The baptism of Christ and the baptism of others

“You are my son, The Beloved; with You I am well pleased.”

God’s message to Jesus in today’s Gospel reading, though seemingly miraculous, particularly in its delivery in the form of a dove, is actually the same message that will be received by Rudolf and Samuel today as they are baptised.

Though it probably won’t be delivered by the Holy Spirit, or with a booming voice from the clouds, at least it wasn’t when I was baptised, the message is still given and that is because we are all baptised into the same faith by the same spirit as Christ.

As with Jesus, at our baptism we are first of all named by our parents. “You are my son” “you are Samuel” “This is Rudolf”. It is also through our baptism that we are called and named by God as His children and disciples. As we heard God say in our first reading “I have called you, you are mine” and this is exactly what God is wanting us to know and understand as we are baptised. We are his and he knows us and wants to be with us. Our Baptism is when we take hold of the already out stretched hand of God and walk with him through our lives through the rivers and fires that threaten to overwhelm us.

The naming at baptism is so significant because it is with our name that we are made an individual. We are not just another person, an unknown entity or empty shell we are who we are. And who we are is special because we are an individual. We all have things that make us unique, particular gifts that we can share with each other to make the world a better place and whilst they are not given to us at our baptism our gifts cannot be put to their full potential unless we have been made a strong individual with a strong identity.

It is not just a calling and name that we share with Jesus through our baptism, we are also the beloved. Baptism is almost exclusively a family affair. The family gathers round the person to be baptised to show support. Why support? Because that person is loved by their family and they wish to share in the joy of those to be baptised and their parents, the joy that comes from being accepted into the most loving community of all, the community of God.

Though we are an individual we are called into the community with others, because it is with others that we become whole. Though we have our own gifts that are unique to us we cannot go through life alone, no one has all the answers or skills. So God calls us into communion with Himself and with others who have also come to Him so that we do not have to be alone. The smaller, weaker parts make up the stronger whole. And so by joining in communion with others we each become stronger individuals.

Finally we come to the third part of God’s baptismal message, “with whom I am well pleased”. It is easy to hear this and think “how can God ever be as pleased with me as he was with Jesus who did such amazing things.” But if we look at when His baptism appears in the Gospel, Jesus hadn’t started his ministry yet and so all the amazing things that we think God is pleased with him for haven’t happened yet. So God must be pleased with Jesus because he had the potential to do such amazing things. Jesus did not have to do anything for God to be pleased with him, just as we don’t, God is pleased with us because we CAN do amazing things. God is pleased with Rudolf and Samuel because they have the potential to go out after their baptism and be as kind and loving as Christ.

And with the gifts they have as special individuals and the love and support of their family, friends and community why shouldn’t they? Why shouldn’t we all go out and be as Christ was, we all have the potential to and God is well pleased with us, we are named, called and loved by God at our baptism because of all the love and gifts that we have that we can use to make everyone else feel loved. But it is not enough to keep our gifts here in church, with God’s help we must take our new found status as His beloved from the font and into the world.

Death

The famous saying goes that there are only two things certain in life and those things are death and taxes. Whilst the later may only be true to those of us who do not belong to the super rich elite or multi-national corporations the former is most certainly true for all of us.

Death, the final frontier, the greatest of all adventures, awaits us all at the end of our days. It is inescapable, inevitable, finite and most, if not all people, spend a lot of time at least thinking about, if not fearing their inevitable deaths.

In this country, this fear of death has lead to a culture where we so rarely talk about it. We refer to people who have “fallen asleep” or “who’s sun has set” as if saying that they were dead was an insult, or taboo. In the medical profession the death of a patient is seen as a failure, and there is constant debate over the right to die for patients which asks the questions about life over death and the rights of the patient which do not include at the moment the right to die. The two most recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were the first conflicts since the Second World War where this country suffered significant casualties and each service man or woman who died was publicly mourned and we were shocked and surprised at each flag draped coffin that was brought back as if we thought that death could not possibly occur so frequently here.

All of these things show our uncomfortable relationship with death here in the west. It is alien, unknowable and unstoppable and in our current scientific age where humanity is desperately trying to understand and control everything death remains the ever present reminder that we are nothing but dust and to dust we shall return.

As Christians however we should not have to suffer under the constant threat of death. The Bible recounts the whole story of humanity’s salvation from death through the acts of God. In the Old Testament we hear how God saved His chosen people from the act of dying, he saved them from the venomous snakes and the Egyptian army. And then in the New Testament God saves us from what comes after death through the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ Jesus. 

And yet, there is still something that holds us back. In our modern age of scientific and rational understanding we find anything that can not be proved or witnessed difficult to take on. People have attested to the life and miracles of Jesus, his death and indeed his resurrection through the eye witness accounts. Unfortunately eye witnesses of the great beyond are few and far between and so we are reluctant to even try and explain what happens when we die let alone believe in it.  

People more readily believe in what they can see working, and so it is no surprise that the brazen serpent from today’s reading is eventually worshiped and glorified by those whom it apparently saved. People could see and touch the, albeit temporary, salvation of the bronze snake and so fully believed in its power. It is not so easy for us to put trust in the saving power of the Cross and the promise of life after death if we can not see or touch it.

Yet we do not need to know what happens after death to believe that it is not the end. As Christians we know that because Christ died upon the cross for our sins we are saved from death and so there must be something yet to come, a world unknown, a life ever after.

Like all humans Jesus had to die but it was through his inevitable death that the rest of us gained eternal life. This great paradox is the crux of our Christian faith, our life in return for his death.

The life we have been given through the cross is not the same as the life granted to those who gazed upon the serpent, which was only temporary. It is a life free from pain, suffering and an ending. It is eternal life. And though we do not know exactly what it is, we can all be prepared, rather then lonely or scared at the end of our days knowing that there is something yet to come.

However we must first all die, like Christ, before we can receive our share in his life.