The Fourth Sunday of Easter (Year A, RCL)
April 13, 2008
The Reverend Paul R. Abernathy, Rector
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Baptism. The word is derived from the Greek, baptizo, which literally means to immerse. If this is to be taken literally as a description of
the mechanics or even a direction regarding the “how” of what we do this day, then, we’re at a loss. We, like many churches in the northern
geographical climes, where the grip of frigid weather may linger long into the spring, customarily baptize indoors and using only a small
font and not a huge baptismal pool prominent in some Protestant traditions. And as we only sprinkle water, although, yes, symbolic, it may be
difficult to grasp the truth to which the action is intended to point, that is, again, being immersed.
So, if not in water, then, into what?
The traditional theology and teaching of the church would answer, “into Christ” – that is, into his life. The going down under the water (we have
to use our powers of imagination to visualize this!), symbolizing a dying to an old, sinful, self-interested life, and the coming up out of the
water, symbolizing a rising, verily, a resurrection to a new Easter, self-sacrificial life.
Yet, all of that may still be beyond us. Too airy. Too incorporeal. Too vaporous, like the breath that it takes to express a thought, articulate a
vision, or declare an ideal. Hard to see. Hard to grasp. Hard to believe.
So, let me show you something that isn’t. Something existential. Something experiential.
Look around you. Behold this community here gathered. For the families presenting children for baptism, a community filled with people, some blood
relations, some family friends, most not. For all of us, filled with people, many known to us, many not – and some who, even when known to us,
depending on the histories of our relationships with them, we may or may not have invited to this or any party.
But that is precisely the point.
Baptism is an immersion into life. The life of Christ lived, however imperfectly, in community. A community that none of us, not one of us
gets to choose. A community that, in a real way, is chosen for us, for it exists prior to our choosing to join. A community that calls to us to be
immersed in its life.
What kind of life? One, according to Acts, where all things are shared in common.[1] (Who knew that we were signing up to
be good communists?) A life, according to Jesus, of abundance, one of the chief experiences of which is living in community where one is known and
named.[2] A life, according to the Baptismal Covenant,[3] in which we do not practice “random
acts of kindness,”[4] but, rather, daily, intentionally seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors –
everybody – as ourselves, striving for justice and peace, respecting the life-given dignity of all people.
What kind of life? One of deep engagement and shared fellowship symbolized, in a moment, by this community journeying en masse to the font and to the
question, “Will you who witness these vows do all in your power to support these persons in their life in Christ?” answering with a resounding, “We
will!” A life of deep engagement and shared fellowship that will be, can be, is ours to the extent and only to the extent that we engage
and share in it. For in order to be immersed, whether in water or into life, requires one to jump in.
[4] From the phrase, “Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty,” coined by Anne Herbert, a San Francisco writer for The Whole Earth Review, 1982.
