Mark 1:9-15

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.

And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved;* with you I am well pleased.’

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news* of God,* and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near;* repent, and believe in the good news.

I don’t remember my baptism. It was thirty years ago at the church my parents still go to; same baptismal font my brother and his daughters were baptized in. Water was poured on our heads from a little bowl in a sanctuary filled with red carpet. As you can see, I had on a white gown, a banner hung with my name on it. I’m sure there was a little reception after in the parlor. As far as Lutheran baptisms go, it was pretty standard.

To some folks though, my baptism might seem pretty strange; I mean why baptize an infant? Why not wait till the person is older, knows what's happening, chooses for themselves? Or why sprinkle only a little water? Why not full immersion in a river or lake or a huge, heated pool right here on the altar? Baptism is so ubiquitous in the church that we rarely stop to ask the hard questions: What makes a baptism, a baptism? Does a little bit of water really make a difference? What does it really do?

I read an article in the New York Times that talked about all the different ways baptisms happen these days. In South Florida, one church does their baptisms in the Atlantic ocean, amid the waves and keeping an eye out for sharks. At Creekwood Church in Texas, they rent out a waterpark and baptize with huge slides overhead. Nowadays, instead of white robes or gowns, people get custom t-shirts with mottos on them like #washed, best day ever, no turning back.

Now I’m not saying these practices are wrong, except for the waterpark… that I've got some questions about. Still they aren’t wrong. They have all the things necessary for a baptism, which really is only two things: first you need water, and really any water will do. Tap water, distilled water, chlorine filled water, salt water, it doesn’t matter what kind of water; because what really matters, at least for Lutheran Christians, is that the water is joined together with the Word, (with a capital W) of God, meaning the water is joined together with the real presence of Jesus and all the promises he gives.

Just as we believe Jesus is truly present in, with, and under the bread and wine at communion, we too believe Jesus is in, with, and joined to the water at a baptism. So these other forms or settings (oceans, waterparks, t-shirts) don’t make it any more or less of a baptism. But they do make baptism more of an experience.

A pastor in Linwood Kansas says in that NYT article, “We live in an age where people like experiences. It’s not that it looks better, but it feels better. It feels more authentic, it feels more real.”

Now I don’t know about you, but I didn’t feel much at my baptism… does that mean it was less authentic? There wasn’t much of an experience either, for me and anyone else there. Does that mean it was less real? It’s not the experience that matters, or the feeling you get coming out of the water. Truth be told, baptism isn't about you…

by that I mean its not about the decision you make, or even about giving your life to Christ. Because its not you who's doing the work. It’s not you choosing to get closer to God. If all it took was one decision by us to be put in God’s good graces, there would be no need for Jesus’ own baptism nor his death and resurrection. Christ has already given his life for you, suffered once for all as Peter tells us. Why do we try to make it obsolete?

Baptism then isn’t about what you do, it’s about what God does for you, to you. It’s God getting closer to you on account of Christ; because through the water and Word, we are joined to the death and resurrection of Jesus.

I like how one baptist preacher describes this. He said: “we Baptists believe in water. So when it comes to baptizing, we don’t mess around with a few sprinkles. We put people under until they bubble. We want them to feel just a moment of panic, so they can appreciate the resurrection.” And while I think that is terrifying and fits the description of torture, I like the symbolism.

Because more than anything else, baptism is death and resurrection. Luther describes it as the drowning of the old, sinful self (which is a rather good swimmer) and rising to new life. It’s not simply “a removal of dirt, but an appeal to God so that once we are covered with that water, God no longer remembers our sin, but looks upon us with steadfast love, just as God did with Jesus at his baptism.

To be clear, being baptized doesn’t mean that you’ll never sin again. You remain a sinful person. But it does mean that God’s grace and forgiveness abound all the more, working on you each day to put to death that old self and live as one who reflects the love and goodness received from God.

Being baptized also doesn’t mean life gets any easier. If anything, baptism means life will get harder! Notice that the same spirit Jesus received at his baptism immediately put him into the wilderness.

Rachel Held Evans puts it this way,

“baptism declares that God is in the business of bringing dead things back to life, so if you want in on God’s business, you better prepare to follow God to all the rock-bottom, scorched-earth, dead-on-arrival corners of this world, including the ones in your own heart - because thats where God works.”

Which is why its a courageous statement, dangerous even, we make when baptizing babies.

We are acknowledging that this spirit you receive will call you, drive you into places you wouldn’t otherwise go; its saying this beautiful, seemingly perfect little baby is in fact not so perfect and needs God’s grace just like the rest of us; And that it is God’s desire for this child to be a member of God’s holy, loving, struggling family. That’s why we baptize infants.

That’s why we don’t make it much of an experience, like at a waterpark or with t-shirts. And that’s why we say it’s not about you, but about what God does, says, and works in you through the waters of baptism.

It’s less about us declaring something to God, and more about God declaring to us and to all the world, This is my beloved child, forgiven, grace-filled, and ready for the journey.

Held-Evans again: “It is death and resurrection, over and over again, day after day, as God reaches down into our deepest graves and with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead [pulls] us out of that dirt, bringing us into the light of a new day, every day.

If you’ve been baptized, put your hand in the font today, remember your baptism, remember what God has done, is doing, and will do every day and live as baptized people, proclaiming the good news of Jesus in both word and deed and with as many people as we can.

But if you haven’t been baptized and want to be, please talk with me or Pastor Mark. There is no test to see if you’re ready; you don’t need to feel holy enough or ready enough, or like you’ve got it all together in life and in faith. That’s not how this works. The decision is made and God has chosen you. You are already God’s beloved, so let God declare it to you and all the world,

in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen

Romans 6:1-11

“What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. “

Once upon a time, all humanity was trapped under the power of Sin. And by Sin, I mean a literal cosmic power that governs the entire world. This is Sin with a capital S. Sin is the chief power among the principalities and powers, and it has one goal: to work its way into our very bodies, making it impossible for us to live according to God’s ways.

Later in his letter to the Romans, Paul describes the predicament like this: I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin. I do not understand my own actions. … I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. … When I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand (Romans 7:14-21).

This is a problem. The power of Sin is so all-encompassing that we cannot break free from it by our own strength. Now, thankfully, there is a solution to this problem. Paul explains, “Whoever has died is freed from sin.” Easy, right? Not so much. Thanks to Sin’s buddy, Death, when humans die, they stay dead. Whatever freedom we might find on the other side of death is not a freedom we could live into. And so this was the story Sin was writing for the world. Humans live, they struggle, and they die. The end.

But then, a child was born. That child grew up, became a man, and lived – just like all of us – in a world under the power of Sin. He lived a life so full that if its fullness were written down, “the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (John 21:24). In the end, his life was too much for a world where Sin reigns supreme. And so Sin did what it always does; it snuffed out life. It marshaled the full strength of the Roman imperial regime and put this man to death. But he did not stay dead. And remember: “Whoever has died is freed from sin.”

Christ’s resurrection changed everything. It made a way where there was no way. And Christ is the way. Through Christ, it became possible for us weak and finite humans to become recipients of eternal life – the kind of life that Sin could never conquer. But there’s still just one problem. Christ is risen – but we are not. We have not died. Sin and death still have dominion over us.

So how do we tap into what Christ has done for us? Do we just wait until we die and hope for the best? No, Paul says. We don’t have to wait at all. Freedom from Sin is not simply waiting for us on the other side of death; freedom is present to us right now. We can die right now, even while we are living. All we need is a little water.

As best we can tell, the earliest Christian communities practiced baptism by immersion – that is, your entire body would be submerged underwater, and then you would come back up. Going underneath the water and then coming back up was meant to physically reenact Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.

But Paul does not view baptism as mere theater. He believes that when we are baptized, we are actually uniting with Christ, mystically participating in his death and resurrection through the power of the Holy Spirit. We really do die with Christ, and we really will rise again with Christ.

As a result, what is true for Christ becomes true for us. Remember: “Whoever has died is freed from sin.” Even though we live in a world governed by Sin, we are no longer governed by it. It no longer has the authority to write our story. That authority belongs to the risen Christ, who invites all who die with him to walk in newness of life. This is the story Paul tells in Romans.

Why tell this story? After all, the idea of Sin with a capital S feels like a relic of a bygone era. Invisible cosmic powers controlling our lives? inhabiting our bodies? Seems a bit outlandish. And yet, this is exactly how the world works. Paul did not know us, but the story he tells is about us. Our lives are – in so many ways – defined by forces beyond our control. Patriarchy. Capitalism. Racism. The list goes on and on.

These sinful, death-dealing powers are doing exactly what Paul says Sin does; working their way into our bodies, making it impossible for us to live according to God’s ways. Patriarchy constrains our concepts of gender and sexuality. Capitalism tells us our worth is determined by what we produce. Racism decides for us which bodies are worth protecting and prevents us from living in solidarity with one another.

No one is immune to these powers. They are constantly pushing and pulling us toward alienation and disintegration. And whether we blame “the system” or sin with a capital S, I am convinced that what Paul says is true: We can will what is right, but we cannot do it. … When we want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. But there is good news, friends. God cares enough about our living that God is not content to leave us as mere victims to the powers of this world.

In Christ, God has made a way for us to walk in newness of life. Even in the midst of a world where Sin still reigns, freedom is possible. Justice is possible. Life is possible. We just need to die.

Baptism is indeed the sacramental means of our death. Through the waters of baptism, we die with Christ and through the power of the Spirit are set free from the reign of Sin.

But in v. 12, right after Paul celebrates what baptism does for us, he says this: Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Thanks to our baptism, Sin no longer reigns over us. It no longer defines us. But it can still affect us, influence us, even control us. Baptism is not merely a sacramental death. It is not merely a means of grace. It is an invitation to become instruments of righteousness, to actively resist the work of Sin in our bodies and in the world around us. It is an initiation into death as a way of life.

We die to all of the ways Sin tries to exercise its power within us. We die to our need for control; our fear of vulnerability; our reluctance to rest. We die to patriarchy’s scripts for gender and sexuality; to the productivity mindset that defines life under capitalism; to the internalized racism which distorts our social and political imaginations. As we live out these deaths, we become – in the words of the theologian Brian Bantum – “burning bushes and tongues of fire, bodies set ablaze with the Spirit.” (Redeeming Mulatto, pg. 163) We become beacons of the coming kingdom of God, a world where Sin has lost its power and Death has lost its sting.

Thankfully, we do not have to do this work alone. As Jesus told his disciples in John 17, God has sent God’s Spirit to be with us and to guide us into truth and life (John 17:4-15). God is literally with us, each and every day, as we die to ourselves. Indeed, it is God’s Spirit at work within us who transforms these deaths into life for us and for the world. And the Spirit is not all that God gives us. God also gives us one another, the body of Christ. And when that body is composed of people who are following Christ into death, it is like single, quiet notes combining into a resounding symphony of abundant life.

God even gives us creation, where life is sustained by death and decay. Through creation, God reminds us that death is beautiful, holy, and – most of all – necessary. This is hard work. It is a lifetime’s worth of work. But it is work sustained by God’s free gift of grace. And this means that it is work which is not too much for us. The late German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “When Christ calls a [person], he calls [them] to come and die.”

Today, friends, Christ is calling to us from the waters of our baptism. Can you hear him? He is calling us to join him, to take up our cross and follow him (Luke 9:23). He is calling us to leave behind the reign of sin and present ourselves to God as members of righteousness. He is calling us to a life of resisting the sinful, death-dealing forces at work in the world and in ourselves. He is calling us to die.

May we embrace the call to death. And in the dying, may we find life, and life everlasting.

Amen.

It's Not About You

Dying, We Live