Fr. Don's Sermon, January 13, 2013
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Trinity Episcopal Church, Hartford
Baptism of Our Lord 2013
January 13, 2013
In the 1970s one of the most popular television shows was one called All in the Family. Starring Carroll O’Connor as the principal character, Archie Bunker, and Jean Stapleton as his wife, Edith, the series lasted 8 seasons, and was considered groundbreaking in television for bringing to the situation comedy format such real life and controversial issues as racism, women’s liberation, the Vietnam war and breast cancer. A working-class World War II veteran, Archie was an outspoken bigot, seemingly prejudiced against everyone who was not a U.S.-born, politically conservative, heterosexual White Anglo-Saxon Protestant male, and dismissive of anyone not in agreement with his view of the world. He longed for simpler times, when people sharing his viewpoint were in the majority and were in charge. Despite his bigotry, he was portrayed in the show as someone who was basically loveable and decent, motivated more out of a heartfelt desire to maintain the world as he knew it and understood it rather than out of hatred or prejudice. People for the most part either loved him or hated him.
I guess one of the reasons I have been thinking about that program this week is because of its focus on family, and in particular on Archie Bunker’s understanding of what it means to be “family.” What it means to be “family” is of particular importance on this Sunday when we welcome two new members into the household of God in the sacrament of Baptism. And being baptized into God’s household is particularly noteworthy when it takes place on this particular Sunday in which we commemorate the baptism of our own Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Baptism and Eucharist are the only two sacraments we honor in the Episcopal Church because they are the two sacraments that Jesus actually participated in during his lifetime. When you think of it, why did Jesus even have to be baptized? He was born without sin, and he was already the Son of God. Why would he submit himself to baptism by John the Baptizer?
In this season of Epiphany when we reflect upon the ways in which Jesus was made known not only to the Jewish world but to the entire known world, gentile and Jew, it is significant that the church celebrates the baptism of Jesus as the second such event. In the Gospel account of Luke which we heard this morning, Luke tells us that after Jesus had been baptized and everyone else had been baptized that the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son to become one of us in the person of Jesus. And Jesus so loved us that he submitted himself to be baptized not because he needed to, but because he chose to – he wanted to – as a sign that he belonged to God and that he belonged to us and that we – through our own baptisms – become brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ and in that relationship, adopted children of God.
And so today we welcome Aaliyah Brielle Crystal Downer and Sarah Paw Doh as sisters of our own, as sisters of Jesus Christ, as children of the God who created the heavens and the earth. Created in God’s own image, they are beautiful and loved. Just as Joseph and Mary welcomed their first child when Jesus was born on Christmas, Andrew and Clare Downer, parents of Aaliyah, and K Taw Doh and Lah Ku Paw, parents of Sarah, were overjoyed when they welcomed their first born into the world and became a nuclear family. The first pebble was tossed into the pond creating a ripple of what will become a lifetime of relationships – the relationship between father and daughter, between mother and daughter, and the three of them together – as family, expanding the circle of relationship of husband and wife. Today they bring these young children into a new circle of relationship with their brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.
What are some of the hallmarks of this relationship? Isaiah writes that the one who created you, the one who formed you – that God has redeemed you, reclaimed you from the world and claimed you as one of God’s own. I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. . . Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. . . Jesus, the Light of the World, has come as one of us, and this is his promise to Aaliyah and to Sarah and to each and every one of us. In Baptism, we become a part of that promise. As we heard in the Gospel of John last week, Jesus is the light, and the darkness can never overcome it.
Here’s another aspect of this baptism. Remember when Jesus shocked all of his Jewish contemporaries when he engaged in conversation with the Samaritan woman? Samaritans were regarded as heretics and outcasts by most contemporary Jews. But in the Book of Acts we are told that when the Samaritans had accepted the Word of God, Peter and John were dispatched to them. They laid hands upon them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Those who were previously unacceptable in the sight of Peter and John were now part of the extended family of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the God of our Lord, Jesus Christ. This morning, Aaliyah and Sarah will also receive the Holy Spirit: After the water is poured, I will sign them with the sign of the cross and pray the words, “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.”
And this morning we will add our own assent and our own pledge to these newest members of Christ’s family. After the parents and Godparents have made their vows on behalf of their infant children, I will then ask the congregation, “Will you who witness these vows do all in your power to support these children in their life in Christ?” And we as a congregation will respond, “We will!” And following the anointing with chrism, we together pray: We receive you into the household of God. Confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his eternal priesthood. Share WITH US in His eternal priesthood. It is not just a throwaway line – it is a solemn obligation we take on when we welcome another in the name of Jesus Christ: It is a commitment we make to walk in love as Jesus loves us and gave himself for us – both an offering and a sacrifice to God.
And so this morning we are reminded what it means to be family in the household of God and how different it is from Archie Bunker’s concept of family. In Archie Bunker’s world, you needed to believe, look and act like him, or you didn’t belong. Unlike Archie’s world, which was largely defined by whom he was not and who was on the outside, the household of God is defined by who we are as God created us, and who is on the INside. St. Paul teaches us that in Jesus the Christ there is no Jew or Gentile, male or female, slave or free; that each and every one of us is equally beautiful and valuable in the household of God. And just as Archie’s insulated world inevitably was to grow larger, so we mortals continue to learn – in God’s continued speaking to us through the power of the Holy Spirit in revelation – we continue to learn what God did for us on that first Christmas, and how God continues to invite us – all of us, without distinction – to become full and active members of God’s household through the gift we received at our baptism. Jesus prayed to his father that we all may be one. That is what it means to be a member of God’s household – we are all one. Aaliyah and Sarah, welcome into the household of God. AMEN.