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Sermon - January 13th, 2008
Baptism: The Prequel
Rev. Gwen Drake
Scripture: Matthew 3:13-17
Prayer: We give thanks, O God, for sacred stories. Through your word you nurture our imaginations, increase our awareness, and challenge our assumptions. May the words of my mouth and meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
When Episode 1 of Star Wars was released, we were introduced to the term prequel at the movies. I remember seeing the first Star Wars episode, Episode 4, in Australia. And I was hooked, anxiously waiting for the next Episode to be released. Fred Craddock, now retired preaching professor and a really good preacher, in my opinion, didn’t see any of the Star Wars movies until he saw the first episode, The Phantom Menace with his grandsons. So, he tells this story about the experience. He didn’t want to go to see it in total ignorance so he asked a few questions and learned a little about Luke Skywalker. When they arrived at the theatre, it was crowded and he observed that most of the people were thirty-something.
When the movie started there was a loud applause so he leaned over to his grandsons and asked, “What’s the applause for?” Now, when I go to movies, I don’t want to miss a thing, so I don’t really like anyone asking me questions during the movie or making comments. But these grandkids must not have minded. They told their grandpa, “Those two are Jedi.” And Grandpa Fred replied, “Oh, of course.”
The movie moved along and Fred realized he didn’t know much about what was going on at all. So he leaned over again and asked, “When is Luke Skywalker going to appear?”
The grandson answered, “He hasn’t been born yet. Episodes 4, 5, and 6 came out and now we are gonna have 1, 2, and 3.”
Fred was amazed, “So that’s why everyone else here knows so much.”
“Yeah, gramps, everybody knows about them. We have them at home if you want to watch them.”
“I’d rather not. It’s strange having Episode 1 after you’ve had 4, 5, and 6.”
“Gramps, this is a prequel. It’s before the others.”
That’s when Grandpa Fred, the retired preacher got it. He was immediately at home, because that is the way the Bible is. We know the end before the beginning. The resurrection shines back on the birth and the baptism of Jesus. The light of the resurrection is on the manger. We know the end. We read the beginning knowing the end.
And we, the church, we are the sequel to the Bible--churches everywhere, grand cathedrals that take your breath away, to grass huts and campfires. The sequel is someone reading the Bible in every corner of the world, and worshipping God and learning the stories of Jesus. That’s what I mean when I say we are the sequel to the Bible.
But what’s the prequel? “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light.” Genesis 1 is a prequel. And the first chapter of the Gospel of John is also a prequel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.…” These words are prequel language. And so are the words, “Remember your baptism.” These words, remember your baptism, are NOT reminding you to remember whether you were dunked or sprinkled, a baby, a youth, or an adult, or who the pastor was, or whether the pastor did it right. Baptism is way too profound, too absolutely miraculous, and amazing to simply remember the literal facts about it. Baptism is your prequel. When I dip my hand into the baptismal waters and place my wet hand on a baby’s head saying the words, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” something huge happens, something beyond me, something mysterious, something sacred.
It still surprises me, though, that Jesus came to John the Baptizer to be baptized. Of all people, wasn’t Jesus exempt from baptism? Shouldn’t he be standing on the banks of the Jordan watching? Let the others come. The ones who needed that second chance. The ones who had messed up. Let the ones come who had waded out so deep into trouble that they came up gasping for air. Let the people come whose lives were a tangle of bad relationships, who were rich in things and poor in spirit. Let them come to the waters. But, Jesus? Why was he there? John even knew what we know and said, “Jesus, you should baptize me, not me, you.”
But Jesus said, “Leave it alone, John. It is right to do God’s will, so, let’s do it.” And Jesus waded into the River Jordan and presented himself to be baptized.
It doesn’t matter, when, or how, or who does the baptizing. Because we do not know the stirrings of the Spirit of God. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You do not know from whence it comes or whither it goes; you hear the sound of it and you say, ‘Wow!’” The Spirit of God is like the wind. There is a tree standing straight and tall and proud and then you see that tree go over, bending low and touching its top to the ground, and you say, “It sure is windy out.” You do not see the wind; but you see the tree bend.
That’s what can happen in life, too. A person works six month here, six months there, moves somewhere else, does a little of this and a little of that. Then, suddenly, an epiphany, and a transformation. Now this person has a purpose, a goal in life. What happened, you wonder? You do not know. You do not really know why at this point in time? Or what happened?
We do know this: One day Jesus folded his carpenter’s apron, having shaken the shavings from it, put it on the bench, left the shop, and went to the house and told his mother and brothers and sisters good-bye. He made his way to John for baptism. It was the will of God. And God said, “This is my son.” Which is also a quote from the Second Psalm, spoken on the occasion of the crowning of a king. “This is my son, my beloved, in whom my soul takes pleasure.” That is a phrase also from Isaiah 42, a line from the description of the suffering servant of God, the one who will give his life loving, healing and giving breath and new life to the people. “Here is my Son, the servant.” And so it was. Still wet from his baptism, Jesus left the Jordan and went about doing God’s business. He went to the people who were crying, broken-hearted, hungry, diseased, alienated, suffering. They were his business. God’s business became Jesus’ business. And what kind of business was God’s business? To serve the needs of humanity. Jesus was baptized and he became a servant. He actually knelt down and washed the feet of those who served him. The son of God washed feet. Jesus’ baptism was his prequel.
Martin Luther said, “Remember your baptism.” Why did Luther say that? Was it to make people feel guilty? Was it to say, “Aha! You’ve strayed from your baptism.” No, that’s not it. Everyone strays from their baptism, forgets their baptism, denies their baptism. Every one of us. What Luther had in mind was this: Remember your baptism by claiming yourself to be a beloved child of God and by going about God’s business—serving humanity, serving others.
Another Fred Craddock story is about when he served a little church in southwest Oklahoma. There were four churches in this town with a population around 450. And the attendance at those churches rose and fell according to the weather and whether it was time to harvest the wheat. The place that had the best and most consistent attendance in town was the little café where all the pickup trucks parked and all the men were inside discussing the weather, cattle, wheat, bugs, hail, wind, and whether they would have a crop or not, and what the price of that crop was. On Sunday mornings, the kids and wives went to church while the men gathered at the café. They were good men, family men, hard-working men. The patron saint of this group was Frank. Frank was 77 years old when Fred Craddock met him. He was a pioneer, rancher, cattleman. He had been born in a sod house, and he had prospered. He had earned his credentials, and all the men in the café consider him their patron saint. And they told Fred Craddock, “Old Frank, he will never go to church.”
And one day on the street, Frank took the opportunity to let the new preacher in town know to leave him alone. He told Fred, “I work hard and I take care of my family and I mind my own business. I’m not a prospect.”
I understand, because these same men gather at the drive-in for coffee every morning in Heppner. Now, Fred was not the kind of preacher who accosted people in the name of Jesus. So, Fred did not bother Frank. That was why he was surprised, the church was surprised, the whole town was surprised and the men at the café were absolutely puzzled, when old Frank presented himself before Pastor Fred Craddock one Sunday morning for baptism. And Fred baptized Frank. The stories about that swept through that community. Some said, he must be sick, scared to meet his maker. Some said he had heart trouble. They never thought old Frank would do what he did. Maybe he was scared. There were all kinds of stories. But the preacher, Fred, heard it from old Frank himself. They were talking and Fred asked him straight, preachers will do that, you know. “Frank, do you remember that little saying you used to give me so much? ‘I work hard, I take care of my family, and I mind my own business’?”
He said, “Yeah, I remember, I said that a lot.”
“Do you still say that?”
“Yeah.”
“Then what’s the difference?”
And Frank’s answer was: “I didn’t know then what my business was.”
Frank simply discovered what his business was, what it had always been. He was doing God’s business, he was working hard, taking care of his family. That was serving human need. So Fred did the prequel for Frank. He baptized him, he raised his hand and said in the presence of those who gathered, “Upon your confession of faith in Jesus Christ and in obedience to his command, I baptize you, Frank, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
Baptism is the prequel of what has already happened and is already present. It is a sacrament that says, God loves you before you do anything. Baptism says that God’s saving grace is already present in you. John Wesley called it prevenient grace. Prevenient, prequel. It’s already happened as God’s gift, freely given, no strings attached, before we do anything! Baptism is a powerful ritual and sacrament that reminds all of us that we are a beloved child of God always, no matter what, and how we live our lives is the sequel to our baptism. Remembering our baptism is about living our life as a beloved child of God.
Amen.