Luke 3:15ff & Isaiah 43:1-4
Immersed and drenched in Divine Love
Most people in most mainline Christian denominations that practice infant baptism don’t remember their baptisms, which is natural, because most would have been baptised before they they were really aware what was happening.
In looking through the baptismal records of the Dromore church I was interested to see that most of the older generation in our churches would have been baptised not in church but in their family homes. The reason for this seemed to be an utterly practical one. The congregation in previous generations was so large, with so many children being born that to have had them all baptised in church would have meant that every second or third week it would have been a baptism service and there would have been very little room for much else in regular church worship.
I was never baptised as an infant. Although my father had grown up as an Anglican in South Africa, he met my mother while attending the Salvation Army where he had become a member. My mom had grown up as a member of the Salvation Army. The salvation Army doesn’t practice baptism because in their theology they did away with all sacraments. In the Salvation Army they would say that what is important is not the outward ritual or outward sign of Baptism. What is important is rather the inward experience of baptism, the inner experience of being transformed by God’s saving love. And so Instead of being baptised as an infant, I was taken to the Salvation Army to be dedicated.
It was only later, when we moved to a small town away from the city where there was no Salvation Army, that my parents started attending a Methodist Church. It was there probably as a 3 or 4 year old that I was actually baptised... I still have a memory of sitting on the edge of my parents bed with my Dad explaining to me and my older brother Keith what baptism was all about, in as much as a child could understand and, asking us if we wanted to be baptised.
It is not often in church that we have an opportunity to reflect deeply on the meaning of Baptism in Church and in light of the fact that we had a baptism service last week as well as the fact that we missed the lectionary passage on Jesus Baptism in Luke’s Gospel, . I thought it appropriate that we consider this passage today and reflect a little more deeply on baptism itself.
Firstly, in this passage, I believe that we see that Baptism is all about identity. Baptism is meant to remind us, and the children among us, of who we really are. In times past, baptism was used as a naming ceremony. In baptism the parents would formally name their child. This practice of naming a child at Baptism has largely fallen away now. But that practice is a reminder that baptism is all about identity. But our truest and deepest identity is not the name given to us by our parents, not our nationality or culture, not even what religion we are or what football team we support. Rather, our truest and deepest identity is that we are God’s beloved. Children of God, made in God’s image. To put it another way, our deepest identify is to be found at the level of spirit rather than in any outward temporary form whether it is a role we might play, or even at the level of our physical body. There is a time-less and formless spiritual reality at the heart of who we are that is our truest and deepest identity.
In the passage we read from Luke this is captured in the language of son-ship (and we might also say daughter-ship) – that when Jesus is baptised, there is a voice heard from heaven saying: “This is my beloved son.” Although our deepest spiritual identity transcends, gender categories of son or daughter.
Baptism is a reminder that we are, each and everyone of us, God’s beloved. We are each infinitely valuable expressions of the Divine expressed in human form.
Secondly, in this passage we see that the true Baptism is not in water.... that is the outward sign. John the Baptist says in this passage: “I baptise with water, but one will come after me who will baptise with the Holy Spirit and fire. The true inner meaning of baptism is that we are baptised into in God’s Spirit of love.
The Greek word baptizo means to immerse, to put something under. The real immersion is not immersion in water. The real immersion is in the Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit of Love.
Acts 17:28 reminds us that every moment of every day we are already immersed and drenched in God’s Spirit. God is not far away from us in some distant heaven, for “In him we live and move and have our being”. We are already living in God, surrounded, and immersed in God’s love and presence. And in Ephesians we read that God is over all, in all and through all.
Baptism reminds us, and brings to our attention that which is already true, firstly that we are God’s beloved and secondly that we are, every moment of every day, swimming, immersed, drenched in God’s Loving presence and loving Spirit and that in fact the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of the Spirit is within us. When we awake to our true spiritual identity, the Kingdom of God within, we discover and awaken to the fact that we are indeed immersed in the Divine Life and Love.
Thirdly, Luke uses another word to describe Baptism in this passage: The word Fire. John the Baptist speaks of being baptised with the Holy Spirit and with Fire... and he goes on to speak of it as an unquencheable fire.
“I baptise with water, but one more powerful than I will come... He will baptise with the Holy Spirit and with Fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear the threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn away the chaff with unquenchable fire.” vs 16-17.
Normally when Christians speak of unquenchable fire, their minds immediately think of the fires of hell and damnation where they believe that unbelievers and sinners will suffer in torment for all eternity.
But the unquenchable fire of which John the Baptist is referring to is clearly not the fire of hell reserved for unrepentant sinners. The unquenchable fire is something he suggests that we will all be baptised into... immersed into and it is clearly a purifying fire. In our passage, the image is that of wheat that has been harvested. Once it is harvested and the outer chaff has been removed because it is no longer necessary, it is burned. These fires of spiritual purification that burn away all that is not necessary, all that gets in the way of the Divine Life God has placed within us.
To be baptised into God’s love is to be immersed in a love that overtime will purify and cleanse us of all that is not necessary, of all that is not love until we come to know our deepest and truest spiritual identity that can never be destroyed or taken away because it is the Divine within us, that truest and most essential identity of the image of God within that is eternal and therefore indestructible.
But the imagery of fire is not just about the fire that burns. Fire also brings warmth and energy, and when we are warm and energised we become passionate. To be baptised in the Fire of God’s Love is also meant to set our own hearts on fire, to make us passionate about life, to make us passionate about this world and to give ourselves away passionately as a blessing to others. Baptism in the fire of Divine love invites us to ask: What is my essential nature? Who or what am I really in the deepest part of my being beyond the world of outward form of our bodies and our roles in life where we come to know oneness with God as the Beloved immersed in the Divine Life and Love? I believe that baptism according to this story also asks of us: What is it that sets my heart on fire? What am I passionate about?... and in what way can that passion bring life and love to others and to myself and indeed to the world. What am I so passionate about that I would be willing to give my life away for it?
Immersed and drenched in Divine Love
Most people in most mainline Christian denominations that practice infant baptism don’t remember their baptisms, which is natural, because most would have been baptised before they they were really aware what was happening.
In looking through the baptismal records of the Dromore church I was interested to see that most of the older generation in our churches would have been baptised not in church but in their family homes. The reason for this seemed to be an utterly practical one. The congregation in previous generations was so large, with so many children being born that to have had them all baptised in church would have meant that every second or third week it would have been a baptism service and there would have been very little room for much else in regular church worship.
I was never baptised as an infant. Although my father had grown up as an Anglican in South Africa, he met my mother while attending the Salvation Army where he had become a member. My mom had grown up as a member of the Salvation Army. The salvation Army doesn’t practice baptism because in their theology they did away with all sacraments. In the Salvation Army they would say that what is important is not the outward ritual or outward sign of Baptism. What is important is rather the inward experience of baptism, the inner experience of being transformed by God’s saving love. And so Instead of being baptised as an infant, I was taken to the Salvation Army to be dedicated.
It was only later, when we moved to a small town away from the city where there was no Salvation Army, that my parents started attending a Methodist Church. It was there probably as a 3 or 4 year old that I was actually baptised... I still have a memory of sitting on the edge of my parents bed with my Dad explaining to me and my older brother Keith what baptism was all about, in as much as a child could understand and, asking us if we wanted to be baptised.
It is not often in church that we have an opportunity to reflect deeply on the meaning of Baptism in Church and in light of the fact that we had a baptism service last week as well as the fact that we missed the lectionary passage on Jesus Baptism in Luke’s Gospel, . I thought it appropriate that we consider this passage today and reflect a little more deeply on baptism itself.
Firstly, in this passage, I believe that we see that Baptism is all about identity. Baptism is meant to remind us, and the children among us, of who we really are. In times past, baptism was used as a naming ceremony. In baptism the parents would formally name their child. This practice of naming a child at Baptism has largely fallen away now. But that practice is a reminder that baptism is all about identity. But our truest and deepest identity is not the name given to us by our parents, not our nationality or culture, not even what religion we are or what football team we support. Rather, our truest and deepest identity is that we are God’s beloved. Children of God, made in God’s image. To put it another way, our deepest identify is to be found at the level of spirit rather than in any outward temporary form whether it is a role we might play, or even at the level of our physical body. There is a time-less and formless spiritual reality at the heart of who we are that is our truest and deepest identity.
In the passage we read from Luke this is captured in the language of son-ship (and we might also say daughter-ship) – that when Jesus is baptised, there is a voice heard from heaven saying: “This is my beloved son.” Although our deepest spiritual identity transcends, gender categories of son or daughter.
Baptism is a reminder that we are, each and everyone of us, God’s beloved. We are each infinitely valuable expressions of the Divine expressed in human form.
Secondly, in this passage we see that the true Baptism is not in water.... that is the outward sign. John the Baptist says in this passage: “I baptise with water, but one will come after me who will baptise with the Holy Spirit and fire. The true inner meaning of baptism is that we are baptised into in God’s Spirit of love.
The Greek word baptizo means to immerse, to put something under. The real immersion is not immersion in water. The real immersion is in the Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit of Love.
Acts 17:28 reminds us that every moment of every day we are already immersed and drenched in God’s Spirit. God is not far away from us in some distant heaven, for “In him we live and move and have our being”. We are already living in God, surrounded, and immersed in God’s love and presence. And in Ephesians we read that God is over all, in all and through all.
Baptism reminds us, and brings to our attention that which is already true, firstly that we are God’s beloved and secondly that we are, every moment of every day, swimming, immersed, drenched in God’s Loving presence and loving Spirit and that in fact the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of the Spirit is within us. When we awake to our true spiritual identity, the Kingdom of God within, we discover and awaken to the fact that we are indeed immersed in the Divine Life and Love.
Thirdly, Luke uses another word to describe Baptism in this passage: The word Fire. John the Baptist speaks of being baptised with the Holy Spirit and with Fire... and he goes on to speak of it as an unquencheable fire.
“I baptise with water, but one more powerful than I will come... He will baptise with the Holy Spirit and with Fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear the threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn away the chaff with unquenchable fire.” vs 16-17.
Normally when Christians speak of unquenchable fire, their minds immediately think of the fires of hell and damnation where they believe that unbelievers and sinners will suffer in torment for all eternity.
But the unquenchable fire of which John the Baptist is referring to is clearly not the fire of hell reserved for unrepentant sinners. The unquenchable fire is something he suggests that we will all be baptised into... immersed into and it is clearly a purifying fire. In our passage, the image is that of wheat that has been harvested. Once it is harvested and the outer chaff has been removed because it is no longer necessary, it is burned. These fires of spiritual purification that burn away all that is not necessary, all that gets in the way of the Divine Life God has placed within us.
To be baptised into God’s love is to be immersed in a love that overtime will purify and cleanse us of all that is not necessary, of all that is not love until we come to know our deepest and truest spiritual identity that can never be destroyed or taken away because it is the Divine within us, that truest and most essential identity of the image of God within that is eternal and therefore indestructible.
But the imagery of fire is not just about the fire that burns. Fire also brings warmth and energy, and when we are warm and energised we become passionate. To be baptised in the Fire of God’s Love is also meant to set our own hearts on fire, to make us passionate about life, to make us passionate about this world and to give ourselves away passionately as a blessing to others. Baptism in the fire of Divine love invites us to ask: What is my essential nature? Who or what am I really in the deepest part of my being beyond the world of outward form of our bodies and our roles in life where we come to know oneness with God as the Beloved immersed in the Divine Life and Love? I believe that baptism according to this story also asks of us: What is it that sets my heart on fire? What am I passionate about?... and in what way can that passion bring life and love to others and to myself and indeed to the world. What am I so passionate about that I would be willing to give my life away for it?
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