Some of you may have seen the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou. This is a whimsical retelling of Homer's Odyssey set in 1930s Mississippi. Three hapless escaped convicts -- Everett, Pete and Delmar--are hiding out in the woods, running from the law. There they encounter a procession of white-robed people going down to the lake to be baptized. As they move toward the water they sing, "Let's go down to the river and pray." As the baptism ceremony begins, Delmar is overwhelmed by the beauty and the mystery of this rite. He runs into the water and is baptized by the minister. As he returns to his companions, he declares that he is now saved and "neither God nor man's got nothing on me now." He explains that the minister has told him that all his sins have been washed away. Even, he says, when he stole the pig for which he'd been convicted. "But you said you were innocent of that," one of his fellow convicts exclaims.
"I lied," he says, "and that's been washed away too!"
Later the three convicts steal a hot pie from a window sill. The one who felt that his sins had been washed away returns and places a dollar bill on the window sill.
Delmar wasn't made perfect by his baptism any more than any of the rest of us are made perfect by our baptism. But he was conscious that it was time for him to make a new beginning. That it was time for him to begin acting and living in a new way. That is why, in understanding baptism, we begin with our entrance into the family of Christ.
Baptism is our entrance into Christ’s family. We become brothers and sisters to Christ and become heirs to God’s Kingdom through baptism. One way to look at baptism is as an initiation into the family of Christ. It is based, of course, on Jesus’ baptism at the hand of John the Baptist. John was a fiery preacher, a preacher of righteousness and repentance. But at Jesus’ baptism, something very different happened. When Jesus was baptized, Luke tells us, “heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’”
That is such a wonderful verse.
Kathy Leonard of Palmyra, Virginia tells about something humorous that happened at her church. She says they had just finished an enthusiastic praise and worship time one Sunday morning. As the worship leader finished the last song, she went straight into prayer.
“Speak to us, O Lord,” she prayed. “Open our hearts to hear your voice.”
Just then they were startled to hear a deep, friendly voice coming from above their heads, saying, “Hello, how are you this morning?”
Kathyzz says she opened her eyes in surprise and saw that the worship leader and her fellow parishioners were standing with eyes and mouths wide open, too.
After a moment of stunned silence, the worship leader chuckled and said, “Oh! The pastor must have forgotten to turn off his lapel microphone when he went out to greet latecomers!”
Luke doesn’t tell us whether other people besides Jesus heard God’s voice that day or not. But it is a beautiful scene. Jesus is baptized and his Father God tells him how proud he is of him. It’s good when any parent says, “I’m proud of you,” to their child.
Pastor Andy Cook tells about a touching moment at the end of the 1980 Winter Olympic Games. That’s the one in which the US hockey team beat the Russians. It was an incredible feat.
During the final game of those Olympics against Finland, the ABC cameras started following different stories. Jim Craig, the goalie, was very close to his father. “His mother had recently died, which made the two men even closer. And the cameras would show [Jim] in action, and his dad cheering.
“When the US team won the game, the celebration was unbelievable. Players embraced, fans were going wild, but Jim Craig wasn’t celebrating. He was near the stands, looking like a lost little kid . . . and then we read his lips: ‘Where’s my dad?’ he asked. ‘Where’s my dad?’
“Craig finally found his dad, and the celebration was complete. They embraced, they cried, and they remembered the years of practice, the years of playing, the years of drills, the years of discipline, the years of bonding. They remembered the woman they both loved, a wife for one, a mother for the other. For Jim Craig, such a moment demanded the presence of his father.”
This is a very special moment in Luke’s Gospel when Jesus is baptized and “a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’”
Baptism tells us who we are. We are children of God. At our baptism there was an unheard voice from heaven saying, “This is my son, this is my daughter, whom I love.”
Father Henri Nouwen writes, “You are my beloved and on you my favor rests’ is what God says to each human being. We have an identity and a birthright given to us by the one who created and loves us. This blessing and essential birthright is hard to hear above all the other voices of our lives, the voices that shout, ‘You are no good, you are worthless, you are ugly, nobody cares about you.’”
Somebody does care about us. God cares.
Let no one tell you that your life doesn’t matter. That you are no good, worthless, ugly, that nobody cares. You have been baptized. You are a child of God. You are a brother or sister of Christ. You have been brought into his family.
Writer Philip Yancey notes that the church he belongs to schedules a “Mom’s Night Out,” with free babysitting for single mothers who need a night off or mothers who simply want to spend an evening with their husbands.
Yancey says his pastor’s wife once happily took advantage of this program to go out to dinner with her husband. Later, when his pastor went to pick up their three‑year‑old son, the babysitter told him about one of the games they had played. She had asked each of the preschoolers what was mommy’s favorite thing to do with them. “You know what your son answered?” said the babysitter. “He said that mommy’s favorite thing is to ‘clean me up.’”
“In truth,” said Yancey’s pastor the next Sunday, “that isn’t Susan’s favorite thing to do with her son. Cleaning him up is an excuse to hold him. Absorbing the mess is just part of the process of getting close. And it’s the same with God.”
Baptism says that God yearns to hug us close to himself. We are God’s own children.
But there is a second thing we need to see. Baptism offers us the opportunity for a new life.
Here is where the water of baptism is important. It is a symbol of being washed clean, yes, but it is also a symbol of a new birth. And with that new birth there is an opportunity for a new life.
Do you understand the water of baptism can be a powerful force in our lives? When the water was applied to us in baptism [as an infant or as an adult] something powerful was taking place. The Holy Spirit was taking up residence in our lives. We became part of God’s kingdom on earth. As such, we became God’s agents in our family and in our community. As we ponder our own baptism, it might cause us to ask, “Am I being all that God created me to be? I know I am blessed of God, but am I living a life of significance?”
Edward DeBono, the creativity guru, once told a wonderful story about elevators and mirrors.
Have you ever noticed in some really tall buildings skyscrapers, if you will beside the elevator doors, there are often mirrors? Well, apparently, some years ago, there were a lot of complaints about the time that people spent waiting for elevators. And the higher the buildings grew, the more the problem existed. So engineers were called in to try to speed up the elevators or to see if new elevators could be added in the shafts that they had, but there seemed to be absolutely no solution to this problem at all. They spent a lot of money on their consulting fees, until someone spoke up and said, “Let’s fix this with mirrors.”
“What do you mean, fix it with mirrors?” Well, the person suggested, the problem really wasn’t the speed of the elevators or the number of elevators in the building, but the real problem was in the minds of the people who were waiting for the elevators.
So he suggested, “Let’s give them something to do. What do people like to do most?” Oh, they like to look at themselves in the mirror! “How can we enable them to do this?” they asked. And the answer? “Put mirrors all the way around, and the time will just fly by.” And sure enough, they did it. And the time flies by. (7)
Let me ask you a question: how much time to you spend looking in mirrors looking at yourself and how much time do you spend looking out windows, considering the needs of others and society? That’s a simple way of asking, are you simply existing living a life centered in self or are you living a life of significance?
This is an appropriate question to ask at the beginning of another new year. God has called us to join Him in “reconciling the world unto Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19). Baptism reminds us that we are God’s children. Baptism offers us the opportunity for a new life, a life of purpose, a life of significance.
And one thing more. Baptism reminds us that God will always be there for us.
I think of my time wandering in a Wilderness of sin and debauchery. For nearly 20 years I turned my back on God and did anything and everything that I thought I needed or wanted to do. Yet God never left my side. As I stopped drinking and drugging and my mind began to clear. And as I finally surrendered and renewed my pledge to be, and do, all that God wanted of me, I knew that no matter what the roadblocks might be, God would lead me where he wanted me to be – (McLeod / Mill Creek UMC).
“A voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’” That was the voice of God at Jesus’ baptism.
But it could have been our baptism. We are part of God’s family. As such we are part of God’s kingdom, God’s ongoing plan to redeem the world.
An ancient Chinese proverb advises: "If we do not change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed." Standing on the threshold of a new year may be the proper time for us to examine and sift our values. It's possible that the strongest thirst of our being is still unrecognized, still hiding under this or that.
None of us are here by chance. We have a purpose, a calling beyond the self, a unique responsibility to decide and act. Kierkegaard spoke of the "leap of faith." He was speaking of a commitment more dependent on faith than on proof. We are never capable of having all the answers. Those who would grow take many a step, even in the midst of tragedy, not knowing exactly what comes next. Life calls us to move, to act, to make a commitment, to take a risk, to forge into new territory, trusting God to affect the consequences.
We belong to God. Wherever we go, whatever we do, God is there with us. There is no more important statement about our lives than this:
We have been baptized.
