Can you remember your baptism? For those of us baptized as infants (as I was, at 6 months old), the idea of remembering our baptisms has to be a figurative one. But it is a very important one. In baptism we affirm our faith, renounce sin, and those around us in the Body of Christ, especially our families/sponsors/godparents promise to support and nurture us in our baptized lives.
Yesterday in worship we affirmed the baptism of Arianna Grace Morales, born October 12, 2010. She is truly God's child and God's miracle baby. Doctors doubted and never thought she would even make it to be born. But the faith and love of her parents and God's strengthening presence with her have brought her into our congregation - quite the gift. It was a wonderful moment to affirm and welcome her into the congregation. She, and her story is a blessing, in which we testify to the love and faithfulness God has for each of us.
The appointed readings for this date, including the gospel reading, Luke 21:5-19, are quite jarring. At first I thought about changing them, but in the end, they affirm the same thing that we believe about baptism. That in the end, all the things in this life - buildings, stuff, even relationships, are temporary compared to Jesus Christ and the eternal life we are given in baptism.
Click below to read the sermon:
We want to know the end of the story. As much as we like listening to stories, we take comfort in knowing the ending – just think of how many romantic comedies there are, all with predictable endings. There's nothing wrong with it. We want to know that in the end, it will all be okay. So we look for signs, hints of what's coming.
I used to watch Law and Order, and not always, but often I could tell as soon as he opened his door to the detectives who the criminal was based on the music and the demeanor of the character. I had the signs down.
We create whole systems, superstitions around signs. When I watch the COLTS play football, I want to know the ending. I want to know if they will win, so I watch for a sign of what is to come. So I watch Peyton Manning's feet – if his feet seem to dance around in the pocket, instead of planting firmly, I take it as a sign that things aren't going to go too well. We all create signs for ourselves, out of that deep desire to skip what's in between and know the ending.
The disciples felt the same way – anxious, impatient – wanting to know the end of the story and the signs of its coming. Jesus spoke of the end, of things like the temple, once thought permanent, coming down. They asked Jesus, "Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?" Jesus' description seems both foreign and yet all too real to us. There are those today who say, “the time is near.” We see wars, nation rising against nation, earthquakes, famines, and plagues - opinions are mixed on whether or how these are signs from heaven.
Jesus' disciples and the early Christians thought the end of the world was going to happen any day . . . There was an urgency to their faith and a constant looking for signs. But here we are, 2,000 years later . . . What can Jesus' signs and predictions mean to us now? Jesus' forecast for the believers' future does not sound like a comfortable one. Arrest, persecution, even death. But all of these scary images Jesus counters with - “But this will give you an opportunity to testify.”
Testify. This is the life Jesus calls us to. To tell the story. So what is your story? Today we celebrate the story of Arianna Grace, who at one month old has known her share of misinterpreted signs, challenges, and those who doubted her.
Jesus says, “This will give you an opportunity to testify.” God does not cause our suffering or inflict it as a tool to teach us certain things. That is not the loving God we testify to. God does not cause our suffering, but is active through it, always working to help, comfort, and save us. When the Holy Spirit moves we realize in faith that even on the darkest days of our personal lives, God was right there beside us.
In Arianna we see and testify to God's presence. We testify, that is tell the story that God is here, in her life - not only in how she has overcome the odds given to her, but in the love that has blossomed, a family, a world, has changed, and we testify in the hope that God has given us. In her story we testify to the larger story, the story of Jesus Christ, our savior who died so that written in baptism, our stories might go on to eternal life.
We want to look at our own stories and see a sign. In dying and rising Jesus has given us the sign from heaven talked about in these verses. The sign that points without fail to the end of the story. The sign from heaven, is baptism, where just as like in Jesus' baptism, God speaks the words to you, “This is my child, in whom I am well-pleased.” The sign of the cross in baptism marks our foreheads and claims us as God's children forever.
Baptism may look like just a sign, but it is more than that. It is God's real action, on our behalf. It is the glimpse of God's kingdom, and it is the end of the story. With the waters of baptism, in God's promises to you, you are raised to eternal life. Starting now. That is the end of the story – you are God's, and in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God has claimed you forever. In your baptism Jesus wrote the end of your story – called into eternal life, “not a hair of your head will perish.” Baptized child, this is the end of your story, and our whole lives then, are like a romantic comedy or a thriller, or any movie to which we already know the ending – no bumps, or twists, or turns can derail what you already know to be true. All those twists, they are just a way to testify to the end that you already know is coming. In the end, you are God's. Washed in the waters of baptism, the end of the story is already written, child of God, promised eternal life, testifying to the hope that is in you. Amen.
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