BAPTISM OF THE LORD SUNDAY "REAFFIRMATION AND BAPTISM”

Readings: Genesis 1:1-5, Psalm 29, Mark 1:4-11, Acts 19:1-7
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on January 8th 2012

A printable PDF file can be found here

Today, as we ordain and commission new elders and deacons, I invite us to reaffirm our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Today, Baptism of the Lord Sunday, I’m inviting us to reconsider the promises made at baptism, confirmation or membership. Last week we met around the Lords table. This week we meet around a font that has been filled with the waters we use in baptism. Baptism, be it that of an infant or an adult, is always a sign of new beginnings.

Our Scripture reading from Acts 19, gave us an intriguing story of Paul, on one of his missionary journeys, encountering a group of believers in God in Ephesus, who had been baptized by John the Baptist, but had not received the gift of the Holy Spirit, nor fully accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ.

At first Paul seems confused. They were doing all the things church folk were meant to do. They were disciples. Meeting together. Sharing. Praying. They believed in God, no doubts about it. But as he talks with them he realizes that their experience with Christianity was minimal. They start discussing the role of the Holy Spirit in religious life and these folk are saying, “Holy Spirit? Nobody told us about the Holy Spirit?”

Paul quizzes them some more. ‘But I thought you said you’d been baptized? How did that happen?” “Well” they explain “There was this man of God called John who taught us how to turn our lives around. We went down into the waters with him and have committed ourselves to following the Lords leading as we look for the One John said was to come.”

“I’m with you now” Paul seems to say. Filling in the gaps we can presume that these folks just hadn’t got the message that Jesus had come! They were out in Ephesus, a very different place to Jerusalem. So Paul explains what has been going on and they break through to a new level of understanding.

In the story of the book of Acts the significance of their acceptance of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that Acts tells the story of the spread of Christianity “in Jerusalem, in Samaria and to the ends of the earth”. At each significant advance the spread of the gospel to a new area is marked by Pentecost like signs. The acceptance and baptism in the Holy Spirit of twelve disciples in Gentile territory beyond Jerusalem marked another milestone in the advance of Christianity.

The story reminds us that though we may believe, there still needs to be moments and times when we refocus and reaffirm what we believe. These disciples had been baptized and they were people seeking to be God's people. God honored their search by granting them a fuller and deeper revelation of His love, filling them with the knowledge of Jesus as their Savior and empowering them for service through the Holy Spirit.

We still stand near the dawn of a New Year, and we can choose what forces are going to shape our lives in this new age. We like to think of ourselves as free agents. Not really! Our lives, our thoughts, our values, our spirituality, our whole outlook on life is shaped by the forces around us and our reaction to them. Admittedly, we can, like the folk in Ephesus that Paul came across, not always be in possession of all the facts, or aware of the full story. But as God reveals the way of discipleship to us there remains a decision to make as to how we will respond.

We are not all basically good or basically bad. We are a complex mix of emotions and desires, often in conflict with others and with ourselves. We are conditioned by our culture and our upbringing and our expectations. We are miserable sinners who wouldn't recognize an act of God if it came to us wrapped in box that said, "God was here"; yet at the same time we are glorious, possibility laden, miraculous, unique, creations of a loving God, full of destiny, purpose and meaning.

I bid you to pray that just as God gifted those disciples at Ephesus with Spiritual gifts, so our lives, both individually and together as a church community, will show increasing evidence of being molded and recreated and blessed by the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

We shall in a moment commission and ordain some of our members to serve their church through the office of deacon or elder. Many of you have served in the past. Others will do so in the future. We stand together in the service of Christ as His baptized and sent into the world people.

On this baptism of the Lord Sunday I invite you to again consider what the waters of baptism mean.

God adopts us as God's children.
God commissions us for service.
God forgives us, cleanses and renews us.
God equips us for ministry.
God claims us as God's own.
God sends us into all the world.
God calls us by name and longs to fill us with the Holy Spirit.

Paul went to Ephesus. He found some faithful people. Faithful people who were ready to take the next step of their journey of faith. As we stand with those being commissioned and ordained this day, may we recognize the call of God that extends to every one of us. Amen.

Rev Adrian J Pratt