Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
January 13, 2019 - Baptism of Jesus
Scripture: Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
I invite you to
remember some of the more memorable meals that you’ve had. Maybe you’re thinking of a holiday meal like
Christmas or Thanksgiving with your family gathered around a large table,
celebrating together. Or maybe you’re
thinking of a dinner party where the atmosphere and the guests just clicked and
the meal became more than it would have been otherwise. Or maybe you’re thinking about a restaurant
meal where the food and the service and the atmosphere were something extra
special.
I’m thinking of a
dinner at my apartment in Nova Scotia in January, 4 years ago. I’d just finished my first semester at school
and I invited 5 classmates over to share a roast chicken. We didn’t know each other very well yet, but
as the meal progressed, the stories that we shared became deeper and more
intimate, and the laughter became louder.
When we finally left the table at midnight, our friendship was cemented,
and when I think back to that meal, there is a warm glow that hovers over my
dining room.
Now I want you to take
a moment and imagine what your special meal would have been like without the food. No smell of roasting chicken wafting through
the house. Empty glasses raised in a
toast. Empty dishes being passed around
the table. Cutlery clattering on empty
plates. No food changes this memorable
meal into something memorable but for very different reasons. Food is important. Food changes things.
We are not purely
spiritual beings – we have physical bodies as well, and our physical selves
need food and water to survive and thrive.
And that’s OK. God created the
physical world, and God saw that it was good.
In the United Church
of Canada we recognize two sacraments – baptism and communion. But what do we mean when we say “sacrament”? I am drawn to St. Augustine’s definition of a
sacrament – even though he wrote 1600 years ago, his definition still resonates
with me today. Augustine wrote that a
sacrament is a visible sign of God’s invisible grace. A visible sign of God’s invisible grace.
God’s grace, God’s
love is invisible. We can’t see it, we can’t
reach out and touch it, but it is always there.
But since we are physical beings, made of matter, made of cells and
molecules and atoms, God has given us physical, material ways to experience
God’s love. Ways that we can see and
touch and taste and smell and hear God’s love.
The water of baptism,
and the bread and wine of communion – they don’t replace God’s love, but
instead they are signs – they point us towards God’s love. Just as a stop sign doesn’t directly stop our
car, but directs us to stop, the sacraments direct us towards experiencing the
always-present, never-ending love of God.
When a person is
baptized, either as a baby or as an adult, we don’t baptize just with words, it
isn’t just a spiritual baptism where we know that the Holy Spirit has descended
on this person. Instead, there is water
as well as words – water that we can hear being poured, water that we can see,
water that we can touch.
When we gather at the
communion table, we gather with words, but we also gather to share the bread and
the juice – bread and juice that we can smell, taste, and see.
God made matter, so
matter matters; but God also became matter in the person of Jesus Christ. We’ve just finished the season of Christmas
when we celebrated the time when God didn’t just put on humanity like a coat,
but God actually became human. God loves
us so much that God became one of us.
God’s word became flesh. Matter
matters.
And we are given these
sacraments so that our material selves – our flesh and blood – have something
material to touch and taste so that the love of God can be made real to us.
In our scripture
reading this morning, we heard about how Jesus came to the Jordan River and was
baptized by John. Again, this isn’t a
purely spiritual baptism – there is physical water present. Jesus waded into the river, went under the
surface of the water, and came back up out of the water again. And then Jesus saw the heavens torn apart and
he saw the Spirit descending like a dove, and a voice from heaven said to
Jesus, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
In that moment of
Jesus’ baptism, the whole Trinity is present.
The heavens are torn apart, and God descends like a dove and rests upon
God, and the voice of God says, “You are my Son, the Beloved.” And when we baptize in our church today, we
baptize in the name of this same Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Our sacraments then,
are this fabulous place where the physical and spiritual meet. In the physical elements of the water, bread,
and wine, we encounter God. Because Jesus
Christ was fully human and fully God, because the heavens were torn apart and
the Holy Spirit descended, God is fully present in our world. One of my favourite theologians, Richard
Rohr, writes, “God is always present in the bread. We just need to bring our hunger.”
In baptism, we make a
covenant with God. God is always
present, and God’s love is always with us, but it is formalized in
baptism. We, or our parents, make
promises, and we hear that each one of us is a beloved child of God. The Holy Spirit hovers over the waters of our
baptism, just as the Holy Spirit hovered over Jesus at his baptism. And as a sign of God’s love, and as a sign of
the promises that are made, water is sprinkled or poured or we are fully
immersed in it.
And in the meal of
Holy Communion, we are reminded again of God’s love for us. We are reminded of God’s faithfulness in all
generations, and we are strengthened in our faith. The Holy Spirit hovers over the bread and the
wine, and hovers over all of us when we gather at the table, closer to us than
our very breath. And we eat and we drink
together, uniting us in that overwhelming love of God. This isn’t a meal without food – empty
glasses and bare plates. This is a meal
where God is present through the Holy Spirit in real bread and real juice.
God is fully present
in the world – nothing can separate us from God and from God’s love. Our sacraments are physical, tangible signs
that point us to that love. God made
physical matter; God became physical matter, and so matter matters. We are not just spiritual beings, but we are
physical beings as well, and through the sacraments, God cares for us, and
nourishes us, both physically and spiritually.
Thanks be to God!
The Youth Group and Sunday School helped us to remember our baptism
by flinging water from the baptismal font at the congregation!
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