Baptism and Belonging: Waters of New Life

``So for the person who says, I don't know if my baptism counts because I don't remember it, what if remembering our baptism isn't about us and what I remember or understand, but rather that God has said, you are my child. With you, I am well pleased. And we see that in every baptism that we are a part of, that we witness, whether it's family, whether it's someone here at church. God is doing the work of baptism so we don't need to figure out the mystery. We don't have to figure out all the answers of what's going on. God's got it covered. [00:40:31] (46 seconds)  #baptizedByGrace

Now when the persecution is over and the church tries to come back together again, who do you trust? Did that pastor who recanted Jesus during a terrible moment of pain, does that mean all the baptisms that that pastor did now are null and void because, well, we don't know if we can trust that pastor anymore. I'm sorry, but if the power of baptism comes down to the holiness of the pastor, I think we are all in trouble. Baptism is not about us. Baptism is about God. God is doing all the work in baptism. Baptism is a free gift of grace and salvation given by God to anyone who says yes. [00:37:29] (55 seconds)  #BaptismIsGodsWork

And so today as we talk about baptism, I want us to think about all the things we take for granted in our lives and think about how Jesus has a different world view. Jesus offers us a new life of grace and possibility through the power of the holy spirit. And there are things that we're frustrated with in our lives and in our communities, and Jesus offers us a new way of building community. And so I want you to be inspired today and think about your baptism, think about the baptisms of people you've known, and think about how the holy spirit might be wanting to change us this week. [00:11:58] (42 seconds)  #GraceTransformsCommunity

Citizens versus non citizens, men versus women, slaves versus free. There was terrible oppression that some people were living under facing the violence and torment that was life in the Roman Empire. Leaders were corrupt, violence was rampant, baptism was seen as an important way to connect to God and something that was bigger than the individual, bigger than a governor a governor such as Pontius Pilate, bigger than the emperor or any nation on earth. [00:26:36] (38 seconds)  #BaptismTranscendsPower

So when we think about baptism, another question that comes up is, why did Jesus need to be baptized? Jesus didn't need to repent. Jesus had no sins to confess. So why did Jesus need to be baptized? And there's a lot of parts to this. There was a ritual of washing in water that was traditional in the Jewish faith, and this was what John the Baptist was using, calling people to turn away from the bad things in their lives, have themselves washed, to be clean, to be holy in the Jewish tradition. [00:28:24] (38 seconds)  #BaptismAsRitualAndSign

And one of the things when you look through church history is that this has come up a number of times going back to some of the earliest days of the church. Early on, there were times when the Roman Empire persecuted and even tortured and killed Christians for following Jesus. Now, the persecutions generally didn't last very long. And when it was over, the church had to kind of rebuild itself in the community because some people would have been killed, some people would have moved away. And then there were the people who were captured, might have been tortured or threatened with torture of themselves or their family, and under duress recanted and said, no, I don't believe in Jesus. [00:36:33] (46 seconds)  #FaithSurvivesPersecution

There was a ritual of washing in water that was traditional in the Jewish faith, and this was what John the Baptist was using, calling people to turn away from the bad things in their lives, have themselves washed, to be clean, to be holy in the Jewish tradition. If for some reason you had done something in your life that made you unclean, maybe you had bacon because you weren't supposed to eat pigs back then, maybe a woman had just given birth and she had to wait a certain period of time and have a certain type of bath before she was clean and holy again, You had to be clean to be able to go to the temple to worship. [00:28:44] (43 seconds)  #RitualWashForHoliness

Baptism is one of those mysteries of our faith, where if we think really hard about it, we sometimes can almost feel like we understand what's going on with it. But most of the time, it just seems like too much work to figure out what's really going on. And there are so many questions that people have about baptism. [00:24:48] (26 seconds)  #BaptismIsAMystery