In the movie Oh Brother, Where Art Thou, three convicts break free from a chain gang and head off on a journey. Everett, Pete, and Delmar have many interesting encounters and adventures that mirror Homer’s story of Odysseus. Along the way, the trio comes upon a group of people lining up to be baptized in a river.
When Delmar hears the people singing Down to the River to Pray he runs down to the river and jumps to the front of the line so he can be baptized by the preacher without delay. When he rises from the baptismal waters, he believes that he is now a changed man. The old Delmar had been buried with Jesus in the waters of baptism and as he rose with Jesus he was a new creation (Rom. 6:1-4). Filled with joy, he shared the good news with his companions:
Well that's it boys, I been redeemed! The preacher warshed away all my sins and transgressions. It's the straight-and-narrow from here on out and heaven everlasting's my reward!
Among the sins that his baptism had washed away was his conviction for robbing the Piggly Wiggly. When Everett pointed out that Delmar had denied robbing the Piggly Wiggly, Delmar told him that according to the preacher even that sin was forgiven. Yes, having been washed in the waters of baptism, Delmar was now a new man! Living this new redeemed life wasn’t going to be easy and Delmar often fell short of his promise. But, he tried his best to live as one of the saints of God.
The reading from the Gospel of Luke speaks of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan. Although Luke doesn’t describe the actual baptism, he does speak of what happened afterward. When Jesus began to pray, the heavens opened, the Spirit descended upon him like a dove, and a voice from heaven declared that he was God’s Son, the beloved, with whom God was well pleased. Now, there are all kinds of questions about why Jesus went down to the Jordan to be baptized by John, but the fact that he was baptized suggests that baptism is an important part of the Christian journey.
The first Sunday after Epiphany is dedicated to remembering the baptism of Jesus. This is the first time in the Gospels that we encounter the adult Jesus. As we heard from Luke, the people had been asking John if he was the Messiah, the promised one. John told the crowds that while he baptized with water for the forgiveness of sins, the Messiah would baptize with the Holy Spirit and Fire.
With his baptism, Jesus received the gift of the Holy Spirit and his ordination to ministry. God put a stamp of approval on him, calling Jesus Son and Beloved, the one with whom God is well pleased. Therefore, according to Luke, Jesus is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
That’s Jesus’ baptism story, as told by Luke. But what about our own baptisms? What does it mean to be baptized in the name of Jesus? I imagine we all have a story to tell, no matter when or where, or how often we’ve been baptized.
If you were baptized as an infant, someone brought you to the font believing that you were part of the family of God. If you were baptized later on in life, at least in theory, you made the decision to join the family of God. Whatever method or timing of our baptisms, as we remember Jesus’ baptism today, we can also remember and reaffirm our own baptismal covenants.
I thought I might tell my baptism story, but I need to warn you that it’s a bit complicated. The story begins at birth because, as the story goes, the nurses at the Catholic hospital where I was born were concerned I might not survive. So they made sure water was applied and words said that would protect my soul. Sometime later, when I was around nine months old, I was officially baptized in the Episcopal Church. Then, following custom, at the age of twelve, I was confirmed in the Episcopal Church, making me a full member of the community. Now here is where things get tricky. You see, later in my teens, I was struggling with my identity as a Christian. So to make sure I was right with God, I decided to get baptized while at church camp. I did this because I felt like I needed to seal my confession of faith, which I didn’t feel I had adequately done earlier in life. And a bit later, being part of a Pentecostal church, I added the baptism of the Spirit, which is confirmed by speaking in tongues. In the years since these experiences, I’ve thought a lot about what baptism is and means. It’s possible that all of these experiences helped form me into the person I am today.
This is my story, which is probably different from yours. However, I share it to get a conversation started. No matter when or how we were baptized, as we remember the baptism of Jesus, we can remember and renew the baptismal vows that were made either for us or by us at our baptisms. In doing this we renew our commitment to the covenant God has made with us that in Christ we might be a blessing to the nations.
So, what does it mean to be baptized, even if we never heard a voice from heaven telling us that we are a child of God? Last Sunday we heard a word from Ephesians that suggests that in baptism we receive the seal of the Holy Spirit, which confirms our status as the redeemed children of God (Eph. 1:13-14). If Jesus is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire, as John proclaimed, then in our baptisms we receive the Holy Spirit and are refined by the fire of God’s love. Therefore, we who are in Christ are counted among God’s beloved. That is, in Christ, we have been washed, redeemed, ordained, and empowered for ministry.
Getting back to our friend Delmar, after he was baptized, he celebrated his newfound freedom from his past. This freedom was very different from the freedom he was experiencing as a fugitive from the law. In Christ, he wasn’t a fugitive, but he was emancipated from the bonds of sin and death. Therefore, nothing he had done before in life would define him going forward. He was a new person. Oh, he still struggled with the old ways, but now he was conscious of them. So, he tried his best to make amends where he could. When Everett and Pete stole a freshly baked pie from a window sill, Delmar went back and placed a dollar bill on the window sill as payment.
The people who went down to the river to be baptized by John wanted the same kind of experience. They wanted to be redeemed, but John told them that there was more to the story. He was preparing them for this something more. He baptized them in water as a sign of cleansing and forgiveness, but there was one coming who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.
We who are baptized into Christ are people of the Spirit. We’ve been washed in water, and we’ve also been filled with the Spirit who empowers us for service. This morning we have the opportunity to remember and to renew our baptismal vows. As we renew these vows, we can hear again God’s word of assurance that we are God’s children, heirs of the promises of God. As heirs of God’s promises, we have been called and gifted through the Holy Spirit to contribute to the common good! (1 Cor. 12:7)
Preached by:
Dr. Robert D. Cornwall
Pulpit Supply
First Presbyterian Church
Troy, Michigan
Baptism of Jesus Sunday
January 9, 2022
Image attribution: Scott, Lorenzo. Baptism of Jesus, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56877 [retrieved January 8, 2022]. Original source: https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/baptism-jesus-33953.
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