Remember Your Baptism

“LET IT BE”
Matthew 3:13-17
Faith United
January 13, 2008


The Bible is full of water
It’s absolutely drenched
In the beginning the darkness was over the deep
there were dark, churning waters at the beginning of creation
At the end of the Bible we hear of the river of the water of life
flowing from the throne of God
and in the last chapter of Revelation,
it says, “let anyone who wishes
take the water of life as a gift…”
And in the middle of the Bible,
in the Psalms, there’s water everywhere
he leadeth me beside still waters, he restoreth my soul…

Water is a source of life, of sustenance
of cleansing and renewal
it flows in rivers, it rages in the seas
it parts for Moses, and it is where Jacob
has the wrestling match of his life
Water drenches the Bible
And here in the third chapter of Matthew
we see Jesus coming to the river Jordan
to be baptized
We’re not really sure WHY Jesus came to be baptized
John the Baptist, that lunatic preacher out in the desert --
was baptizing people with the baptism of repentance
He was preaching that we need to repent,
to turn around, to live cleaner lives
to live lives worthy of God
And he offered them a physical way to make that commitment
and people came from all over,
swarming the desert
lining up at the Jordan to be baptized
by this lunatic in the camel hair suit

John the Baptist was no pushover, though
man, when the Pharisees showed up for baptism
he just about lost it
The Pharisees and the Sadduccees knew that it would look good
to be baptized by John in the desert
I guess, to be “one of the people”
do what they do
like kissing babies at the county fair
or serving BBQ at the local picnic
looking like regular people

But John wouldn’t have it
He would not allow them to USE GOD
for their own gain, or for a good photo op
to get votes or to be seen as good religious men
and he lets them have it
screams at them,
how DARE they come and pretend!
How DARE they use this sacred blessing
for their own gain!
You brood of vipers, he calls them
he calls them a bunch of snakes!
John’s not concerned about bad publicity
or what others will think of him
he calls them the snakes that they are
for thinking themselves so important
for using religion and God’s name
to get popularity for themselves
Bear fruit, he says, bear fruit worthy of repentance!
in other words, show your lives to be good and clean
not for show, but to be in right relationship with God

After he calms down a bit,
Jesus shows up for baptism
and John is speechless--
which hardly ever happens--
His voice is still hoarse from the good tongue lashing
he gave those hypocritical Pharisees
He was silenced, humbled now
he knew who Jesus was,
Jesus didn’t need to be cleansed
Jesus didn’t have anything to repent of

John said, “Wait a minute,
if anyone needs to be baptized here,
it’s me…. I need to be baptized by YOU
and you come to ME?”

All around them, children are crying
and running, splashing thorugh the water
being chased by harried mothers
and drawn back into line
men are talking about the latest happenings in town
or in agriculture
the prices of wheat and grain

The Pharisees are walking away,
figuring out what to do about this rebel preacher
who publicly humiliated them

everything is buzzing,
no one is really paying attention
to the conversation between those two men in the river

life is going on all around them
and Jesus whispers to John,
“Do it, let it be so now,
to fulfill all righteousness.”
In other words, maybe he was saying,
“Just let it be,
bless me, John,
and let it be
I can’t explain it right now
but later we’ll all understand…”

And so with trembling hands
John the Baptist pinches Jesus’ nose
and takes him in his arms
and gently immerses him in the water
Jesus comes up wiping the excess water off his face
perhaps shaking the water out of his hair,
smiling
and he pauses
because something beautiful happens --
right there while the children are splashing
and the mothers are scolding
and the men are gossiping--
the heavens are opened up to Jesus
and he hears a gentle, intimate voice
somewhere inside of him
while he could swear he sees a dove
coming down to land on his shoulder

“This is my Son,” Jesus hears
“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
and perhaps Jesus laughs with joy,
claps John the Baptist on the shoulder
and gives him a hug
before splashing away to the other side of the river
and walking away
And that was the beginning
he set off to do what he was born to do
with the river water trickling down his back
and the voice of God in his heart, telling him he was beloved….

I like to joke about the fact
that my husband spends many of his days
bathing other women

I’m ok with this

For those of you who may not know what I’m talking about
Larry is a hospice aide
and a large part of his job is to give baths
to people who are dying

And I’ve come to see that act as a sacrament
Most of us take a shower or a bath every day
--at least I hope we do—
and we take it for granted
but I know that to someone who spends their days in bed
who is facing the end of their life --
a bath, the simple act of being gently cleansed
by another human being
is an act of mercy
a gift of grace
One of those people told me how wonderful it was
to simply be bathed by another
To feel fresh
to be gently cared for

After the bath, Larry gently rubs them with lotion
and makes the rough places smooth and silky
it’s like a massage
and to his patients, I believe it is a sacrament
a blessing
and sometimes they may admit,
it feels like the gentle touch of God

A sacrament, defined by the church
is a an outward and visible sign
of an inward and spiritual grace…
In other words, it’s a way of offering the grace of God
in a physical way
We eat bread, we drink juice
but we believe that in those acts, we are receiving
a blessing, a gift from God
Because God works through the ordinary stuff of life
to nourish and sustain us
We sprinkle water on the head of a baby
or an adult
and remember the waters of the womb
` that nurtured Jesus into life
we remember the waters at the beginning of creation
the parting of the Red Sea
and the river Jordan in which Jesus was baptized

A sacrament is a blessing
that conveys the love and touch of God
We have our formal sacraments, baptism and communion
but I believe we receive and give sacraments every day
or at least we have the opportunity
For there are many ways to give and receive a blessing

Henri Nouwen, a Catholic priest and writer
spent the last decade or so of his life and ministry
at LÁrche in Canada
a community of severely physically and mentally handicapped people who could not take care of themselves
He told the story of one of his friends there
who was quite handicapped but in his words,
a wonderful, wonderful lady

She said to him, “Henri, can you bless me?”
And so Henri walked up to her and made the sign of the cross
on her forehead
in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
She said to him,
“That doesn’t work,
no, that’s not what I mean.”
He said he was a bit embarrassed and said
“I gave you a blessing.”

“No,” she said, “I want to BE BLESSED.”

Henri didn’t know what she meant

They went on and had their usual worship service
among the community members that day
After the service, Henri said to the group,
“Janet wants a blessing.”
Henri was wearing his pastor’s robe
with the stole around his neck, and a cross
Janet walked up to him and said again,
“I want to be blessed.”
She simply put her head against his chest
and he spontaneously put his arms around her
held her, and looked right into her eyes
and said, “blessed are you, Janet.
You know how much we love you.
You know how important you are.
You know what a good woman you are.”
She looked up at him, her chin still on his chest
and said, “Yes, yes, yes, I know!”

Henri said he saw all sorts of energy coming back to her
She seemed to be relieved from the feeling of depression
because suddenly she realized again that she was blessed
She went back to her place and immediately
other people came forward and said,
Ï want that kind of blessing, too.”
The people kept coming up to him and
he found himself embracing all of them
After that, one of the people in the community
who also works with the handicapped-- a strong burly guy
who was a former football player --
came up to Henri and said,
“Henri, can I have a blessing, too?”

Henri, being kind of a puny, short and skinny guy,
reached up and laid his hand on the man’s shoulder
and said, “John, you are blessed.. you are a good person
God loves you. We love you. You are important.”

Don’t we all need to know that?
That we are important?
That we are not invisible, easily ignored
that we are loved and blessed by God?

About 4 years ago,
I was on the leadership team for a clergy retreat
up in New York State
I was there very reluctantly
I was burnt out on ministry and depressed
Larry and I were both serving a large church
that had been torn apart by the previous pastor’s
sexual misconduct
The church was very broken
and we were basically sent in there to take care of it ourselves
and we were very, very tired
I think at that point, both of us were ready
to leave the ministry altogether
and find something else to do

But I was partly in charge of worship
for this clergy retreat that winter
a place where I really didn’t want to be
As part of the worship
some of us stood up front with a bowl of water
that had shells in it
and people were invited forward to come take a shell
out of the water, let the water roll over their hands,
even touch their own foreheads with it,
and remember their baptism
All I had to do was hold the bowl
and say, “remember your baptism and be thankful.”

After about half of the congregation of clergy
had come forward,
a man I didn’t know, hadn’t seen before
came to me
I said, “remember your baptism and be thankful”
He just stood there a moment and looked at me
then he smiled
He gently reached into the bowl of water
and picked up a small shell
Still looking me right in the eye,
he gently touched the shell to MY forehead,
to each side of my face
and then gently touched the shell to my lips
he smiled, replaced the shell in the water
and walked away

Larry was sitting nearby
and I glanced over at him and he just smiled
he knew
Neither of us knew who the man was --
turns out it was the speaker for the whole event
but at the moment, he was a stranger
and in that moment, he blessed me
He touched my head, my face, my lips
with the baptismal water
as if to say, “remember who you are
you are a beloved child of God
and God loves you”

I never forgot that moment
how did he know what I needed?
No one else saw it,
no one else knew that something holy
had just happened

Almost right away another person came
to receive the water from my bowl
and the service went on
and yet…. I was blessed
and it was a memory I took with me
through more difficult days
when I wanted to quit the whole thing
I remembered being touched by the water
and God saying without words,
“You are my beloved child
and I love you”
and that was the bread I needed to go on

Have the heavens ever opened up to you
have you ever felt the tender touch of God
and known in that moment, if only for a moment
that you are beloved?
Because you are
every one of you
every one of you is a beloved child of God
and no matter what we’ve been through
no matter how we’ve been hurt or worn down
or pushed beyond our limits
no matter how we may get to feel like nothing special

God sees us,
delights in us, like a parent nuzzling a freshly bathed baby
when they smell so good

God is willing to open the heavens
and bless us with a touch, a look, a gift
and say to us, “You, yes, you,
you are my beloved child, my own creation
and with you I am well pleased.”

Let it be
Let the heavens open up
Let the waters of God’s love and grace
wash over you, and gently bless you
heal you, strengthen you,
and make you stand a little bit straighter
knowing who you are
The rest of the world goes on in all it’s craziness
and yet in the midst of it all,
God can, and God will bless you
so that we can go on
and be a much-needed blessing to others
who are thirsty, who are aching
for a gentle touch of grace

Remember who you are, you are a beloved child of God