A WORD TO THE WISE: baptize

Showing posts with label baptize. Show all posts

Monday, August 3, 2015

JOHN THE BAPTIST, JOHN THE DOUBTER

(This post is an expansion on a sermon I preached. Read the blog and then listen to the sermon "It All Makes Sense with Jesus." )

In Matthew 11, Jesus called John the Baptist the greatest of all prophets.

“Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. … Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11: 9,11)

We honor John the Baptist as the epitome of uncompromising spiritual strength. We have canonized his legend and forgotten his truth: John’s spiritually victorious life was also a life of agonizing DOUBT.

Read his story again.

So the child grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his manifestation to Israel. (Luke 1:80)

In the deserts, apparently from a very young age. His parents had a house in the hills southern Judea. They had connections in the Temple in Jerusalem. Why was John in the desert?

Because he ran away. Not to adventures in the great metropolis of Jerusalem. Not to the freedom of the semi-pagan Decapolis, or to the outlaw lands of Galilee. No. John ran to the most desolate and lonely spaces his nation offered. He fled----- from everything.

Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist… (Matthew 3: 4a)

You know those kids at your school who dress like hobos even though their parents are rich? You know the ones who blacken their eyes and refuse to condition their hair, and carefully choose the least physically flattering clothing they can find. John the Baptist would have been one of them.

…his food was locusts and wild honey. (Matthew 3:4b)

You know that kid who starves himself at lunch and on field trips because he’s such a strict kind of vegan that other vegans think he’s crazy? That kid’s got nothing on John the Baptist.

From before he was even conceived, John the Baptist’s life was clearly defined. The purpose of his existence was predetermined. We glamorize being “The Promised Child,” “The Chosen One.” But think about how suffocating that was. John was an adolescent who never had the chance to find himself. There was no seeking, no just being. John’s future never held the mystery of what he might become. He was always “the prophet of the Highest [who] will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways” (Luke 1:76). And if he screwed up, Israel’s Messiah might never appear. That was John’s bedtime story.

“You’re not the Messiah. You can’t save your people. But you can single-handedly destroy 5,000 years of prophetic hope. Nighty-night.”

No wonder John defined himself in negatives.

John was not the Temple priest his father Zacharias was. He was not the well-pedigreed heir of religious royalty that his mother was.

The Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”

He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”

And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?”

He said, “I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?”

And he answered, “No.” (John 1: 19-22)

When asked, “What do you say about yourself?” John replied, “I am The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” (John 1: 22, 23)

Do you hear the sadness? I’m not a body. I’m not a person. I’m just a voice. And not even my own voice.

But John still followed his calling. He preached the words God put in his heart. He baptized sinners and hypocrites. The man who’d fled from the world endured fame. Read the exchange in Luke 3: 7-18. No matter how raw and roughly John preached, the people just kept coming. No matter how far up or down the Jordan he camped, people found him. And John didn’t like people.

John’s only solace was the promise of the Messiah. When the Messiah appeared, John would announce Him, fulfill the burden of his birth and finally, finally find peace. From a child, from a fetus John knew that the Messiah was his cousin. His mother knew that the Christ was only 6 months younger than John. His family knew Jesus’ family but John and Jesus didn’t meet--- for 30 years.

Thir-tee. Yeeeaaarrrrs.

John didn’t even know what Jesus looked like.

I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water. (John 1: 31)

But John still followed his calling. He preached the words God gave him. He baptized. Before Jesus spoke the Great Commission to His apostles, John fulfilled the Great Commission by the Holy Spirit. And then the moment came.

After a long day of ministering to the same kinds of soul-wearying crowds, one last person came down to be baptized (Luke 3: 21). It was Jesus, and finally John’s life made sense.

John recalled, “I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.” (John 1: 33, 34)

John could fulfill his mission. He could do what he was born to do. He baptized the Messiah, and “immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness.” (Mark 1: 12)

Wait. What da’ crap?! Where did Jesus go?

For a month and a half (well, for at least 40 days), nobody knew where Jesus was. John had finally found the cousin whose life defined his life and now he’d lost him.

Consider that for a moment.

Your entire sense of value as a person is wrapped in being the one who introduces the Christ to the world, and the moment you can do that, you turn around and Pthht! He was gone.

So when Jesus shows up about a month and a half later, the day after John has told the story of the baptism to his disciples, “John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’ This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ “ (John 1: 29, 30)

This is John happy. This is John thinking, “Once I direct people to Jesus, I will have fulfilled my destiny.” So that’s exactly what John does.

The next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!”

The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. (John 1: 35-37)

Messiah found? Check.

Messiah proclaimed? Check.

People sent to follow the Messiah? Check.

Ahh. I did it. Now I can find peace.

Nope.

Now you can get thrown in prison on some old trumped-up charge about criticizing the government. (Mark 6: 17-18)

In prison, John’s old doubts came back. Maybe he’d been wrong. Maybe it was wishful thinking. Maybe Jesus wasn’t the One.

When John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” (Matthew 11: 2-3)

Notice that John never doubted the idea of the Messiah. He just wanted reassurance that he’d picked the right Messiah. John didn’t doubt God’s promise. He didn’t doubt his calling. John doubted his competence in carrying out the divine assignment.

From childhood to shortly before his death, John the Baptist doubted himself.

In a media-verse of T.D. Jakeses and Benny Hinns, Joel Osteens, and Bishop-Apostle-Doctor-Overseer-Megapastors, people forget that many “might men of God” are, like John the Baptist, life-long doubters of self.

Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, etc., etc. We don’t doubt the reality of God. We don’t doubt the Lord’s power or His plan. We absolutely, to the point of death and beyond, believe what we preach. But we don’t believe in ourselves.

We’re always pretty sure that today’s the day we totally screw up the whole thing.

You see, John the Baptist’s story isn’t important because his public ministry was unique. John’s story is important because his internal struggle is typical.

But his triumph is typical, too.

John the Baptist saw himself as a series of negatives: not the Christ, not the Prophet (Deuteronomy 18: 15-18), and not Elijah.

John was wrong.

Jesus said, “If you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.” (Matthew 11: 14)

John was much of what he thought he wasn’t.

When we are called and we doubt but we follow our calling anyway, God makes us more than we are able to accept that we can be. Many of us will die without ever acknowledging to ourselves who we really are in God’s eyes. That’s just the way it is. That’s the way it’s been for a long time.

Just ask Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist.

---Anderson T. Graves II is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama; executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO); and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

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Tuesday, June 2, 2015

YOU BAPTIZE HOW? (Methodist Modes of Baptism)

John chapter 3 is the “God so loved the world…” chapter. This is the part of the gospel where, during a late night of one-on-one pastoral counseling, Jesus famously told Nicodemus, “You must be born again.”

We usually cut off our discussion of this passage somewhere between verses 17 and 21, while Jesus is talking about the certainty God’s love and of salvation but before Jesus, in the same conversation, starts talking about the certainty of God’s judgment and condemnation and the eternal implications of our personal moral choices. But keep reading.

Jesus had met with Nicodemus in Jerusalem where they were celebrating Passover (John 2: 23-3:1), but in John 3:22 Christ and the Christians left the city to set up camp on the banks of the Jordan River. Jesus preached and the disciples, as assistant pastors often do, baptized the new believers (John 3: 22; 4: 1-2). It was church.

Meanwhile on the west side (of the Jordan), Jesus’ cousin John the Baptist was having church, too.

And John’s first the Baptist church was flourishing. The traveling congregation had upgraded from river baptisms to the natural baptismal springs of Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there (John 3: 23). Soon though, as often happens when a church upgrades, there was an argument.

Then there arose a dispute between some of John’s disciples and the Jews about purification. (John 3: 25)

Purification is kind of a broad concept in Jewish religion, but given the context, the question centered on the proper use of water as a means of spiritual or ritual cleansing.

John chapter 3 provides the first recorded church argument over the “right” way to baptize.

We’re still having that argument.

In the Methodist church we use 3 methods (or modes) in the sacrament of baptism:

1) We baptize by immersing people under water, like John did when he baptized his Cousin (Mark 1: 6-10).

2) A Methodist preacher may also take water in his/her hand and sprinkle it upon the head of the baptisee. This is a throwback to how the Old Testament priests would purify the altar, the holy items, and the people by sprinkling blood on them (Leviticus 1; Hebrews 9: 19-21)

And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar.

Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient.”

Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.” (Exodus 24: 6-8)

3) And sometimes, we take water in our cupped hands or a vessel and pour it over the head, as God Himself “poured out the Holy Spirit on the disciples on Pentecost (Acts 2:3-4, 17-18)

In my experience, most adults ask for full immersion, especially if the church has upgraded to a location with its own baptismal pool. Pouring and sprinkling are usually performed for small children and infants.

Yes, Methodist believe in baptizing babies.

In Acts 16, the Apostle Paul preached to a Thyatiran matriarch named Lydia. Lydia received Christ and then had her entire family baptized (Acts 16: 14-15). No, scripture doesn’t explicitly state that there were babies among Lydia’s household, though that is a reasonable assumption. Scripture does make it clear that the family baptisms were all arranged by Lydia.

Way back in the day, parents arranged marriages for their children, sometimes while the fiancés were still babies. An arranged marriage, i.e. betrothal, not only obligates the children, betrothal also obligates the parents and community to prepare the children for each other and to reinforce the vows that the parents had made on their behalf until the children grew up and made the vows for themselves.

For adults, baptism is the ring publicly declaring their relationship with Jesus. For babies, baptism is the betrothal contract marking the same at a future date TBA.

Infants don’t have the ability to say “Yes” to being the Bride of Christ. But parents can arrange their spiritual betrothal.

In John’s first the Baptist church, the people of God argued over the “right” way to do baptisms. Then as now (cause human nature doesn’t change), the theology got personal.

And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified—behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him!” (John 3: 26)

In other words, “These two different churches are doing baptism different ways and one of us is losing the competition.”

Rev. John THE Baptist didn’t care. He didn’t indulge their sifting of modalities. He didn’t take sides in their methodological factions. John the Baptiser said: I am not the Christ. (John 3: 28).

Translation: I don’t have a Heaven or a Hell to put you in based on what I do with the water in this baptismal pool.

Baptism is the ring the bride wears, but what really matters is the Groom who gives it to her.

So whether your relationship with Jesus Christ is marked with full immersion, sprinkling, or pouring; whether the token is given as an adult or as a baby, whether you taken the mark of baptism at the church over here or the church over there---- just make sure that you have a personal, saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

Over here on the Methodist side of the Jordan, we will rejoice not in the way you’re baptized but in the fact that you’ve found Jesus.

He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. (John 3: 29)