Death, Birth, and a Wedding: A Sermon on Baptism

Given on the Surry Mountain Lake beach, Surry, NH, for the baptism of William and Sheila Brodne at the annual church service and picnic on Sunday September 9, 2012.

Romans 6:1-11

The Message rendering: “That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace – a new life in a new land”

“That's what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we're going in our new grace-sovereign country.”

Shawshank redemption narrative:

• Shawshank Redemption
  • “In... The Shawshank Redemption, the main character, Andy Dufresne, who has been wrongly accused, convicted, and imprisoned for the murders of his wife and her lover, finally finds his chance at escape. In one of the most exciting scenes, Andy breaks into a sewage pipe inside the bowels of his high-security correctional facility during a thunderstorm and crawls through the muck with a new suit wrapped in a plastic and tied to his leg. Upon emerging in the open air outside the prison facility, he lifts his arms in crucifix form and allows the pouring rain to clean him. Now he begins life as a new man, with a new suit and identity.” Brian Brewer in “Distinctly Baptist”

Like Dufresne we have all found ourselves at one time imprisoned.

As the lyrics of the hymn go, “I once was lost, blind, imprisoned in fear, surrounded and overwhelmed by the dangers, toils and snares of the society we live in, of the circumstances we find ourselves in. We were caught up in destructive habits, half borne of our selfishness and pride and half borne of circumstances beyond our control.

Into this darkness, God speaks to us through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This burdensome load that we've carried has one remedy: God's unchanging, unconditional acceptance and forgiveness. And we know this forgiveness by the power of the Holy Spirit invading the enemy camp and setting us free, giving us sight, leading us out by faith like a new exodus, into a new land. The land of God's grace.

And this, friends, is the good news. This is why we baptize.

Because Christ died and Christ rose. And so by the sign of baptism we join ourselves to that death and that resurrection.

And because of this we can think of baptism as simultaneously a funeral, a birth, and a wedding.

Baptism's a funeral.

• “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” – Romans 6:3
• “A dramatic example comes from sixteenth century Poland. The Brethren congregation of Rakow dug a baptismal pit to resemble an open grave and placed it on their cemetary mound along with other unmarked graves.”
• Paul wrote to the Galatian church:
  • “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
• We die to our solitary me-myself-and-I lives which for too long kept us under the tyranny of the expectations of others, the loneliness of being a self-sufficient island, cut off from fellowship with God our creator and sustainer.
• The life we once lived was a sorry excuse for a life – it in reality was a kind of death. It's that zombie, walking corpse life that is finally allowed to die – and in its ashes by the renewing power of God, a new life, a resurrection takes place and we now live no longer by our own power, for our own purposes, but by the power of God, for God's purposes.
• Baptism's a death of a life centered and revolving around our selves, our egos, our own advancement and protection, our own glory and pride.
• It is the removal of our burdens, the escape from prison by means of the downward path of the sewage pipe.

Baptism's a birth.

• It might be strange to say that baptism is a kind of death and then in the next breath to say that baptism is a kind of birth. But this is the paradox at the center of Christian faith. That the way down is the way up. Life comes through dying.

• A new birth –
  • Titus 3:4-5
    • But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
  • 1 Peter 1:3
    • “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...”

“if we share with Christ in his death, we will also share in his resurrection.” Romans 6:5

And so part of our union with Christ is not only dying to our old lives, going under the water like a burial and “leaving the old country of sin behind” – but a rising again with Christ to a new spiritual life filled with God's spirit, liberating and enlivening with grace and love.

This spiritual reality is so intense the metaphor used by Paul and Jesus is birth.

It's as if we never existed up until now. And here we come into the world, once blind but now seeing. Grace creates new life. A metaphor less extreme would not do for such a radical change.

And this is also because this new life that we now live we don't live by our own strength, by faith we live this new life in God and because it is a life united to God it is a completely different, completely new life than we've ever had.

“it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

baptism's a death, a funeral, but baptism is a joyous celebration of life, of new life, of reborn spirits.

The life outside of the prison is like breathing for the first time – picture Andy Dufresne standing in the rain a free man.

Baptism's a wedding.

Baptism is a way to confess our union with God in Christ, our union with the church, the children of God by faith in God's grace.

Making outward, an inward faith in God's grace.

“the essential point Paul is making is that being a Christian involves a personal, vital identification with Jesus Christ and that this union with him is dramatically set forth in our baptism” (Stott on Romans 6)

a wedding is a celebration, a making public of something that is already alive and well in the hearts and minds of the couple.

They want to share their love, share their new life together with their community and with God.

Baptism's kind of like that.

Already in Bill and Sheila, God has been coursing through their veins renewing, reviving, resurrecting.

But the faith that they have found, the new sight, the new existence they have come upon by God's spirit, they seek to make public and open to family and friends.

Baptism's like a wedding.

Here is a ritual, a sign that Christ gave the church to mark the transition from death to life, to initiate in a more full way the journey begun in relationship with God by grace through faith.

It is symbolic of the washing away of the sin of the old and the cleansing newness of the Holy Spirit's empowering presence.

It is a going down into the waters, a death, and coming up out of the waters, a new life.

And it's a wedding to the church, a wedding to God, an announcement of union to the one Spirit who sustains and redeems us all. It's a union with God and a union with all people – in Christ we are baptized and this new identity in Christ transcends all other identities –

“As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

It's the putting on of this new suit, the suit of redemption, the suit of freedom from the old and embrace of the grace of this new land.

Baptism's a funeral, a birth, and a wedding.

This is the rich meaning of this rite – and we haven't even begun to exhaust it. But we've got plenty of time to have that conversation as we continue this journey together. Today we celebrate Sheila and Bill as they join us on the journey of faith in this community. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.