GOD’S BLESSINGS AND EXPECTATIONS

Isaiah 42: 1-9; Matthew 3: 13-17

A wonderful educator and professor at Columbia Seminary, Rodger Nishioka, taught my first doctoral class. What wit and insights he brings to each class. He once told the following story:

“Kyle was nowhere to be found, and I missed him. In the weeks following his baptism and confirmation on Pentecost Sunday, he was noticeably missing. Several other members of the confirmation class asked about him too …. Kyle and his family had come to the congregation when he was in the fifth grade. They attended sporadically, so I was more than a little surprised when I asked him and his parents if he was interested in joining the confirmation class and they responded positively! … Kyle and his parents came for the orientation meeting and agreed to the covenant to participate in two retreats, a mission activity, work with a mentor, and weekly classes for study and exploration. Kyle was serious in attending and rarely missed a class or event. He quickly became a significant part of the group and developed some wonderful friendships with [others] who barely had known him. Since Kyle had not yet been baptized, he was not only confirmed but also baptized on Pentecost Sunday. It was a marvelous celebration for all the confirmands, their families, and their mentors. That was pretty much where it ended. That is when I knew we had done something wrong. [He hadn’t shown up to church since.] When I checked in with Kyle and his folks, they all seemed a little surprised that I was calling and checking up on them. I distinctly remember his mother saying: ‘Oh well, I guess I thought Kyle was all done. I mean, he was baptized and confirmed and everything. Isn’t he done?’ That’s the problem. Despite our best intentions and despite all we say and try to communicate, too many people seem to think that the baptism of the infant or young adult or adult is the culminating activity of faith, and then we are ‘all done.’” [FEASTING ON THE WORD, Year A, Volume 1, WJK, p. 236-238]. One other example: As I was going around getting gifts for people this Christmas, I was invited to save 10% by applying for a credit card when I bought three of my gifts at different stores. The purchase totals were each over a hundred dollars so I decided to take a minute and fill out an application to receive the savings. During this first week of January, I received three cards and was encouraged to start using them. With one I intend to do so; with the other two I do not. In fact, one said the card wasn’t valid until I made a call to activate it and I used it to make my first purchase. There is a part of me that believes that the parents with their newly baptized babies, and youth with their new baptism certificates, leave church thinking that they have been baptized. And in fact they have, their certificate says so. But like the new credit card I got in the mail, it seems like it should say: “not valid until activated.” Baptisms hardly carry power and meaning until they are activated, by parents returning their children to church or youth returning to grow their faith. It seems to me that people misunderstand the blessing, assurance, or understanding of baptism if the one baptized, or the parents, treat it like a commissioning instead of a commencement! Commissioning means you’ve been given instructions with a purpose; commencement (although it means the beginning of a new life,) is treated by most Americans as the end of student life! With baptism, others see it as a holy insurance policy. When people approach it as something to be “done” instead of a new life “begun,” they try to claim God’s blessings without accepting the expectations. Baptism is more like an ordination than a Christening: the one who is baptized wants God’s Holy Spirit in him or her, not just to get to Heaven, but to make a difference in the world as well. Baptized children, youth, and adults are Christ’s body in the world. And the best witness of the body of Christ is the church. As the great hymn “The Church’s One Foundation” proclaims it: “And the great church victorious shall be the church at rest.” We will never rest until Christ proclaims his victory in the world! Christ needs our voices, and our devotion, our quiet time, and our presence! The Holy Spirit does not intend to send baptized children and youth into the world without further guidance, regrouping, troubleshooting, and prayer. The gathering that we call church is for that transformation! Whether it is a youth group or a Bible Study or an hour of worship, coming together in Christ reminds us that we are baptized for something much more than to protect us against something. If we want God’s blessing, we can plan to accept God’s expectations too. Otherwise it is like carrying around one of those new credit cards in your pocket: it looks like it will work, but it has not yet been activated.

In our Gospel text today, many years have passed since Jesus was an infant at Christmas and at Epiphany. The Bible is silent about Jesus’ childhood and young adulthood except for a few words in the second chapter of Luke. Jesus is now about the age of thirty, the age when, generally, people have already learned how to earn their keep in the world and not just live off of parents. It is highly likely that Jesus had learned Torah, and had learned the trade of being a teckton (builder), and had earned money well before the event of his baptism. That is an outstanding pattern of understanding baptism: a person learns the way of faith from family or friends, then is baptized, then begins a life of honoring God. Before baptism, generally speaking, life is lived for self; after baptism life is aimed more at knowing and glorifying God. It is never meant to be a one day celebration after which people go back to living and feeling as they did before. Baptism is a commissioning, not a commencement! It is giving a person a task, new vision, and, as some would put it, “new marching orders.” It involves both blessing and expectations.

With Jesus on his big day, the clock was about to start on his ministry. Anyone baptized here today can still pick up the mantle of purpose given you at your baptism if you have not done so before or if you laid it down. It is not too late! Be purposeful with other Christians; study, feed hungry people, invite lost people to sit beside you, invite them to join you in a life of faith. Put into action the words that you once said: something like: “Do you participate actively in the worship and the mission of the church?” And when you joined, you said, “I do.” It is time to “do” if you haven’t “done” yet! What would marriage be like if you promised to “love, honor, and cherish” and then you didn’t? What good is repeating the Boy Scout or the Girl Scout oath when no actions or charity follow the words?

On Jesus’ big day, he had gotten to that moment in good order: and so as promised, God’s Holy Spirit came down and touched him, assuring him in his heart that he was blessed. And then, as perhaps your father or mother said to you at an important event: God said, “I’m proud of you, son.” And in Matthew’s gospel the announcement is made for all those in the pews or the folding chairs by the Jordan River to hear: “This is my boy; I love him, and he has made me proud!” What a glorious time! Can you hear the angels cheering at your baptism? They were! And now they wait “at the ready” to cheer you more, not just for being you, but for doing what God wants you to do! Make a difference! Continue the commissioning of your baptism; there are so many people with baptismal certificates who failed to peel the sticker off the back that said: “To activate, do what Jesus would do.”

Jeffrey A. Sumner January 9, 2011