Pentecost XIX Baptism as Gateway to Life
The baptism today at the 10 o’clock service gives me the opportunity to talk a little bit about this sacrament of the church, and the role it plays in our common life. In my opinion, baptism is the doorway into the Christian way of living. It is not a one-time event that we sort of “check the box” and then forget about it. It is not a “bucket list” item to be placed alongside a whole host of other “to do’s.” Baptism is the defining identity of Christian people, in fact, sometimes “the church” is called “the baptized community” because that’s what it is. That’s who we are.
So let’s take a quick look at the role baptism plays in the life of the faith community and how it has evolved over the years. Way back when the followers of Christ came together, after Jesus’ resurrection, they already knew what it meant to follow Christ. They had been doing so for years. However, as time went on, and they began attracting others who never knew Jesus, and especially as non-Jews were attracted through the missionary work of Paul, Barnabus, Timothy and others, the leaders of the community realized they needed to institute some sort of training and education for the converts, so they could make the changes necessary to become a follower themselves. In a world filled with gods: Egyptian gods, Roman gods, Greek gods, Persian gods, this god of Israel was doing a new thing – raising a dead man to a new knd of life. This God was not only powerful but also compassionate. This God was not only commanding but also merciful. This God was both just and moral, and was showing the world how we could behave with each other in new and life-giving ways. It was an exciting time spiritually and lots and lots of people wanted to sign on.
The leaders came up with a two to three-year program that they called the “catechumenate” which in Greek simply means to teach someone orally, we might call it “tutoring.” (This is also where we get the word “catechism.”)
So in the early days of the Christian faith, before being baptized, converts would undergo a couple of years of basic training where they would not only learn about Jesus, but they would also reorder their lives so that the way they conducted themselves was consistent with the gospel of Christ. The catechumenate was sort of a Christian “boot camp.”
Last week after our daughter was married my sister from Minnesota and her male friend, Ed, stayed with us for a few days. Ed had served in the Marine Corps and at one point was stationed in Maine, so he and Gwen drove up there to see where he had lived and worked for a time. He talked a little bit about being in the Corps and about how difficult making the adjustments to that style of life had been. During boot camp the drill sergeants sort of tear the recruits apart and then put them back together again as Marines. In boot camp the soldiers not only learn how to fight in wartime, but they also learn what it means to be a Marine – semper fidelis – and to live that life.
The same sort of thing occurred during the catechumenate. Early followers of Christ did not behave like many of the people around them. They did weird things like care for the sick even though it meant they might get sick themselves, pay out of their own pockets to buy burial plots for criminals who died in prison, and share what they had with those who had little or nothing. Such a lifestyle was not easy and required discipline and commitment, so a training and preparation period was needed. And when the catechumens were ready to commit, they joined the rest of the followers and stayed up all night long before Easter morning, singing and praying. Then as the sun rose, the light of the new day, the beginning of a new way of life, the catechumens were baptized, washed in a lake or river, drowned and then reborn in the image of Christ, connecting through ritual their new life with the death and resurrection of the Christ. Because living a Christian life took maturity and discipline, all of the early Christians were adults.
Baptism is the gateway into a way of life, a life that imitates the life of Christ.
As we all know, things evolve, they change, they adapt as times change. Around the year 250 AD, the number of followers of Christ had grown to about 10% of the population. Which meant that Christians were now marrying other Christians and having children. But since baptism was only open to adults the parents began to ask the church leadership what status their children had in the community. The leaders decided that children and even infants could be baptized as a sign of their membership in the community, but they would have to undergo a catechumenate as they approached adulthood. This is what led to the sacrament of confirmation – confirming for themselves what had been pledged for them as children. Godparents were assigned as catechists to train the children and assist them as they grew into the “full stature of Christ.”
Things continued to evolve, and I’m not sure exactly when and how it occurred, but at some point the sacrament of baptism lost its dramatic, life-changing emphasis, and was just sort of “done” without much fanfare or celebration. Maybe it was because the entire culture in the West had adopted Christian values and it was all around us and people thought it would naturally shape children as they developed. Or maybe it was the rise of Sunday Schools that took the place of adult catechesis, but whatever it was, baptism lost its punch, its power.
Let me tell you a story of just how far things strayed from those early days. When I was rector of Christ Church in Poughkeepsie, one of our parishioners was turning 90 years old and we wanted to have a little party for him at coffee hour. I knew he had grown up in the parish and that it might be fun if I could find when he was baptized in the parish register and share that with everyone at his party. I knew his birth year, (subtract 90 from the current year) so I started combing through the register and soon found the entry of his baptism. I had assumed it occurred on a Sunday morning at a worship service, but I was wrong. It happened at 10 am on a Wednesday morning in his parent’s house on Adriance Avenue. He wasn’t even baptized in the church, or with parishioners around to witness and support. I just hope his father took the morning off from work to be there, but I can’t be sure.
Fortunately, since the 1960’s all of the mainline churches are rediscovering the importance of baptism as the gateway to living a Christian life, and recognizing all Christians as ministers of the gospel. As we heard in the reading from the Book of Numbers earlier, the spirit of God is not limited to the leadership, but is dispersed among lots and lots of people, “…would that all of God’s people…” bear the spirit of God.
So it turns out that baptism is not a once and forget about it event, rather it is the beginning of life’s greatest journey, as we seek to represent that loving, merciful, compassionate, generous, just and moral God in the world. We constantly put ourselves to the task of study and observation, reflection and examination so that we give it our best effort. And I want to be clear, I’m not just talking about the study of the bible or theological books. We need to know our surroundings, our culture, our neighbors, if we hope to respond faithfully and fully. So, baptized Christians, watch current movies, read fiction and non-fiction, visit local sites, get to know your neighbors, ask questions, talk, listen.
At my parish in New York City I had a couple from Sri Lanka that had a baby girl and wanted her baptized. They also asked if one of their Buddhist friends could be a godparent. I had never been confronted with this situation, nor had it been covered in seminary, so I did my research. I learned that Sri Lanka is 70% Buddhist and that the couple planned to return to Sri Lanka within a year or two. I thought and prayed on this for awhile and then told them “yes.” It seems to me that if this little girl is going to have 70% of her playmates and school friends as Buddhists, she needs to know about their tradition so that they do not seem foreign or strange or “wrong” but rather as fellow travelers on the faith journey. Word got out that I had done this and I got a call from my bishop asking, ”What the heck?” I wrote him an explanation which he then shared with the diocesan liturgy committee and I’m happy to report that they have now made a provision for supportive, non-Christian roles in the sacrament of baptism…oh, and by the way, I got to keep my job.
In just a few minutes we will welcome Isabella into the baptized community with the rest of us.
Together we will seek unity rather than division; compassion rather than cruelty; and justice rather than revenge. We welcome her as a fellow traveler as she joins to tell the world that there is good news.
In Christ’s name. Amen.
The frontispiece photo of a baptism is from San Augustin Church in the Philippines