The Baptismal Dream
Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins
Jan. 15, 2012

Wade in the water; wade in the water children. Wade in the water; God’s gonna trouble the water.

This is baptism of Jesus Sunday (it’s also Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday – and we’ll see how they relate to each other, but first, let’s look at the baptism narratives). Notice that in Acts, Luke allows for a new perspective. Baptism isn’t something locked into a single, once and for all understanding.

John offered a baptism of repentance. Repentance means change. To repent is to have a change of attitude, a change of heart, a change of mind, a change of behavior. Repentance is change. It isn’t self-hatred or groveling for pardon; it is daring to change; it is doing what must be done to facilitate healing and growth, personal and communal. John’s water ritual wasn’t an invitation to embrace self-condemnation, it was an invitation to embrace healing change, to release the past and dare to create a different and better kind of future.

Luke focuses on empowerment rather than repentance.
He tells of a baptism of the spirit. What is spirit? The Hebrew and Greek words for spirit both suggest power, wind, breath, life-force, energy. So a baptism of the spirit is a baptism of power.
In fact, Luke doesn’t just say spirit, he says holy spirit, or the whole spirit of God…all of the power and presence of God is what we are immersed in as we grow spiritually and broaden our understanding.

Repentance is change…empowering change.
Spirit is power.
Whether we are talking about the baptism of John or the baptism of the spirit in the book of Acts, we are actually talking about newness, positive change, moving forward, embracing new attitudes and new possibilities. Both baptism stories are stories of new ideas, new beginnings, new possibilities, new experiences of empowerment.

It is at Jesus’ baptism, in Mark’s imagination, that Jesus is affirmed as a child of God. The spirit descended on him and affirmed his sacred value. Of course, Mark thought the world was flat and that God lived separately from us above the sky somewhere. But even though Mark’s cosmology is different from ours in the 21st century, we can still take his point that being immersed in the spirit of wholeness is what helps us live into our full humanity.

Baptism, then, isn’t a washing away of original sin; it is, instead, an affirmation of original blessing! It is an affirmation of our sacred value. At baptism we are reminded that we are God’s children. This, compatible with the text in Acts, suggests that baptism can be a symbol of empowerment (an immersion in divine power/spirit).

The texts (especially the Acts pericope) show that baptism isn’t primarily an individual experience. Baptism is a communal celebration reminding us every time someone is baptized that we are meant to work together to promote justice and healing in the world.

Mark says Jesus will baptize with spirit. Luke says than an immersion in spirit is a new (and perhaps better) way to understand baptism. It’s not about how much water we use, it’s about being immersed into a life of spiritual purpose. A sacrament is an outward sign of inward grace; it isn’t an external imposition of power; it’s a reminder of the divine light that is always within us.

Luke says they were “baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.” To call Jesus “Lord” is a seditious act (in the Empire only Caesar is dominus/Lord). So, baptism in the name of a Lord other than the Emperor is to affirm loyalty to something greater than Empire – divine justice and healing for all people.

To be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus isn’t about water or about the formula (“magic words”) used ; it’s about being immersed into a life of purpose, a life of promoting hope and healing, joy and justice, peace and empowerment (power with instead of power over).

The baptism of the spirit in Jesus’ name is a commitment to working toward building God’s kin-dom here and now. We can, if we choose, embrace a water ritual, but the ritual isn’t the point…the ritual points toward purpose, and the purpose is the point.

As we are affirmed as God’s children we are then commissioned to build God’s all-inclusive kin-dom, that is, to share the positive message that all people have innate dignity and sacred value. This is the baptism of the spirit in Jesus’ name.

Wade in the water; wade in the water children. Wade in the water; God’s gonna trouble the water.

Dr. King’s activism is an example of the baptism of the Spirit in Jesus’ name.
By affirming the sacred value of all people and dedicating his life to promoting justice and healing, he was immersed in the power of divine purpose.

That’s what our ministry is about, isn’t it?
It isn’t about preserving what was; it’s about imagining what can yet be.

It isn’t about clinging to the past; it’s about exploring the infinite possibilities of the future.

It isn’t about revering history; it’s about making it!

We are being called to a life of purpose. We are being challenged to be immersed in purpose.
We affirm that purpose every Sunday when we say, “Sunshine Cathedral is a different kind of church where the past is past and the future has infinite possibilities.”

Wade in the water; wade in the water children. Wade in the water; God’s gonna trouble the water.

In the past, women were told they could not be ordained. We remember that only to learn from it and to do better; we are committed not to preserving the sexism of the past but to challenging it and creating a religious experience where sexism cannot thrive.

In the past, same-gender loving people were told that they were somehow beyond the reach of divine love. We remember that only to learn from it and to do better; we are committed not to preserving the homophobia of the past but to challenging it and creating a religious experience where homophobia cannot thrive.

In the past the church failed to address the evils of racism and racial exploitation. We remember that only to learn from it and to do better; we are committed not to preserving the racism of the past but to challenging it and creating a religious experience where racism cannot thrive.

In the past, religion was used against us to promote fear, division, self-loathing, self-doubt, or suspicion of others. We remember that only to learn from it and to do better; we are committed not to preserving the religion of fear and prejudice but to challenging it and creating a religious experience where fear and hatred cannot thrive.

In his famous, “I Have a Dream” speech, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said:
…we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism…Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

That’s the dream, Dr. King’s, Jesus’, ours.
That’s the baptismal calling…the calling to a life of purpose and growth and evolution and inclusion.
We are called to change and to be agents of change in our world.

The early church changed the world by confronting poverty, disease, and imperialism.
Dr. King changed U.S. society by confronting poverty, racism, and unjust war.

Our spiritual ancestors did not merely revere their history, they built upon it. They remembered the past but they did not try to resurrect it. They learned from history so as NOT to repeat it, but rather to change the present and make the world a bit more like the kin-dom of God, the Blessed Community where all people are affirmed, valued, uplifted, and cherished. That is the divine dream for humanity.

Will we, today, allow ourselves to be immersed in the power of purpose and continue to move forward to celebrate our sacred value and to tell more and more and more people that they too, just as they are, are part of the creation that is very good? Will we work for justice? Will we offer hope? Will we embrace joy? We will commit to being the embodied presence of God on earth? Will we wade in the waters of positive change? If so, we will be living the baptismal dream and THIS is the good news. Amen.
© Durrell Watkins 2012

AffirmationsI am immersed in divine grace.
I am immersed in abundant hope.
I am immersed in the power of purpose.
I am drenched with God’s love.
And so it is!

Final Word“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.