BuiltWithNOF

Readings (click here for full text of the readings):
   Isaiah 42:1-9; Psalm  89:1-29; Acts 10:34-38; Matthew 3:13-17
 

I.       Sometimes we get so used to doing something a certain way, we forget that it didn’t always used to be that way

    A.  Story of friend who, when she was three years, her family had a distant relative over for Christmas

    B.  The next year she said: “He has to join us.  He always joins us.”

    C.  She might as well have said, “It wouldn’t be Christmas without him!”

    D.  Not knowing that every year before, it had been

II.    The same goes for baptism, and confirmation, too, for that matter

    A.  When we think of baptism, we probably think of a baby being sprinkled with water

      1.    Maybe the parents met with the priest beforehand to talk about it, but not if they were church folks who already knew what to expect

      2.    It’s as much a social occasion as a religious one, with family and friends gathered

      3.    Everybody’s happy, and there’s a pleasant little reception afterward

    B.  When we think of confirmation, we probably think of a young boy or girl who’s just entered their teen years

      1.    Their parents tell them with varying degrees of subtlety: “It’s time for you to get confirmed.”

      2.    They sit through some classes, which if they were anything like the ones I sat through as a kid, aren’t exactly scintillating

      3.    And then the big day, when the bishop shows up and lays hands on them

III.  That isn’t the way it used to be

    A.  Our first written record of Christian baptism comes from about 200 years after Jesus lived

    B.  And it was about as different from our current practice as possible

      1.    Most of the people baptized were adults

        a)    After all, as we just heard, Jesus himself was baptized as an adult

      2.    When they expressed a desire to be baptized, they had to go through a three-year period of instruction

      3.    After that, if they were accepted as baptismal candidates, they had to go through even more intense instruction for a few weeks in Lent

      4.    Those who were approved for baptism were then baptized at the Easter vigil

        a)    First they renounced Satan and were anointed with the oil of exorcism

        b)    Then they were immersed three separate times, after they’d affirmed that they believed in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

        c)     Then the priest sealed their foreheads with the oil of thanksgiving, thereby “confirming” the sacrament

        d)    The bishop lay hands on them

        e)     And then they received their first communion

      5.    So you had everything at one time, after a long preparation

        a)    Baptism

        b)    Confirmation

        c)     First communion

      6.    On top of all that, those ceremonies were kept secret, so you didn’t know what was going to happen to you until it happened to you

      7.    No wonder that after baptism people really felt like they had died and risen again!

        a)    Basic meaning of baptism

          “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”

    C.  As you can see, things weren’t so simple in those days

      1.    Getting baptized took a lot of work

      2.    A lot of preparation

      3.    And confirmation and first communion happened right after baptism

      4.    It was a clear way of saying: “If you’re not baptized, you’re not a full member of the community.  But if you are baptized, then everything is open to you.”

IV.But then things changed

    A.  Factors

      1.    Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, so everything didn’t need to be a big secret anymore

      2.    People lost their zeal for baptism, or at least all the work that went into it

      3.    And as the number of Christians grew and the relative number of clergy declined, everything got harder

    B.  Rite

      1.    Preparation: several weeks, instead of three years

      2.    More and more children, rather than adults

        a)    Instead of death/resurrection, baptism was viewed as washing away original sin

          (1)  Infant mortality
          (2)  Fear of limbo

        b)    Required confirmation by the bishop

          (1)  Term first used in the 5th century
          (2)  The bishop couldn’t be present for every baptism, so “confirmation” was added
          (3)  Meant something different than before
            (a)    Not confirming the sacrament of baptism
            (b)   But confirming that the person really wanted to follow Christ

              (i)     At the “age of culpability”

            (c)    New idea that confirmation strengthened someone for the adult decisions that lay ahead

    C.  And the first communion got separated out, too

      1.    It didn’t happen right after baptism, because it stopped seeming sensible to give babies wine

        a)    In the Middle Ages, only the priests drank the wine, anyway, and babies weren’t old enough to eat the bread

      2.    Nowadays, some Episcopal churches require that you be confirmed in order to receive communion

      3.    Here, anybody who is baptized can receive communion

V.   So thanks very much for the history lesson, but what does this mean for us, today?

    A.  It means that things used to make a whole lot more sense than they do now

      1.    That the reasons we make up for what confirmation means, and even why it exists, don’t bear much resemblance to how it all started

    B.  It means that we’ve made the walk of faith a lot easier

      1.    What do you think would happen if we required anyone who wanted to call themselves a Christian to complete a three-year course of focused study, and then a 6-week course of intense study, and then this momentous night of interrogation, baptism, confirmation, and first communion?

      2.    The initial answer is: Nobody would do that.

      3.    But people did do that, and I think it meant a lot more to them because of it

        a)    Today, church is just one part of our lives

          (1)  And maybe a small part, at that
          (2)  We balance things, God included

        b)    But back then, people prioritized, and God was at the top of the list

          (1)  The Church made it clear that if you wanted to follow God, you were going to have to sacrifice, and make some tough choices
          (2)  God wasn’t a hobby
          (3)  God wasn’t the guitar you fooled around with and learned to play a little bit and picked up and strummed when you didn’t have anything better to do
          (4)  God was the most important thing in the world
          (5)  God was why we were even to begin with
          (6)  God, ultimately, was God

    C.  But in other ways, we make things harder now, for our own reasons

      1.    Because back then it was a one-shot deal: you get baptized, you’ve done your dying-and-rising-again, and now everything is open to you

        a)    You can take communion

        b)    You can get married

        c)     You can baptize other people in emergencies

          (1)  Any baptized person can baptize another person.

        d)    You can be ordained a priest

        e)     You can be consecrated a bishop

      2.    Now, though, we space out the hoops people have to jump through

        a)    Sure, you’re baptized, but then you have to be confirmed

          (1)  Never mind that we’ve given “confirmation” a whole new theological definition to explain its existence

        b)    And even if you’re confirmed, then we have to make sure you understand this whole Eucharist thing

          (1)  Not that any of us really understand Eucharist, which is the great mystery of our faith

        c)     Oh, and you want to be ordained?

          (1)  Well, then, we’re going to have to examine you
          (2)  You’re going to have to do what we tell you to do for a while
          (3)  You have to go to a certain school for a determined period of time
          (4)  And you’re going to have to be a certain gender, at least until recently
          (5)  And you’re going to have to be a certain sexual orientation
          (6)  And you’re going to have to be anything else we tell you you have to be

      3.    There are a lot of “we”’s in all that

        a)    The royal we

          (1)  The Church, and all its officers and members

        b)    We decide if you’re ready to be confirmed

        c)     We decide if you’re ready to take communion

        d)    We decide if you’re worthy to be married, or ordained, or consecrated

      4.    There’s not much God in that

        a)    It’s as if we don’t trust God enough to give the fate of the church over into His hands

          (1)  Even though He’s the reason we’re a church in the first place

        b)    As if we don’t trust that baptism really means something

          (1)  That it involves change
          (2)  That people who are baptized really do die and rise again, new creatures in Jesus Christ

VI.So today, on this joyous occasion when Kassidy, Ancel, Clarinda, and Halle are about to be baptized, I invite you to step back in time to the way things used to be

    A.  To a day when baptism wasn’t just the first step into the Christian life – it was the only step

      1.    Because after today, Kassidy, Ancel, Clarinda, and Halle are just as important members of our church as the rest of us are

      2.    Even though they might not have been around that long

      3.    Even if they’re playing with rattles instead of rattling off the fundamentals of the faith

      4.    Even if they cry or run around during services

        a)    But chances are they won’t be quite as rambunctious as the priest’s kid, so nobody has any reason to feel bad

    B.  And that means that everything about the church is open to them

      1.    They can eat the body of Christ as soon as they can manage solid foods

      2.    They can receive the cup of salvation as soon as they don’t need a bib anymore

      3.    They have a right to ask questions and render opinions

      4.    And we would do well to listen to them, because they have a lot to teach us, even now

    C.  And I invite us all to return to the days when people recognized that the Christian life was a hard road to hoe

      1.    In the old days baptism made that clear

        a)    There was a long and arduous road leading up to baptism

        b)    Which made sense, because once you got there things were even harder

          (1)  The Church was persecuted and had to meet in secret
          (2)  And to live as a Christian meant giving up a lot of things we loved, and embracing a lot of things we didn’t

      2.    Nowadays baptism is easier, and the Church isn’t persecuted anymore, at least in this country

        a)    But the Christian life hasn’t changed

          (1)  We still have to give up things like material wealth, complacency, and our own selfish desires
          (2)  And we still have to embrace things we’d prefer to avoid: like admitting our own sinfulness, and forgiving others when they don’t really deserve to be forgiven

        b)    And so when we, in a few minutes, join with the families of the children being baptized, and renew our own baptismal vows, we need to be clear about that means

          (1)  It means that we’re not just spectators today
          (2)  It means that we’re promising yet again to do what we (or our parents) promised we’d do all those years
          (3)  It means that we’re claiming our inheritance as children of God, and full members of God’s church
          (4)  And it means that we’re buying into this bargain of grace all over again
            (a)    Where the rewards are great
            (b)   But where the life of faith demands everything of us, and then some.

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