Baptism in the Holy Spirit: God is at the Center Scripture: Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 Today we celebrate Baptism of Christ Sunday, with the renewal or reaffirmation of our own baptisms. And yet, the story we read this morning, from the Gospel of Luke, may leave us feeling a little disappointed. Jesus’s baptism does not seem to be central to the story. Luke focuses on a transition of leadership in this infant religious movement of baptism and repentance. The transition is from John the Baptist to Jesus. As I sat with this story, I began to imagine that the heart and the themes of the story fit together like a Russian doll. A Russian doll is really a family of dolls nested one inside the other: the largest doll is the outermost layer, the smallest doll is at the center. In our story, one theme is nested inside another, with God at the center, as is always the case. In my imagined Russian doll, the transition leadership is the outermost layer, the largest doll and she is the one you see first. But, you know there is more to this doll than meets the eye. Open her up, and inside you will discover the baptism of Jesus among the crowds who come to John. Open one more layer and you come to Jesus, beginning his ministry, submitting to baptism by John, and receiving God’s blessing. Inside the Jesus doll, of course, is the Holy Spirit of the living God, the center of everything. We first encountered John the Baptist, this liturgical year, just a couple of weeks before Christmas. We read the verses that introduce today’s story on that “John the Baptist Sunday.” You may remember that John’s preaches to crowds who come to him for baptism. His message is quite stern, he scolds the people calling them a “brood of vipers” and asking who warned them to flee from the wrath to come. He tells the Jewish ones among them not to assume that their ancestry will save them. Instead he compels them all to repent, and to bear fruit worthy of their repentance by helping the poor and the hungry. In spite of John’s severe message, the people keep coming. They are filled with expectation and hope, could this be the Messiah, the one who will lead them out of oppression and to freedom? According to Luke, John responds humbly, telling the crowds that one who is more powerful than himself is to come. John gives up any desire for power and influence in the Christian story. He relinquishes his leadership role, saying he is not even worthy to untie the thong of the new leader’s sandals. John says that he is only able to baptize people with water. The One is coming will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. This is dramatic stuff. The One who is coming is by no means milder than John. John uses farming imagery, saying he will “clear the threshing floor, gathering the wheat into his granary,” but will burn the unusable part of the grain in an unquenchable fire. Jesus’s arrival in their midst of this scene is almost an anti-climax. There is no dramatic baptismal scene. It is as though Jesus does not yet even know that he is “the One.” He simply gets in line, with all the crowds. Baptism, in Jesus time, and still today, is a communal event a great leveler. Jesus is simply baptized in the river like everyone else. Afterwards he prays. Perhaps he comes out of the river and finds a quiet spot to connect with the Holy One. Maybe he prays for guidance, or prays for his people, or even for the whole world? Perhaps he simply basks in gratitude for the blessing of John’s leadership. Whatever it is, this is the moment, for Luke. This is the moment when the heavens open, and the Holy Spirit comes down – in bodily form, like a dove – and a voice resounds “You are my Son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.” That is the story, except there is a little insertion between one section and another. Perhaps this is another layer to the Russian doll. These verses are often left out, because they describe something that is out of sequence with the story. John is arrested and put in prison, because he has spoken out against the king. John has already been speaking truth to power, but now he attacks the king for his decadent lifestyle. Herod has divorced his wife and married his own niece, Herodias, who is also already his brother’s wife. The critique of Herod’s personal life is the final straw: Herod takes John out of the picture. Luke makes is plain: John is locked up and so he is taken out of action. Later he will be beheaded, but Luke does not tell this story. John is simply gone. The leadership must transition to Jesus. The crowd expected that John was the Messiah. And so, Luke shows John passing the mantle by declaring that his baptism with water will be replaced by Jesus’s baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire. And so, here it is, inside the transition of leadership, there is the baptism layer of the story. The mark of the transition from John to Jesus is a baptism with the Holy Spirit (and fire). I wonder, if this leaves us feel that our own baptisms with water are lacking. If the true baptism, from Jesus, involves the Holy Spirit and the unmistakable presence of fire, why are we in the mainline Protestant church still satisfied with a little sprinkling? Many years ago, I got caught up in a quest to understand the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I had become curious about the Charismatic movement that was sweeping through some of the churches in England at the time. I had heard stories, from trusted sources, of miraculous healings and lives transformed by a “Baptism in the Spirit.” I wanted to see what it was all about. So I went to a number services and events in churches and among groups that had adopted the charismatic way. I persuaded my new boyfriend, who is now my husband, to come along to the first church I had in mind. It was a Sunday evening service, but the music was loud and upbeat. There was lots of singing and all kinds of instruments. It was a Baptist church and there were going to be a number of baptisms, all total immersions in a large baptismal font. The sermon given that night was a little “off”, but the baptisms were really moving. One young woman, in particular, emerged from the water with so much joy you could feel it. I was sure she was filled with the Holy Spirit and I wondered where I could get that baptism like that myself. I had been baptized as an infant, at around 2 months old. The exact date is inscribed in the leather-bound Bible given to me on the occasion. Photographs were taken in our garden at home after the church service. Only my mom tells me the roll of film was lost by the developers and so I have no pictures of the event. But I do have a story. I know that I was sprinkled. It was done at the great sandstone font that confronted everyone who stepped inside our Victorian Parish Church. I know that I was wearing a white dress, and that my mother’s sister, Shirley, my dad’s brother, David, and my mom’s college friend, Pat, served as God-parents. My parents tell me that they insisted that I was baptized during the Sunday morning service. They didn’t want the Sunday afternoon Christening slot that the Vicar usually arranged so that he could “do” several babies in a row. My parents wanted me to be baptized in the presence of the congregation, because it was my introduction into Christ’s family. I am so glad that they did. And so, I decided that I could not be baptized again, even with the hopes of receiving the Holy Spirit “this time.” In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes that there is only “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” That is why a baptism in any church ought to be recognized by any other church. Was the Holy Spirit present in my baptism? Was She present and in yours? Of course. The Holy Spirit is every bit as present in a quiet sprinkling as in loud singing and total immersion. We generally do not have pyrotechnics during baptism at Wollaston Congregational Church. But still, in every baptism I have ever performed, I have been quite sure that the Holy Spirit was present. And those baptismal candidates who’ve been old enough to say so, have all described a feeling of deep blessing and welcome into Christ’s family, the Church And so, we return to the Russian doll of the story. The outermost doll, a transition of leadership, is important. In these days we know that wise leadership is necessary in our churches, in our communities, in our nation. That leadership often seems to be sadly lacking, as in these past weeks and days, when we witnessed a very rocky return to school after winter vacation. The next doll is baptism: our baptisms along with all the other people. Baptism makes a place of belonging for you and me, among the family of Christ, the Church. And, also, it is our reminder – a leveler if you like – that like Jesus, we are baptized together with the whole congregation, all the saints of the Church. And with that, we relinquish our need for power and influence, as John did. We are content to serve among the family of the saints. And yet, the Holy Spirit is always present. In the next doll, Jesus promises that she will be. Belonging to Christ’s family marks the beginning of our service and ministry with God. A life of ministry is joyful and it is challenging. When leadership is inadequate we may be called, like John and like Jesus, to speak truth to power and suffer the consequences. But, we can rest assured, that no matter what … our God – through the power of the Holy Spirit – is at the center of it all, saying “You are my Child, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” May all God’s people say, Amen
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