Today
we commemorate the Lord’s baptism in the Jordan by John.
To
commemorate something is another way of talking about remembering.
For
the Christian, to remember is not simply to recall, but to make real, to make
present in the here and now, at this place and in this time.
This
is the kind of remembering we do when we celebrate the sacraments.
This
sacramental remembering is made powerful, not through our efforts which would
be magic, but because of God’s promise, which is pure gospel.
Having made the
point that sacraments are not magic, I would ask you to bear with me as I
suggest that we now turn our attention to the magical world of Harry Potter.
In
the Potter books there is a magical device that, in the movies, looks for all the world just like a baptismal
font from a medieval church.
Called
a penseive, the font is filled with a magical liquid in which memories are
stored and through which they can be seen with clarity.
I
would like to suggest dear friends, that the baptismal font we see here before
us, is even more powerful and that this power comes not from the invocation of
magic spells but from the proclamation of gospel to and for everyone who has or
will be baptized.
Not
only does the baptismal font enable us to see the past, it also provides us
with a clear vision of the present and the future.
In
this small bowl are all the Church’s past memories of water, memories freed of
the need to be fact, so that they can be the truth.
- · The chaotic waters brooded over by the Spirit at the moment of creation as we heard in today’s first lesson.
- · The river flowing out of Eden.
- · All the rivers and oceans of the earth in their primal state before pollution and damns.
- · The seas containing what one psalm translation delightfully calls “the monsters God made to play with”
- · The ocean home of the great and terrible Leviathan.
- · The cleansing flood of Noah’s day.
- · The water flowing forth from the rock in the desert.
- · The Red Sea through which God’s people passed out of slavery.
- · The Jordan River which those same ex-slaves crossed over into the Promised Land.
- · The Jordan River to which Elisha directed Naaman to wash and be cured of Leprosy.
- · The raging waters and rivers through which God promises protection in the prophesy of Isaiah.
- · The waters Ezekial saw flowing from the temple.
- · The waters of justice and the everlasting stream of righteousness proclaimed by Amo.s
- .
- · The stormy sea into which Jonah was thrown.
- · Again, the River Jordan where John the Baptist preached and into which Jesus descended into baptism.
- · The Sea of Galilee so prominent in the Gospel narratives.
- · The water turned into wine.
- · The pool at Siloam where Jesus healed the blind man and the healing pool at Bethesda.
- · The spittle of Jesus mixed with dirt to make healing mud.
- · The water used to wash the disciples feet.
- · The water and blood flowing from Jesus’ pierced side on the cross.
- · The water into which countless saints, including most of us here today, have been baptized.
- · The water we drink and which we use to grow crops, the water with which we bathe and with which we clean. And yes, even the water we waste while millions thirst.
- · And last but not least, our own individual memories of lakes, streams, rivers and oceans as we’ve experienced them for good and for ill in our lives.
o
Picnics on the
beach, a drowned cousin, fishing with Grandpa, the Christmas Tsunami – joy and
sadness, refreshment and danger,life and death.
So
many memories.
So
much water.
So
much truth about both the chaos and storms of sin, but also the healing and
refreshment which is God’s promise to us..
Luther
says that in Christ’s baptism all the waters of the earth have united to become
one great flood.
Perhaps
it’s a good thing we keep the lid on the font when not in use!
Unlike
the penseive in the Harry Potter stories however, the baptismal font also gives
us a vision of our future.
The
font is a tomb into which those of us who have been baptized have as St. Paul
insists, already died.
In
baptism, we have died the only death that ultimately matters for, if we have
died and been buried with Christ, so we also shall share in his resurrection.
And
so the baptismal tomb is also a womb of rebirth from which the baptized are
reborn into eternal life.
It
is the womb of Sarah, of Hannah, and of Elizabeth who were barren but who gave
birth to Isaac, Samuel, and John the Baptist, and the virgin womb of Mary who
gave birth to the Christ, for nothing is impossible with God.
In
the book of revelation we are given a vision of a new heaven and a new earth, a
new temple in a New Jerusalem, out from which flows the river of the water of
life.
No
longer contained in the font, the lid removed once and for all, this river
spills forth all the waters of our collective memory.
The
words of the prophecy are worth rehearing.
· Then the angel* showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life* with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. (Rev. 22, 1-3)
Here at the font then, is our future.
Finally, here also, is our present.
Here, over this font, God rips open the heavens
and says to each of us here and now, no matter what we have done or failed to
do,“You are my child, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Here are the waters of grace for the
forgiveness of our sins here, today, at First Lutheran.
Here are the waters of refreshment for lives
poured out in ministry and service to neighbor, here in Columbus, IN, in 2015.
Here is water for healing, water for fishing
for people, waters of justice and righteousness flowing through our witness and
action.
Here in this font is the truth of our past,
present and future.
All in God’s hands.
All grace.
Amen.
Alleluia
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