Isaiah 42: 1-9 Matthew 3: 13-17
Baptism: Not Just for Children
Dearly Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ the Lord,
Pediatricians tell us that newborn babies can’t see all that well for days, even weeks, after they’re born. All those little parts of the eye need to get used to the subtleties of light and shadow, tint and hue. Slowly, slowly, things come into focus.
At about the time the babies of Christian parents start seeing clearly, they show up in my study to get ready for baptism. By this time they can see well enough to grab at my glasses, or the hair under my nose. When we see them in church on the day they’re baptized it’s not unusual for them to clutch at my cross. They’re beginning to see.
They don’t have words yet for what they’re seeing. The words will come, and soon the baby will name her world, even as every big brother and sister and every grown up has been naming her. She will be able to say what she sees.
But it will be years and years before this little baptized baby will be able to say how she sees. I don’t mean the mechanics of how the cornea and the lens and the retina perform those instantaneous miracles we take for granted. What I mean is that, as a little one who is baptized into Christ, she will see the world in a particular way. Not unique, mind you, because she’ll see the world as millions of other Christians see it. Not unique, but particular, even peculiar, if you prefer.
When we are baptized into Christ, the Holy Spirit gives us the gift of seeing the world through the eyes of Christ. We don’t see any person from a merely human point of view, as though people were to be treated as means to an end. We don’t see any person as anything less than a child of God. Sure, some people are tragically out of touch with God, but then we see that as a tragedy to be remedied, not as a virus to be killed. Wasn’t that Jesus’ vision – love everyone, even your enemies? Furthermore, we don’t see the earth as something to be exploited, as if we could take whatever we wanted from it to fulfill our immediate needs, and let the next generation suffer the consequences. The earth is the Lord’s, not ours: that was essential to Jesus’ vision, and it belongs at the center of ours. With Jesus’ vision, we see our work in a new way: not merely as cogs in an enormous economic machine, but as the means by which God chooses to get food to people who are hungry, to put clothing on children’s backs, to maintain accountability and honesty in business, to educate young minds. And, while we’re at it, since we share Jesus’ vision, we see ourselves in a different way. We’re not here on this earth on our own behalf. We are ambassadors for Christ. We belong to him – that’s what baptism tells us – and we serve him as friends on a common mission. As the choir sang, we who are baptized will be “desirous to fulfill God’s will in righteousness.”
We won’t all see the world exactly the same way, of course. Someone will perceive that Christ has compassion on the elderly, and she will make it her vocation to serve meals-on-wheels, or to visit nursing homes or shut-ins. Someone else will notice the times Jesus went aside to the wilderness to pray, and he will dedicate himself to caring for the trees and the brooks and the little critters of the wood. Another one of us will have a special heart for the grieving, and will help widows and widower walk through the valleys of the shadows. And on and on the stories go. We see the world through Jesus’ eyes. In a word, with compassion. Fellow-feeling. Empathy. Mercy.
That’s why baptism isn’t just for babies. Babies are the most amoral creatures on earth: all day long it’s feed me, change me, hold me, burp me, wash me. It takes a while, and lots and lots of teaching, to get beyond the ‘me, me, me’ of infancy. It takes time to see people who aren’t just hungry every few hours, but hungry all the time; to see people who aren’t just cold until they get inside, but cold because they don’t have an inside to go to. Jesus had a vision: he was sent to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. And if we follow him, what else could our vision be? If you follow someone who is walking from Park Ridge
It doesn’t make life any easier for our children, to give them Jesus’ vision of compassion. It’s a dog-eat-dog world; will they come out on top if they focus their eyes on compassion? For that matter, will we? This business of fulfilling God’s righteousness; it’s no picnic being God’s dearly beloved sons and daughters. But that’s the way it is. And thank God that’s the way it is! Time and time again, whether people are living out their baptism by walking the CROP Walk or feeding the homeless or shopping for Ghanaian school children or plunking down some dollars for the tsunami or teaching Sunday School or giving away their expertise to non-profit people-healing agencies, time and time again we learn that it’s a joy to share Jesus’ vision. It’s not a burden. It’s not what we have to do; it’s what we get to do.
Baptism isn’t just for children. We can forget that sometimes; that’s why we reaffirmed our baptism this morning. As we did that, we rededicated ourselves to offer a cup of cold water to the thirsty; to touch and heal the suffering; to dance on the graveyard of suspicion and hatred; to rage with him at injustice; to join his journey and follow him. To see as he sees, and so, to love as he loves.
