Journey's Weekly Homilies

January 13th,. 2002   Baptism of the Lord 
(Is.42:1-4,6-7, Ps 29,  Acts 10:34-38,  Matt 3:13-17)
Homily by Nancy Bannister

(Show small picture of Mother being baptized)

 This picture is a precious one for me.  My mother gave this copy to me when she was older and facing life-threatening illness.  I believe it was one of her most prized possessions, too.  In it she stands waist deep in Black Creek, at the bottom of High Street Hill, in northern Alabama.  Next to her is her father, my grandfather, the pastor of High Street Baptist Church, and he is about to baptize her by immersion.  My mother was 13 or 14 years old, and she had decided, had asked for, baptism.  It was initiation, it was rite of passage, it was a public beginning of a life-long commitment to church and church music for her.

             I look at this picture and I know why I was easily able to become a Catholic person 30 years later.  It was here, in this same small community with my mother, that I learned about the significance, the importance, the mystery, of how the baptismal act is received by one person but effects all the people.  In the culture of this small community there was nothing more important than Baptizing Day.  They happened at least once a year, sometimes twice.  They happened in the Summer or early Fall, since the water in Black Creek was marvelously cool to the touch, I suppose.  They also happened after Revival times, after there were people who had been prayed over and prepared, and wanted to be baptized.

             The whole community turned out for these days.  It was everybody’s feast day.  Everyone in the extended families joined the church community.  After the scripture and preaching, the baptismal candidates and the pastors went into the water.  And oh, the singing!  A hundred or more people standing on the creek bank, harmonizing in full voice, singing Blessed Assurance, Amazing Grace, or I Am Bound For The Promised Land or some such hymns.  Neighborhood people came, just for singing sometimes.  And the feasting went on all afternoon, so much food, and so many welcoming embraces.  This was sacrament for the sake of the people.  And that is why I tell you the story.

             The fundamental theme of Matthew’s account of the baptism of Jesus is this idea of sacraments for the sake of the people.  In Matthew’s community it would have been entirely foreign to say that baptism happens primarily to one person.  Matthew tells the story, and in the simple story you can read that Jesus is reliving the history of Israel.

Look at the parallels:

 --Israel walks into the Red Sea, and waters open to welcome them.

            Jesus goes into the Jordan River and the sky opens up to welcome him.

--Israel sings its song: Give praise, for God is good, Horse and Chariot God cast into

            the sea

            At Jesus baptism, Matthew hears another song being sung:  This is my Son, the beloved one, with whom I am well pleased.  (this is a paraphrase of Ps. 2, originally sung at the enthronement of a king, but came to be used at Christian baptisms.)

--After Israel passed thru the water, they wander in the desert for 40 years.

            After Jesus is baptized, he wanders in the desert for 40 days.

--When Israel is in the desert, they are tempted and learn the meaning of the law

            When Jesus is in the desert, he is tempted and he QUOTES the meaning of the law

            to Satan.

--Finally Israel is allowed into the Promised Land.

            And finally, Jesus shows us the NEW promised land, the reign of God, eternal life.

             Since those days of John the Baptizer, the church has lived thru many eras and definitions of baptism, but to this day it remains an unresolved question.  John may have baptized in order to symbolize the people’s willingness to cross the Jordan again, their willingness to join in solidarity with other believers to bring about the justice of God.  But the question of baptism is as much a controversy as it ever was.  Great theologians have tried to give baptism an ultimate definition or at least an adequate description. 

 And yet baptism remains undefined, still a paradox, still a matter which is at the heart of who we are and what we do, and yet something beyond words, something which cannot really be talked about at all, an event which has to be experienced by the community, by every member of the community.  This is what the Church calls a “mystery”—essentially inexpressible in words.  To be a human being is to be more than mere words, more than just a collection of chemicals and definitions.  Baptism has always been like that.  When one of us chooses NOT to be baptized it is a challenge for all of us.  When one of us asks for baptism, it is the deepest gift of all, for ALL of us.

 What then comes after this dying and rising in the waters of baptism?  What does this mysterious baptism ask of us, as a church?  Two responsibilities seem clear to me, and have been alive in my since my days within my grandfather’s community on the banks of Black Creek:

First, the whole church has to stand up for justice.  God has declared solidarity with the human race in Jesus; Jesus has declared solidarity with the church in baptism; and so the church (that’s US!) must declare solidarity with the world.  No one is, or can be, called to salvation for his or her own sake.  All of us are called, in the words of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, “to be formed into God’s people,”…to become a “new creation,” …to “bear witness,” …to “eagerly work for the building up of the body of Christ.”  In other words, according to the Church’s own tradition and the scriptures themselves, baptism is not for individuals nor even especially for the church.  Baptism is above all for the sake of justice and peace in the world.  And Jesus’ baptism is one of our most powerful proofs of that truth…for the sake of peace and justice in the world.

             The second responsibility that arises from baptism is that each one of us has to live out that baptism.  Baptism is the name and beginning of a process, which leads to our being incorporated into the body of Christ.  It is a daily truth, walking within us in every decision, in every day we live.  How can we ever become the renewal of the face of the earth if our own baptism is something confined to memory and a snapshot?

             Just as the baptism of Jesus was not the end but the beginning of his ministry, so baptism is for us only a beginning.  Baptism is being called – called to work for justice, called to learn about faith, the bible, called to proclaim the word, to live the gospel in every aspect of our lives.

             And as we raise our voices together, Siyahamba, we are accepting the consequences of our baptism.  We are marching in the light of God, accepting our responsibilities as members of the church, declaring our solidarity with the world.  This is what happened to Jesus at the Jordan River, and this is what is happening to all of us today.