God's Last Words

BIRTHMARKS
Mark 1: 4-11 NRSV

After the Baptism of his baby brother in church, little Johnny sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car. His father asked him three times what was wrong. Finally, the boy replied, "That pastor said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home, but I want to stay with you guys."

Before performing a baptism, the pastor approached the young father and said solemnly, "Baptism is a serious step. Are you prepared for it?" "I think so," the man replied. "My wife has made appetizers and we have a caterer coming to provide plenty of cookies and cakes for all of our guests." "I don't mean that," the pastor responded. "I mean, are you prepared spiritually?"

 

"Oh, sure," came the reply. "I've got a keg of beer and a case of whiskey."

Not quite the “spirits” the pastor was hoping for.

Baptism is one of those things we expect Christians to undergo before church membership as an infant as it is an occasion to commit oneself to following Jesus. We are told that baptism signifies being baptized into Jesus’ death, resurrection, and the new life Jesus, as spiritual water, gives to us. It is a sign and seal of belief.

As an avid people watcher I am sometimes amazed by how much someone resembles a parent, grandparent, or an aunt or uncle. In my family I am reminded of how much I and at least 2 of my brothers looked like my mother. Of course I have always told people she had more facial hair (and she’d kick me for saying that)!

Of course in the movies and in legends and stories people are frequently seeking the lost heir to the kingdom or to an inheritance by discovering a long lost child with the family birthmark or other physical sign of relation.

In the days before DNA testing/matching having a family birthmark or some physically distinctive feature was the one true form of identification, and the sign of relationship between family members. Baptism can be viewed like that as well.

Listen to the Baptism of Jesus, and watch carefully for the elements I talked about:

And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.

And this was his message: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

Jesus’ family birthmark, given at His baptism, is a dove (“peristera” in Greek).

We celebrate and submit to baptism because we believe God's Spirit goes before us. We believe God is working in our lives from the time we are born to bring us to the point in our lives when we are prepared to accept God’s free gift of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ for ourselves and become children of God

Some churches and faith traditions treat baptism as if it were waterboarding in order to insure the person has committed to Christ. It is like the ordeal medieval knights went through before they were “dubbed” knights.

For me, the mark of Baptism is best regarded as God’s putting his family birthmark upon us. The Christian must be warned that Baptism does not ever become a birthright to superiority or bad behavior. It does not confer special rights and privileges as a member of a church. That always becomes a path of rights, obligations, and responsibilities.

The Grace of God has always been free à accepting it has always had a price.

For Christians, baptism is our first initiation into God’s Church, the beginning of an amazing journey. It must become the foundation upon which our lives are built. For in Christ we are never homeless, we are always surrounded by God’s grace and love.

I once heard a pastor friend say, "children without a Christian foundation have little to build upon." What would it feel like to be a child who is never surrounded by a community who believe in God's love? To have no moral grounding or compass in your life?

Sadly, some children, do grow up thinking that saying "Jesus Christ" is just a swear word! And that the cross is only jewelry. No wonder we live in such a graceless and cruel society.

It’s no wonder people are having difficulty fighting back against a warped image of God perpetuated by those filled with hate because they have no gage to measure it against.

We cannot know the love of God until we experience it for ourselves. Baptism is where and when Jesus tells us who we are and where we belong.

God is the One who initiates that love, and the Church is the body of Christ called to live out that love on earth.

Now, if you were baptized as a youth and then confirmed that baptism, or professed faith as an adult, that means that you made the decision to dedicate your life to Jesus Christ, and your baptism was an outward sign of the decision you made and the conversion you experienced to seek out and live a new life. This is the meaning of the birthmark of new life or "the sign that you are reborn of God."

We do not believe that infant baptism saves us, but we do believe it is a sign of God’s grace going before us that protects and seals until that infant can make the decision to accept Christ for themselves.

This is an important point: Infant baptism must be confirmed later. There is no free "get out of judgment later card" because your parents had you baptized. We do not use sugar water and baptism does not inoculate you against difficulty, suffering, and pain.

God's plan simply requires each of us to acknowledge Him, confess our sins, repent, confirm our baptism, and begin to be regenerated into a new person as inspired by the Holy Spirit.

This is the "born again" experience that has often been debated and discounted. Yet, as the new believers in the Book of Acts received the Holy Spirit, so we also open ourselves to Him, when we seal our baptism. 

Just as baptism seals our faith, Holy Communion, which we observe frequently, serves as the commemoration of what Jesus Christ has done for us. Baptism and Holy Communion has little meaning to the unbeliever but all meaning to those living in faith to Jesus Christ.

These are the only two sacraments, in the Reformed tradition, we observe.

Baptism is something that binds us to others. I am reminded of the story a little girl once told her mother about the first day of kindergarten:

 When asked if she had problems during her first day the little girl told her mother, “When I got there the girl sitting next to me said she was just as sacred as the day she got baptized at church. I told her I was scared at my baptism too, so we held hands and were scared the rest of the day together.”

 God placed a birthmark on us at our Baptism just like Jesus received.

 Praise God and uplift His name. Amen.