First given at Christ Episcopal Church, Woodbury, MN

Lectionary text: Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22

I always cry at baptisms. I have for as long as I can remember. I am not even certain when it started. Maybe it is the tiny, white gowns, placed on infants who have little say in the matter. Or, the resolve of a teenager, or an adult, who makes a vow to live a life of a disciple of Jesus.

It could be the candles. I am a sucker for a good candle. Or, the imagery of a seashell, often given to baptismal candidates, echoing the practice of the early church.

Or maybe it is the music. In the congregation where I was raised in north Texas, the song I was there to hear your Borning Cry was the automatic, go-to hymn of the day anytime we had a baptism.

I cry at baptisms. And I am not ashamed to admit it.

Friends in Christ, peace to you, on this the feast day of the baptism of our Lord, Jesus.

Our gospel lesson this morning, written in Luke, begins on John the Baptists prophecy, and ends with Jesus being baptized. What is unique about Luke’s telling of the story is the writer does not share where Jesus is baptized, or more surprisingly, by whom. All we hear is that Jesus is in among a crowd of other recent baptismal candidates. 

Before we discuss what baptism is and means for us, let us take a moment to explore what baptism is not.

Many more charismatic traditions will tout baptism as being simple “fire insurance”; that once, and if you are baptized you will be safe from the eternal fires of hell. They also stress the agency of the baptismal candidate to choose when, how, and where they will receive this rite.

In our tradition, baptism is one of the two sacraments offered by God through the church. Sacraments, to remind us, are the means in which grace, sanctification, and forgiveness expressed in the church’s liturgy.

At its simplest understanding, in baptism, God claims us as God’s own, and we are marked with the cross of Christ, and sealed by the power of the Holy Spirit, forever.

Today we celebrate the first action of Jesus that is shared by all four gospel writers. It is fitting, then, how early in the calendar year that it finds us.

Many of us in this room were baptized as infants. Our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, weird cousins, and sponsors or Godparents presented us before a church, parish, cathedral, or ward, and made promises on our behalf.

There is a promise made at baptism. The promise is to renounce all evil and sin; to confess faith in the triune God through the saying of the Creed, to continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, breaking of the bread, and prayers; to persevere in resisting evil, and whenever we fall into sin, to repent and return to the Lord. The promise is also to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ, to seek and serve Christ in all persons, and to strive for justice and peace among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being.

While this is an incredibly encompassing promise, it hasn’t always been expressed this clearly. In modern baptism, the same declaration is used that was used in the early church. “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen”. Once complete, the candidates were expected, encouraged, and coached through living lives as disciples of Jesus, the messiah.

In our Gospel lesson today, John is asked if he is the messiah, the one for whom the people have been waiting. John assures them that he is not, nor is he fit to even untie the messiah’s sandal. Furthermore, John states that while he uses water, when the messiah comes, the messiah will bring the Holy Spirit, and fire.

I think the most important piece of today’s story is the detail that is not included in our story. The verses that have been left out of this message is that John isn’t present at Jesus’ baptism, for John has already been imprisoned by King Herod.

So then, who baptized Jesus? The answer is both profound and simple. Jesus was baptized by the same thing that you were: the Holy Spirit. We know that when Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove. Not only this, a voice came down from heaven saying, “You are my son, the beloved; with you, I am well pleased.”

Friends, I invite us to reflect for a moment on how our understanding of baptism can be refocused when we expand our conception of baptism to being this: God reaching down from heaven and claiming us as God’s own.

How it matters not how great or grand the cathedral was where our baptisms occurred, or how wonderful and beautifully the choir sang. No, to only focus on what promise was being declared by those who love us on our behalf, and then the words that God assures us are true, “This is my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

Priests do not baptize people. Priests are invited to declare the promise of God, the means of grace made known in this sacrament as seen in Jesus’s life.

This is a gorgeous manifestation of the kingdom of heaven, that all are invited into God’s love and grace. No matter what nationality, what tribe, language, or heritage one belongs to. That this is a superseding promise, a promise of God’s radical love and acceptance. My beloved. The one who pleases me.

In baptism, God claims us as God’s own, and marks us as beloved, forever and ever.

I always cry at baptisms.