions? rescued by our righteousness? No. We
were rescued by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
This is the part of Baptism that talks about
our being joined to God, made a part of the Body of Christ, joined with him in
his death and resurrection, born again, born from above. Initiated.
Adopted. This all happens, not by
our action, but first and foremost by the resurrection of Christ. It’s God’s action. Since we don’t or won’t or can’t reach up to
him, he reaches to us. So that is the number
one thing: we are rescued by Christ’s resurrection.
But
Peter went on from there: Baptism shows this salvation “not because our bodies
are washed clean by the water, but because in being baptized we are turning to
God and asking him to cleanse us from sin.”
See,
there it is: the second thing that the Bible says goes with Baptism. In being baptized we are “turning to God.” That’s repentance, to turn to God, asking him
to cleanse us from sin.
Those
words should jump out at you, especially since you are Christians in a church
that willingly baptizes infants left and right!
In this church we say over and over that Baptism describes the free
grace and salvation of God, that Baptism is God’s
action, God’s adoption, and not ours.
And
yet this passage, and many others in the Bible, pairs Baptism alongside of asking
God for forgiveness, repenting, turning and changing our lives. Those would be our actions, wouldn’t they? Then, how can we call it unconditional free grace? Why do we go on baptizing babies when it’ll
be years before they’ll understand repentance and forgiveness?
I’m
not going to take back anything we’ve said about Baptism. It is
God’s action. I don’t baptize babies or
people. God does. Baptism was and is God’s claim, body and
spirit, on you. It is his grace. It was given to you independent from what you
did, either before or after you are baptized.
But
that gift from God, that salvation is meant to be a life changing event—for
your whole life. The key in reading that
sentence in 1st Peter is the verb tense—I believe it’s called “imperfect
present” because it’s not done yet. It’s
something that started at some point in the past and continues to this day. In being baptized we are “turning” to God
(constantly and for the rest of my life, turning to God) and “asking” him to
cleanse us of sin, not just once before or during my Baptism, but from that
point on.
Baptism
was not a magic spell of forgiveness…It is meant to be a life saving and a life
changing moment. That’s why we tell you
to “Remember your Baptism,” even if you were a squalling, smelly baby at the
time. What we mean is to remember that
you are baptized, so believe it and
act like it.
If
we don’t allow this relationship with God, described by our Baptism, to
transform or affect how we live, then we have taken this free grace of God and
made it cheap. Grace is free to us, but
it is not cheap. Taking it for granted
forgets what it cost God, and misses the deeper waters of Baptism. He died for us; he forgave us and named us
his own, and yet look at how we are treating him.
So,
turn again to God, hear again that he claims you and let his forgiveness wash
over you, Child of God, marked for ever.
Always be turning, and always be asking for forgiveness because you are baptized. And you can trust that God is already and
always running to meet you on the path.
You can believe this because
you are baptized.
We
actually have old records from the 100’s AD on whether or not young children or
infants can be baptized. For most of the
history of the Christian Church, the answer has been a qualified “Yes, infants can be baptized.” They saw that Baptism had these two things that
we’ve been talking about to hold together: first, God’s action, his adoption;
and second, our repentance, our change of life.
However,
early on they realized that the most important aspect of the two, what Baptism
depended on first, was the initiation, God’s adoption. So, they carefully said, “Yes, infants and
children can be baptized …so long as they will be raised in a Christian family, that they will be offered a fighting chance to live
the Christian life, to live in their Baptism.”
Now,
you see why—to this day—while children and babies are baptized freely and
gracefully, we still turn to the adults around the font and ask them to make big promises: “Bring them
to the services of God’s house, teach them the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, the
Ten Commandments, place in their hands the Holy Scriptures, and provide for
their instruction in the Christian faith so that, living in the covenant of
their Baptism and in communion with the Church, they may lead godly lives until
the day of Jesus Christ.” And we finish
by asking the parents and sponsors: “Do you promise to fulfill these
obligations?”
But
the Baptism itself is a graceful action of God, and unqualified. It might be most helpful to think of Baptism
as a true adoption. What age does a
child need to be before they can be adopted by parents? Do they need to reach some kind of mental
awareness first? Are children only
adopted after they are able to verbally agree to it? No. So,
now let me ask, when can God adopt you?
And
when do adoptive parents begin to nurture and have influence on a child’s life? Immediately, even before the baby is
cognizant of it. So, tell me, when does
God adopt and begin to nurture his children through all means he has? Whenever he wants.
But
I’m not done with this passage from 1st Peter, because I finally saw
something in it for the first time last week.
I feel like a dork that I never noticed this before, and I almost missed
it again! Thank God I didn’t, because you
will see that it takes us even deeper into the waters of Baptism.
We
pass over it in our Creeds thousands of times.
We say, “Jesus Christ, crucified, dead and buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again.” But stop there. For three days he was with the dead, or some
Creeds say “he descended into hell.”
There
are all kinds of theories as to what Jesus did during those three days. Mostly, people speculate that he preached to
people, especially the “good” people that had already died before they had a
chance to know him in life. Read carefully
what Peter said about those three days: “It was in the spirit that he visited
the spirits in prison, and preached to them.”
(That’s usually where my attention to detail stops and I think to
myself, “Oh yeah, that’s where that idea and phrase in the Creed comes from.”) Read on because: these were “the spirits of
those who, long before in the days of Noah, had refused to listen to God, though he waited patiently for them while
Noah was building the ark. Yet only
Noah’s family was saved in that terrible flood.”
Do
you get what Peter was suggesting in this passage? Mighty waters are being crossed here! Jesus’ message of salvation was not just
offered to the living, and not just offered to the good people that died before him.
He went and preached his gospel message to the souls—even to the sinful,
unrepentant souls—that God had condemned because they had refused him, and they
were drowned in the flood!
When
I realized that, I’m telling you a light went on in my head. Lazarus was dead for four days, stinking in
the tomb, and Jesus brought him to
life. These people were condemned by God
and buried under the waters of the flood for thousands of years, and yet Jesus was still willing and able to
carry the gospel into the pit of death, into hell itself, to bring them out to
eternal life with him!
What
does that tell you about placing any of our limitations, or our interpretations,
on God’s grace? You know I love this
joke: Where does a two-thousand pound gorilla sit? [Anywhere he wants.] Who can God save? [Anyone he wants.] Who can God baptize? [Anyone he wants.] Anyone, anywhere, anytime, anyhow that he
wants.
For
those people, after thousands of years, the flood ultimately became their great
Baptism…because that’s the deepest, darkest meaning of Baptism. It is a drowning.
That’s
why Peter wrote that parenthetical statement, “By the way, that is what Baptism
pictures for us, too.” It is a drowning. The sin, your “old self,” or your selfish way
of life, and everything that separates God from you, is drowned in Baptism. God reaches down into the deep and deadly
flood waters and lifts us up reborn, and adopted.
The
old unrepentant, selfish, worried, and joyless people must be drowned,
constantly drowned. Everyday, several
times a day, we need to be replaced by the new, forgiven, selfless, sure and
joyful children of God. Because of our Baptism, we are always turning to God and asking him to
cleanse us.
You
and I are called to take our Baptism this seriously. This is not a casual relationship that you
have with God, not after it cost him so much.
His death and resurrection, his forgiveness made salvation easy for us,
that’s true. But now you and I are
called to live in it, and invite others to see it by rejoicing, by loving
others, forgiving them, and serving them as Christ did. Because
you are baptized, an adopted child of God, you are marked by his death on the
cross and sealed by the eternal life of the Spirit…forever. Amen.
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