“Baptized into What?”

As we continue to experience the Word of the Lord together, Let us Pray. Almighty God, giver of life and spirit, you have granted to all Christians the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. As we remember our baptism, guide us to a more and more spirit filled life, so that we might increase in knowledge and wisdom. Use this time to further your purpose. Speak Lord, your servants are listening. If these words are not Your Word, may they be forgotten and come to naught. But if they be Thy Word, may they adhere to our hearts, forever transforming us from glory into glory, into the creatures you would have us be, Thou who art our Rock and Redeemer, Amen.

Today is Baptism of the Lord Sunday. It is the Sunday that always follows January 6, Epiphany, when we celebrate the gifts of the Magi. It is as good as any Sunday to celebrate and remember Christ’s baptism. And one other thing we do is remember, and reclaim our baptism. Many of you were, like our daughters, baptized when you were well too young to remember. So, it seems odd to talk about a day in which we are called to remember something that many of us have no chance to actually remember. So, the passage itself, maybe it can shed some light on the phenomena.

Open your ears and your hearts to hear The Word of the Lord. Acts 19.1-7:

19.1 While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the interior regions and came to Ephesus, where he found some disciples. 
2 He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” They replied, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 
3 Then he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They answered, “Into John’s baptism.” 
4 Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus.” 
5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 
6 When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied-- 
7 altogether there were about twelve of them.

The Word of the Lord…Thanks be to God.

Some folks throughout history have used this passage as an affirmation of rebaptism. But I think that is a misread of Luke’s intentions. First off, this is the only instance of “rebaptism” in the New Testament. Paul baptizes Apollos’ people in Jesus’ name because they hadn’t received the Holy Spirit, and so that they could. By reading the whole section, it is clear that it would have been inconceivable to Luke that someone could be in Jesus and not be also in his Spirit. Baptism in the name of Jesus is baptism in the Holy Spirit.

There are two baptisms written about here. First, the baptism of repentance practiced by John, which is preparatory and preliminary. And second, the baptism of Jesus, which is with water and the Holy Spirit and is a sign that one has been initiated into the new age and the kingdom of God. Luke, as the writer of the gospel and the Acts of the apostles, would not have understood any conception of discipleship without the Spirit. The Spirit is not some optional addition package to the Christian existence, not some advanced degree to which some pursue, not some special calling to which some are ordained. It comes with the territory, and is the essence of being Christian.

Listen to the same passage as Eugene Peterson translates it in The Message.

Now, it happened that while Apollos was away in Corinth, Paul made his way down through the mountains, came to Ephesus, and happened on some disciples there. ²The first thing he said was, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Did you take God into your mind only, or did you also embrace him with your heart? Did he get inside you?”

“We’ve never even heard of that – a Holy Spirit? God within us?” ^{3 “}How were you baptized, then?” asked Paul. “In John’s baptism.” ⁴“That explains it,” said Paul. “John preached a baptism of radical life-change so that people would be ready to receive the One coming after him, who turned out to be Jesus. If you’ve been baptized in John’s baptism, you’re ready now for the real thing, for Jesus.” ⁵And they were. As soon as they heard of it, they were baptized in the name of the Master Jesus. ⁶Paul put his hands on their heads and the Holy Spirit entered them. From that moment on, they were praising God in tongues and talking about God’s actions. ⁷Altogether there were about twelve people there that day.

It seems obvious to us, the Holy Spirit is God within us. That God lives in us is the claim the Christianity makes, that makes Christians just that, Christians. When I was 4, I was with my family at a Young Life camp. Young life is a nondenominational youth group type of experience. One night, many of the teenagers were crying. I noticed, and at bedtime I asked mom why. “Because they accepted Jesus into their hearts, and they were happy.” “Okay, Jesus come into my heart,” and I rolled over and went to sleep.

The next night at bedtime mom found me sobbing. “Why are you crying?”

“The chicken skin is on Jesus”

“What?!?”

“We had fried chicken for dinner tonight.”

“And…” For some reason, this wasn’t making sense to her.

“I asked Jesus to live in my heart, inside me. Tonight we had chicken, and now the skin is all over Jesus.”

Even 4 year olds know that being in Christ means having the Holy Spirit of Jesus live within you. To wit...

On the morning of our Christmas pageant, the 18^th, Kayla and I were driving to church around 8.00, as usual. She was starting the traditional 4 year old thing, asking questions. “Daddy, why is it called Heaven?”

Now, she has this friend in her class named Heavyn, so I thought that is what she meant. “That’s her name honey, so she is called Heavyn like you are called Kayla.” Whew, theological bullet dodged. But not so fast.

“No, not Heavyn from class. Heaven up there,” as she points to the sky. Well, this is a deep theological question, and I’ve got three options staring me in the face. The first, I can go into a deep epistemological explanation of the ancient Hebrew word, ha’shamaim. This could take us most of the way to the church, and by then, it could be possible that I can put her to sleep. You know, her love for the ancient Hebrew has been waning lately. Second, I can do what all people do when asked this kind of question. Pass the buck. And that would be perfect, since this is the kind of question that gets passed to me all the time. Especially from Sunday School teachers. You know, in the middle of a discussion about the animals on the ark, the question comes about where God comes from. “I dunno Johnny, that seems like a great question for Rev. Fry.” So, I could have, maybe should have just for irony’s sake, said, “I dunno sweetheart, that sounds like a question for Ms. Laura, Ms. Lyn or Ms. Amanda in Sunday School.” But I took the third option, answer that kind of question as simple as possible so that her faith might not get lost in semantics or that her instruction not get passed on so much that she think that either she or theological questions are not important. I said this. “Well, it’s called heaven because that is where God lives.” And in reality, that’s about as good as I can come up with as to why it is called heaven. She responded with this. “But God lives in my heart.” “Yes honey, God lives in your heart, and in my heart, and in mommy’s heart, and Murphy’s heart, and in everyone’s heart, and in heaven.” “Okay.”

That is what it means to remember our baptism. To acknowledge that God lives within us, that our hearts are God’s home, that our hearts are heaven, in a sense. Remember your baptism, and be thankful. Amen.