May 12, 2025 • 32 mins
Baptism is more than just a ritual — it’s a layered encounter with grace that stretches from ancient Jewish practices to the earliest Christian communities. But why do we do it? And how does it shape our faith today?
In this thoughtful reflection, we explore:
- 🌊 The surprising roots of baptism in Jewish mikvah rituals
- ✝️ How John the Baptist reimagined cleansing as repentance
- 🙏 Why Jesus chose to be baptized — and what it means for us
- 🌅 How baptism became one of the earliest Christian practice
- 🌱 Why baptism is about more than just making a decision — it’s about participating in grace
Baptism is not just a symbol. It’s a means of grace — an invitation to step into a story much bigger than ourselves. Whether you’re preparing for baptism or looking to deepen your understanding, this message will help you see the beauty and mystery at the heart of this ancient practice.
#Baptism #ChristianSacraments #WhyBaptismMatters #JohnTheBaptist #JesusBaptism #Grace #FaithPractice #EasterSeries
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Jeremy Duncan (00:00):
Historically, Christians have also seen
(00:02):
baptism as a means of grace. Notjust a commitment. Not just a
turning away. Not just a restingin God. Not just an entry point
into the way of love, and notjust an identification with
Christ.
But also a unique moment in ourlives where we experience the
grace of God physically in ourbodies. First off, let's look
(00:26):
back at last week quickly.Because there, Scott walked us
through a discussion of thechurch's mission. Let's be
honest. That is a pretty bigtopic, at least to cover in one
Sunday.
Every church and corporation andnon profit on the planet loves
to talk about their missionstatements. To be honest, it can
(00:46):
be a little overdone. Here atCommons, we tend to talk a lot
about our values. Intellectuallyhonest, spiritually passionate,
Jesus at the center. And thosevalues really do drive
everything that we do here.
They are the filter for where weinvest our energy. And in
practice, I think they are apretty good approximation for
(01:09):
how we operate together. Becausein the end, I think it is often
our values, stated or otherwise,that ends up shaping who we
become. See, the thing is themission of the church, the
mission of every church isessentially the same thing. Go
therefore and make disciples ofall nations, baptizing them in
(01:30):
the name of the father, son, andholy spirit, teaching them to
obey everything I've commandedyou.
That's Jesus, Matthew 28. Anddress it up however you want.
That's what we're here for. Thething is, depending on the
values that surround us, how wemake sense of that goal, that
mission, that same mission haslooked at times like conquest or
(01:55):
coercion or proselytization,even the politicization of
Jesus' kingdom. We're all tryingto get to the same ends.
There's really only one missionstatement for every church no
matter how we word it, butunmoored from the person of
Jesus and the values he carriedto the world, mission has often
(02:15):
ended up in very strange placesthroughout our shared history.
Places perhaps like Scottplaying Jesus in street corner
evangelistic enterprises, which,by the way, I really do
appreciate that honest selfdisclosure there, friend. But I
think that is part of what Iappreciated so much from last
week. This reminder that missionisn't about convincing or
(02:38):
converting anyone. Certainlyisn't about imposing ourselves
on our neighbors.
Mission, at least as articulatedby Jesus, is very simply about
noticing resurrection thataround us all the time,
witnessing the truth of God'sgoodness in the world
surrounding us, and then livingas if that good news was
(03:02):
actually true. Jesus tells us atone point that because of what
we have seen in resurrection, inhim standing there with his
disciples, that we will nowbecome witness to resurrection
in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samariato the ends of the earth because
Easter changes everything abouthow we see everything. So what's
(03:25):
our mission in the world? It'sto change the world. And how
does the world change?
It changes when Easter becomesthe lens through which we treat
our neighbor. Now, maybe thatseems a little cliche, a little
too easy. Is that really enough?I mean, aren't we going to need
an altar call at some point justto seal the deal? But maybe, I
(03:46):
would argue, that even thiscommunity here is proof itself
that together, our witness isfar more powerful than we often
imagine.
And that the grace of God canfind its way into people's lives
gently, even unexpectedly,whenever the person of Jesus
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sits at the center of how weshape our lives. So at Commons,
we might say that the creatorGod is at work to heal and
remake the whole world throughJesus, and our mission is to
join with God in the renewal ofall things. Today, we'll talk
about the part that baptismplays in that life together.
(04:27):
First, let's pray. Good andgracious God, we have been
witness to your work in ourlives.
Resurrection at a tangiblescale. In our experience of the
Easter story, in relationshipswe thought dead and buried, in
dreams abandoned, and in timeresuscitated. Help us then not
(04:51):
only to witness, but to becomewitnesses to that same truth. In
the ways we live, in how wespeak, in the ways that we care
and extend the walls of ourlives to include another, in the
ways that we tell your storyover and over again through
surprising generosity andscandalous grace. And then, God,
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may our witness to your storyonly help to reinforce and
redefine ours.
So that we might become moreaware of opportunities and
moments, surprising chances foryour mission to heal the world
even through us. To be madeconcrete in small moments of
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grace with neighbors andstrangers and those who might
become future best friends. Inthe strong name of the risen
Christ we pray. Amen. Today isall about baptism, which is
convenient considering that nextweek we will celebrate together,
all of us, with those who enterthe waters of baptism.
(06:00):
And so today, I wanna talk aboutadjectives, layers, means, and
our invitations. But even as weendeavor to talk about the
theology, the history ofbaptism, there is an element to
this sacrament that I believe ismore about imitation than even
intention. This idea that wepick up the significance of
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baptism perhaps more in beingnear each other, watching each
other, than strictly in how weare taught about it. And as an
example, I wanna talk aboutadjectives because English has a
very unique set, specific,actually, quite rigid set of
rules around the placement ofadjectives, rules that almost no
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one is ever taught. And thatmeans that while almost none of
us know the rules, we are allabsolutely living by them all
the time.
See, the rule goes like this.When stacking multiple
adjectives to describe a noun,the order must go determiner,
number, opinion, size, age,shape, color, origin, material,
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purpose, and then your noun. NowI can almost guarantee none of
you have ever been taught this.But unless you're a psychopath,
I promise that you follow thisrule. Let's look at this.
Determiner is things like yoursor mine or that. Number, that's
obviously the number of thingswe're talking about. And then
opinion, that's your subjectiveconsideration of an object,
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something like smelly or heroicor misunderstood. Size, age,
shape, and color come next inthat order, fairly self
explanatory. Origin is somethinglike American, French, Canadian.
Material, something like wood orleather or plastic, and purpose
is what you're going to use thething for. For example, a
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writing pen. But if you and Iwere having a conversation and I
mentioned my old blue writingpen, you wouldn't blink at that.
Yet if I was to mention mywriting blue old pen, you might
think I'm having a bit of amoment of distress. And it's
fascinating how rigid this allis because I can talk to you
about your beautiful old brickhome, but I absolutely cannot
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talk about beautiful your brickold home.
It just doesn't work. Eventhough technically, all of those
words are just adjectives. Nowwhy? Well, we actually don't
know. There are some theories,but in the end, it just seems to
be a pattern that we pick up aswe speak to each other.
In other words, there's noreason, there's no grammatical
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indication that we all follow avery complex rule that we've
never been taught. And just forfun though, there is an even
more important rule that hasalso never been taught to you,
but it's also one that youfollow and can actually override
our adjective order rules. Andthis is called oblate
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reduplication. Now it relates tothe unconscious reordering of
certain vowel sounds in speech.Generally, it determines that
front vowel sounds like i's ande's take precedence over back
vowel sounds like a's and o's.
So, in our adjective rules,opinions always come before
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sizes, which means we should saythings like the bad big wolf,
except our oblate reduplicationrule overrides that order
because the front vowel I in bigtakes precedence. So we say the
big bad wolf instead, eventhough that doesn't follow our
first rule. What this means isthat you, right now, have
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actually got two rules you'venever heard of floating around
in your head, dictating how youspeak all the time, even
overruling each other completelyoutside your conscious
intervention. Now, why am Italking about all this? Well,
it's because as much as I wantto talk today about the history
and the theology of baptism, Ithink it's actually the
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practice.
The way that we watch eachother, the way we listen to each
other's stories, the way thatthe practice of these sacraments
slowly sinks into our experienceof church. In whatever tradition
we've been a part of, that willactually shape how you follow in
the footsteps of those who'vecome before you. And it will
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likely matter more to you thanmy articulation of any of it.
And by the time we get to theend today, I wanna argue that's
actually a good thing. Thebaptism, perhaps all of our
sacraments, are meant to beexperienced more than
understood.
(10:50):
Still, with that destination inmind, let's look at some
history. Because baptismactually has pre Christian roots
in something called the Mikvah.Now if you flip all the way back
to Leviticus, Genesis, Exodus,Leviticus, it's right near the
start, you will find a wholebunch of rules about when you
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need to cleanse yourself. Nowthe term that's used is purity
or ritual purity. And we'vetalked about this many times
before, but in the Jewishimagination, ritual purity do
not have moral connotation.
In fact, a lot of things thatyou would normally do in life
could make you ritually unclean.That's not a bad thing. It
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doesn't even necessarily meanthat you're supposed to avoid
all of those things. As anexample, childbirth made a woman
unclean. That was absolutely notsomething that a faithful Jewish
woman would ever want to avoid.
And so we have to understandthat needing ritual cleansing
was not a judgment on a person.Being unclean in the ritual
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sense did not make you dirty orbad. It was, as the word
implies, ritual, simply a partof normal Jewish life. And it
was a way of reminding yourselfof your commitment to the law,
to the way of God within thenormal rhythms of life. Now in
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Leviticus, the specific rulesabout when to cleanse are there,
but they're not particularlywell spelled out in the how.
So over time, those ritualsbecame, well, ritualized. And a
mikvah was essentially a largepublic bath that was used for
these ritual cleansings. Andover time, the rules about what
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constituted a mikvah, they werestandardized. So a mikvah had to
hold a minimum of 200 gallons ofwater. And the water in the
mikvah had to be living water.
It meant it was collectednaturally from a spring or
rainwater or preferably aflowing stream. That actually
became really important for theearly Christians. There's that
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document called the Didache.We've brought this up a couple
times in the last month now. Butin there, it says that for a
Christian to be baptized, theymust be fully immersed in living
water.
Now, what they're referring tohere is flowing water, not still
water like a pond that you justfound somewhere. In both cases,
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we tend to think that that wasprimarily for hygienic reasons.
Naturally occurring still wateris usually less than ideal to
dunk yourself in. So mikvahswere generally rock basins, and
they've been excavated all overthe place near springs and
flowing water, often as close aspossible or adjacent to places
of worship like synagogues. Andso for Jewish people, around the
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time of Jesus, going under thewater in the mikvah was a normal
regular part of life wheneveryou needed ritual cleansing.
However, also around the time ofJesus, this very strange dude
named John appears on the scene.He wears clothes made of camel
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hair. That seems to be anaesthetic decision. A camel hair
would have been incrediblyuncomfortable and itchy to wear.
And he eats grasshoppers and anywild honey that he can find.
And he comes along baptizingpeople, hence the name John the
Baptist. Now lucky for him, Ididn't meet him. Had I met him
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at that time, I probably wouldhave called him John the
grasshopper guy. So luckily,John the Baptist is what stuck
for him in the records. But itappears that John is using some
form of what would have happenedin a ritual cleansing in a
mikvah, but now he is sayingthat it is for the repentance of
sins.
And we don't know if there wereother Jewish teachers practicing
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similar things around this time.Judaism was probably more
diverse than we reallyunderstand. But what John is
doing here in Matthew, Mark, andin Luke is certainly a deviation
from the traditional way thatJewish people understood what a
mikvah was used for. He's takingan important symbol that put
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into practice a commitment toGod's law, and he is transposing
that onto an outward statementto reflect an inward change. A
repentance, a turning away thatsomeone has made in their heart
to internalize their commitmentto God.
Now, for the word the record,the the word baptize here, at
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least at this point in thestory, just simply meant to
plunge something under thewater. You can go all the way
back in Greek to Homer and findthis word baptizo being used to
describe a blacksmith plungingan axe into the water to cool
it. So at this point in thestory, John the Baptist is
literally just a description ofwhat this guy is doing. John,
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that guy who keeps dunkingpeople in the water. That's all
it means.
But already, we're starting tosee the layering of meaning
that's being added onto thispractice. We have the mikvah,
the place of commitment to thepractice of the way of God. We
have the baptism of John, adisplay of repentance and inward
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change. And now we have Jesusshow up on the scene. And this
gets interesting becausealthough we can readily assume
that Jesus as a Jewish personwould have practiced the
baptizing in a mikvah, wouldhave done this regularly
throughout his life, John'sbaptism is for the repentance of
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sins.
And that seems an odd fit forthe son of God. Right? What is
Jesus repenting for here? And sonow we get another layer added.
At the end of Matthew three,Jesus comes down to see his
cousin John wanting to bebaptized.
But John tries to deter himsaying, it doesn't make any
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sense. You don't need to repent.I need to be baptized by you.
Get out of here. Jesus, though,replies, look.
Let's do this. It's proper forus to do this to fulfill all
righteousness. And so Johnrelents. However, as soon as
Jesus was baptized, he comes upout of the water. And at that
moment, heaven was opened, andhe saw the spirit of God
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descending like a dove alightingon him.
And a voice from heaven said,this is my son whom I love. With
him, I'm well pleased. So, wehave a commitment to the law of
God in the mikvah. We have therepentance of sins in John's
baptism. Now we have in Jesus'baptism this point of
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identification with the father.
And personally, one of myfavorite gospel moments, I think
one of our tendencies is toimagine that our lives are
really just all about workingour way back to God. And,
certainly, there's truth tothat. Right? All of us are in
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some way broken or wounded. Wehave injured each other.
We've sinned. And there is adiscovering of our way back to
God that happens throughout thecourse of our lives. True. But
in baptism, there was also thisvery simple sinking into our
identity as beloved childrenbefore anything else. Like,
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Jesus hasn't done anything inthe story yet.
This is chapter three in Mark.This happens in chapter one.
There's no miracles, nodisciples, no teaching, nothing
yet. Just Jesus' realizationthat to fulfill all
righteousness, he needs first tofall into the loving arms of his
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father before anything else. AndI love that.
And yet, we're still not done.Because after Easter, after
Jesus is resurrected, after heappears to his disciples, he
calls them to be witnesses tothis resurrection, to
resurrection all around them allthe time, and he charges them to
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change the world by pointing outthat good news. Everything we
talked about last week. But thenin Matthew 28, Jesus says,
therefore, go and make disciplesof all nations, baptizing them.
In the name of the father andthe son, the holy spirit,
teaching them to obey everythingI have commanded you.
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This right here is where baptismactually now officially becomes
part of Christian practice. Acommitment not only to the law,
but to the way of love that isembodied in the person of Jesus.
And yet, even here, now that wefinally arrived in Christianity,
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baptism still isn't done. Itgets yet another layer of
meaning. Paul picks this up inRomans, and he adds, don't you
know that all of us who arebaptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into his death?
We were therefore buried withhim through baptism in order
that just as Christ Jesus wasraised from the dead, we may
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begin a new life as well. SoPaul takes this image that
starts with the mikvah, apractice to the commitment of
the way of God that John uses tosymbolize a turning away from
sin, that Jesus uses todemonstrate his resting God's
grace that Christ sees as anentry point into the way of
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love, Paul now says, well, look,in looking back, maybe we can
add another layer here as well.Because going down under the
water, well, that looks a lotlike death. Maybe we can
symbolize our identificationwith Christ's death, everything
our eyes are open to on thecross. And coming back up out of
the water, that can connect uswith that same resurrected life
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that now infects the world andtransforms our experience of
everything in the light ofEaster.
And so, in the Christiantradition, baptism is all of
this. And yet, maybe even more.Because historically, Christians
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have also seen baptism as whatwe would call in our tradition a
means of grace. So not just acommitment, not just a turning
away, not just a resting in God,not just an entry point into the
way of love, and not just anidentification with Christ, but
also a unique moment in ourlives where we experience the
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grace of God physically in ourbodies. Here at Commons, much
like we do when we talk aboutthe Eucharist, we would use
language that would affirmbaptism as more than just a
symbol, more than just apersonal decision that we've
made toward God, as if all theimportant parts of faith are
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happening on our side of theequation.
No. We would choose to trustthat God is actually somehow
present, meeting with us therein that moment that we are
experiencing something of divinewelcome as we choose to follow
Jesus into and through the waterof baptism. And I think in part,
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what we're trying to say withthis language, at least half of
faith, maybe even the mostimportant half of faith, is
somehow actually happening onthe other side, on God's side of
the equation, in the universe'songoing invitation for us to
discover grace all around us.And all this means that in
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baptism, you are making acommitment. You're turning from
your sin.
You're resting in God. You'refollowing Jesus' way. You're
identifying with Christ, and youare trusting that grace will
meet you somewhere in the water.And it may be that for you, one
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or two, maybe even remarkablyall of those images are where
you will encounter the divine.Because in the technical
theological language, what wesay is that baptism is a means
of grace, not a source of grace.
And, what we're saying with thisis that the sacraments being
baptized, these moments can'tcreate or manufacture. They
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can't bestow grace on anyoneever. But, they are liminal
moments in which we encounter,experience, we offer ourselves
to be touched by somethingdivine. But, the question that
often comes out of thatstatement is then, well, does
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that mean that if you'rebaptized, you get a jet out of
jail free card? You'reautomatically saved now.
Or does that mean to be saved,you have to be baptized?
Personally, not a particularlybig fan of those questions or
even that language in general,really. I have found that
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putting people into categoriesof saved or unsaved is not all
that helpful in real life. Ithink we are all of us in the
process of being saved everysingle day as grace weaves its
way throughout our world. Someof us, we're just lucky enough
to be aware of it as it happens.
But generally, no. Christianshave not believed that baptism
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in and of itself can saveanyone. However, almost all
Christians, almost all Christiantraditions do see baptism as an
important part of a faithfulresponse to Jesus' teaching and
invitation. Mean, he tells us tobe baptized, so we should
probably do it eventually. Thequestion then is, well, then
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when is eventually?
And that actually gets a littlecomplicated. In the early
church, there are someindications that baptism was
held back, reserved for a periodof learning and discernment. In
the early third century,Hippolytus suggests that a
minimum of three years must goby before a new convert is
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baptized. And this was likelydone for the protection of that
person. This was in the periodwhere Christianity would
probably not leave you in goodstanding with the Roman
authorities.
And so it seems that the earlychurch in those first few
centuries was intent onprotecting people from making
rash decisions. Are you sure youwanna do this? It could have
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consequences for you. Maybe slowdown, take your time, learn
before you figuratively and,well, literally jump in. That's
it.
In the scriptures themselves, weactually find a much more open
posture to who should bebaptized. For example, in the
book of Acts chapter eight,Philip, one of the disciples,
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meets this Ethiopian man whohappens to be riding by in a
chariot, and Philip notices thathe's reading the Hebrew
prophets. So Philip runs afterthe chariot, tracks him down,
says, hey. Do you know what'sgoing on there? That that book
is talking about Jesus.
This Ethiopian man is intrigued,so they walk together. And
Philip explains things to him.And then in verse 36, the man
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says to him, look. Here's somewater. What can stand in the way
of me being baptized?
Philip says, nothing. Let's gofor it. In another example, Paul
is locked in this jail inPhilippi, and there's this huge
earthquake. It literally shakesthe door off its hinges. And the
jailer thinks, look.
I'm done for. Prisoners aregonna escape. My life will be on
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the hook for theirs. He'sactually about to off himself
when Paul calls out and says,don't hurt yourself. Don't harm
yourself.
We're all still here. We're notgoing to let our good luck turn
into your misfortune. And thejailer is mystified at this
generosity. So Paul tells himthe story of Jesus. And that
night, the jailer and all of hishousehold, which would have
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included not only his wife andchildren, but any slaves he
might have had in his house, allof them were baptized.
And so, again, there's this verybroad imagination for who
deserves this kind of encounterwith grace. Not even just those
who've come to faith maybe, butmaybe even anyone connected to
them as well. Which is why insome traditions, children are
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not just dedicated, but baptizedinto the church. Trusting that
grace is not just something wechoose for ourselves, but
something that comes to find useven through those that love us.
And children or otherwise, Ithink that is undoubtedly true
in my experience of God.
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This is why if you've beenaround commons any length of
time, you'll notice that wewelcome all of it. We welcome
families that choose to baptizetheir infants. We welcome
families that choose to wait forwhen their children will decide
for themselves to be baptized.All of it is grace. All of it
has precedence in scripture.
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And maybe like all of oursacraments, a little bit of open
handed mystery is good for us tohang on to, which is what brings
me now all the way back aroundto where we started today. This
idea that perhaps like theadjectives we pile along to
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describe a thing, baptism isless about the rules we're
taught, less about what you canarticulate theologically or
ecclesiologically, less evenabout the history behind it, and
more about that long, slow,gentle way that even these
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practices weave themselves intoour lives. Sometimes even in
contradictory and yet stillprofoundly beautiful ways. See,
it's good to talk about thesethings. And I think it's fun.
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It's wonderful even to learnabout the history and the images
that undergird our practices. Weeven offer a baptism class to
prepare you for what you'reabout to experience. But at some
very important level, themeaning of your baptism will
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only begin to take shape as youstart to play with the language
that surrounds it. And you layeryour own meanings, and you
uncover the rules of grace thatin the end don't really seem
like rules at all. And if thatsounds like where your story
might be headed, then perhapsbaptism is worth exploring.
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Because maybe the rules that noone can teach you are actually
starting to become part of yourvocabulary now, and that is
grace. Let's pray. God, thankyou for these gifts. These
sacraments where the distancebetween the spirit and our
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physical bodies seems very thin.Where things like grapes and
bread, like water can become ameans through which your grace
and love that founded andcreated the universe actually
comes down to touch us.
Thank you for these moments thatreally can't be taught, but are
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somehow experienced in our lifetogether as community. May the
mystery and the profound beautyof everything that you offer us
in these practices connect usmore deeply to your heart and
the way of love that shapes oursteps through the world. May
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that cause us to be more kind,more generous, more open to the
stories that surround us eachday. And, in that, might grace
actually become the path that wewalk. Not just here in church in
these moments, but through eachof our steps in this life.
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In the strong name of the risenChrist we pray. Amen.
Hey, Jeremy here and thanks for listening to our
podcast. If you're intrigued bythe work that we're doing here
at Commons, you can head to ourwebsite, commons.church, for
more information. You can findus on all of the socials
commonschurch. You can subscribeto our YouTube channel, where we
(32:29):
are posting content regularlyfor the community. You can also
join our Discord server.
Head to commons.churchdiscordfor the invite, and there you
will find the community havingall kinds of conversations about
how we can encourage each otherto follow the way of Jesus. We
would love to hear from you.Anyway, thanks for tuning in.
Have a great week. We'll talk toyou soon.
Historically, Christians have also seen
(00:02):
baptism as a means of grace. Notjust a commitment. Not just a
turning away. Not just a restingin God. Not just an entry point
into the way of love, and notjust an identification with
Christ.
But also a unique moment in ourlives where we experience the
grace of God physically in ourbodies. First off, let's look
(00:26):
back at last week quickly.Because there, Scott walked us
through a discussion of thechurch's mission. Let's be
honest. That is a pretty bigtopic, at least to cover in one
Sunday.
Every church and corporation andnon profit on the planet loves
to talk about their missionstatements. To be honest, it can
(00:46):
be a little overdone. Here atCommons, we tend to talk a lot
about our values. Intellectuallyhonest, spiritually passionate,
Jesus at the center. And thosevalues really do drive
everything that we do here.
They are the filter for where weinvest our energy. And in
practice, I think they are apretty good approximation for
(01:09):
how we operate together. Becausein the end, I think it is often
our values, stated or otherwise,that ends up shaping who we
become. See, the thing is themission of the church, the
mission of every church isessentially the same thing. Go
therefore and make disciples ofall nations, baptizing them in
(01:30):
the name of the father, son, andholy spirit, teaching them to
obey everything I've commandedyou.
That's Jesus, Matthew 28. Anddress it up however you want.
That's what we're here for. Thething is, depending on the
values that surround us, how wemake sense of that goal, that
mission, that same mission haslooked at times like conquest or
(01:55):
coercion or proselytization,even the politicization of
Jesus' kingdom. We're all tryingto get to the same ends.
There's really only one missionstatement for every church no
matter how we word it, butunmoored from the person of
Jesus and the values he carriedto the world, mission has often
(02:15):
ended up in very strange placesthroughout our shared history.
Places perhaps like Scottplaying Jesus in street corner
evangelistic enterprises, which,by the way, I really do
appreciate that honest selfdisclosure there, friend. But I
think that is part of what Iappreciated so much from last
week. This reminder that missionisn't about convincing or
(02:38):
converting anyone. Certainlyisn't about imposing ourselves
on our neighbors.
Mission, at least as articulatedby Jesus, is very simply about
noticing resurrection thataround us all the time,
witnessing the truth of God'sgoodness in the world
surrounding us, and then livingas if that good news was
(03:02):
actually true. Jesus tells us atone point that because of what
we have seen in resurrection, inhim standing there with his
disciples, that we will nowbecome witness to resurrection
in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samariato the ends of the earth because
Easter changes everything abouthow we see everything. So what's
(03:25):
our mission in the world? It'sto change the world. And how
does the world change?
It changes when Easter becomesthe lens through which we treat
our neighbor. Now, maybe thatseems a little cliche, a little
too easy. Is that really enough?I mean, aren't we going to need
an altar call at some point justto seal the deal? But maybe, I
(03:46):
would argue, that even thiscommunity here is proof itself
that together, our witness isfar more powerful than we often
imagine.
And that the grace of God canfind its way into people's lives
gently, even unexpectedly,whenever the person of Jesus
(04:06):
sits at the center of how weshape our lives. So at Commons,
we might say that the creatorGod is at work to heal and
remake the whole world throughJesus, and our mission is to
join with God in the renewal ofall things. Today, we'll talk
about the part that baptismplays in that life together.
(04:27):
First, let's pray. Good andgracious God, we have been
witness to your work in ourlives.
Resurrection at a tangiblescale. In our experience of the
Easter story, in relationshipswe thought dead and buried, in
dreams abandoned, and in timeresuscitated. Help us then not
(04:51):
only to witness, but to becomewitnesses to that same truth. In
the ways we live, in how wespeak, in the ways that we care
and extend the walls of ourlives to include another, in the
ways that we tell your storyover and over again through
surprising generosity andscandalous grace. And then, God,
(05:15):
may our witness to your storyonly help to reinforce and
redefine ours.
So that we might become moreaware of opportunities and
moments, surprising chances foryour mission to heal the world
even through us. To be madeconcrete in small moments of
(05:35):
grace with neighbors andstrangers and those who might
become future best friends. Inthe strong name of the risen
Christ we pray. Amen. Today isall about baptism, which is
convenient considering that nextweek we will celebrate together,
all of us, with those who enterthe waters of baptism.
(06:00):
And so today, I wanna talk aboutadjectives, layers, means, and
our invitations. But even as weendeavor to talk about the
theology, the history ofbaptism, there is an element to
this sacrament that I believe ismore about imitation than even
intention. This idea that wepick up the significance of
(06:22):
baptism perhaps more in beingnear each other, watching each
other, than strictly in how weare taught about it. And as an
example, I wanna talk aboutadjectives because English has a
very unique set, specific,actually, quite rigid set of
rules around the placement ofadjectives, rules that almost no
(06:44):
one is ever taught. And thatmeans that while almost none of
us know the rules, we are allabsolutely living by them all
the time.
See, the rule goes like this.When stacking multiple
adjectives to describe a noun,the order must go determiner,
number, opinion, size, age,shape, color, origin, material,
(07:07):
purpose, and then your noun. NowI can almost guarantee none of
you have ever been taught this.But unless you're a psychopath,
I promise that you follow thisrule. Let's look at this.
Determiner is things like yoursor mine or that. Number, that's
obviously the number of thingswe're talking about. And then
opinion, that's your subjectiveconsideration of an object,
(07:31):
something like smelly or heroicor misunderstood. Size, age,
shape, and color come next inthat order, fairly self
explanatory. Origin is somethinglike American, French, Canadian.
Material, something like wood orleather or plastic, and purpose
is what you're going to use thething for. For example, a
(07:53):
writing pen. But if you and Iwere having a conversation and I
mentioned my old blue writingpen, you wouldn't blink at that.
Yet if I was to mention mywriting blue old pen, you might
think I'm having a bit of amoment of distress. And it's
fascinating how rigid this allis because I can talk to you
about your beautiful old brickhome, but I absolutely cannot
(08:15):
talk about beautiful your brickold home.
It just doesn't work. Eventhough technically, all of those
words are just adjectives. Nowwhy? Well, we actually don't
know. There are some theories,but in the end, it just seems to
be a pattern that we pick up aswe speak to each other.
In other words, there's noreason, there's no grammatical
(08:39):
indication that we all follow avery complex rule that we've
never been taught. And just forfun though, there is an even
more important rule that hasalso never been taught to you,
but it's also one that youfollow and can actually override
our adjective order rules. Andthis is called oblate
(08:59):
reduplication. Now it relates tothe unconscious reordering of
certain vowel sounds in speech.Generally, it determines that
front vowel sounds like i's ande's take precedence over back
vowel sounds like a's and o's.
So, in our adjective rules,opinions always come before
(09:21):
sizes, which means we should saythings like the bad big wolf,
except our oblate reduplicationrule overrides that order
because the front vowel I in bigtakes precedence. So we say the
big bad wolf instead, eventhough that doesn't follow our
first rule. What this means isthat you, right now, have
(09:43):
actually got two rules you'venever heard of floating around
in your head, dictating how youspeak all the time, even
overruling each other completelyoutside your conscious
intervention. Now, why am Italking about all this? Well,
it's because as much as I wantto talk today about the history
and the theology of baptism, Ithink it's actually the
(10:06):
practice.
The way that we watch eachother, the way we listen to each
other's stories, the way thatthe practice of these sacraments
slowly sinks into our experienceof church. In whatever tradition
we've been a part of, that willactually shape how you follow in
the footsteps of those who'vecome before you. And it will
(10:28):
likely matter more to you thanmy articulation of any of it.
And by the time we get to theend today, I wanna argue that's
actually a good thing. Thebaptism, perhaps all of our
sacraments, are meant to beexperienced more than
understood.
(10:50):
Still, with that destination inmind, let's look at some
history. Because baptismactually has pre Christian roots
in something called the Mikvah.Now if you flip all the way back
to Leviticus, Genesis, Exodus,Leviticus, it's right near the
start, you will find a wholebunch of rules about when you
(11:10):
need to cleanse yourself. Nowthe term that's used is purity
or ritual purity. And we'vetalked about this many times
before, but in the Jewishimagination, ritual purity do
not have moral connotation.
In fact, a lot of things thatyou would normally do in life
could make you ritually unclean.That's not a bad thing. It
(11:34):
doesn't even necessarily meanthat you're supposed to avoid
all of those things. As anexample, childbirth made a woman
unclean. That was absolutely notsomething that a faithful Jewish
woman would ever want to avoid.
And so we have to understandthat needing ritual cleansing
was not a judgment on a person.Being unclean in the ritual
(11:56):
sense did not make you dirty orbad. It was, as the word
implies, ritual, simply a partof normal Jewish life. And it
was a way of reminding yourselfof your commitment to the law,
to the way of God within thenormal rhythms of life. Now in
(12:17):
Leviticus, the specific rulesabout when to cleanse are there,
but they're not particularlywell spelled out in the how.
So over time, those ritualsbecame, well, ritualized. And a
mikvah was essentially a largepublic bath that was used for
these ritual cleansings. Andover time, the rules about what
(12:39):
constituted a mikvah, they werestandardized. So a mikvah had to
hold a minimum of 200 gallons ofwater. And the water in the
mikvah had to be living water.
It meant it was collectednaturally from a spring or
rainwater or preferably aflowing stream. That actually
became really important for theearly Christians. There's that
(13:01):
document called the Didache.We've brought this up a couple
times in the last month now. Butin there, it says that for a
Christian to be baptized, theymust be fully immersed in living
water.
Now, what they're referring tohere is flowing water, not still
water like a pond that you justfound somewhere. In both cases,
(13:22):
we tend to think that that wasprimarily for hygienic reasons.
Naturally occurring still wateris usually less than ideal to
dunk yourself in. So mikvahswere generally rock basins, and
they've been excavated all overthe place near springs and
flowing water, often as close aspossible or adjacent to places
of worship like synagogues. Andso for Jewish people, around the
(13:45):
time of Jesus, going under thewater in the mikvah was a normal
regular part of life wheneveryou needed ritual cleansing.
However, also around the time ofJesus, this very strange dude
named John appears on the scene.He wears clothes made of camel
(14:05):
hair. That seems to be anaesthetic decision. A camel hair
would have been incrediblyuncomfortable and itchy to wear.
And he eats grasshoppers and anywild honey that he can find.
And he comes along baptizingpeople, hence the name John the
Baptist. Now lucky for him, Ididn't meet him. Had I met him
(14:25):
at that time, I probably wouldhave called him John the
grasshopper guy. So luckily,John the Baptist is what stuck
for him in the records. But itappears that John is using some
form of what would have happenedin a ritual cleansing in a
mikvah, but now he is sayingthat it is for the repentance of
sins.
And we don't know if there wereother Jewish teachers practicing
(14:48):
similar things around this time.Judaism was probably more
diverse than we reallyunderstand. But what John is
doing here in Matthew, Mark, andin Luke is certainly a deviation
from the traditional way thatJewish people understood what a
mikvah was used for. He's takingan important symbol that put
(15:12):
into practice a commitment toGod's law, and he is transposing
that onto an outward statementto reflect an inward change. A
repentance, a turning away thatsomeone has made in their heart
to internalize their commitmentto God.
Now, for the word the record,the the word baptize here, at
(15:34):
least at this point in thestory, just simply meant to
plunge something under thewater. You can go all the way
back in Greek to Homer and findthis word baptizo being used to
describe a blacksmith plungingan axe into the water to cool
it. So at this point in thestory, John the Baptist is
literally just a description ofwhat this guy is doing. John,
(15:55):
that guy who keeps dunkingpeople in the water. That's all
it means.
But already, we're starting tosee the layering of meaning
that's being added onto thispractice. We have the mikvah,
the place of commitment to thepractice of the way of God. We
have the baptism of John, adisplay of repentance and inward
(16:17):
change. And now we have Jesusshow up on the scene. And this
gets interesting becausealthough we can readily assume
that Jesus as a Jewish personwould have practiced the
baptizing in a mikvah, wouldhave done this regularly
throughout his life, John'sbaptism is for the repentance of
(16:38):
sins.
And that seems an odd fit forthe son of God. Right? What is
Jesus repenting for here? And sonow we get another layer added.
At the end of Matthew three,Jesus comes down to see his
cousin John wanting to bebaptized.
But John tries to deter himsaying, it doesn't make any
(17:01):
sense. You don't need to repent.I need to be baptized by you.
Get out of here. Jesus, though,replies, look.
Let's do this. It's proper forus to do this to fulfill all
righteousness. And so Johnrelents. However, as soon as
Jesus was baptized, he comes upout of the water. And at that
moment, heaven was opened, andhe saw the spirit of God
(17:22):
descending like a dove alightingon him.
And a voice from heaven said,this is my son whom I love. With
him, I'm well pleased. So, wehave a commitment to the law of
God in the mikvah. We have therepentance of sins in John's
baptism. Now we have in Jesus'baptism this point of
(17:45):
identification with the father.
And personally, one of myfavorite gospel moments, I think
one of our tendencies is toimagine that our lives are
really just all about workingour way back to God. And,
certainly, there's truth tothat. Right? All of us are in
(18:06):
some way broken or wounded. Wehave injured each other.
We've sinned. And there is adiscovering of our way back to
God that happens throughout thecourse of our lives. True. But
in baptism, there was also thisvery simple sinking into our
identity as beloved childrenbefore anything else. Like,
(18:32):
Jesus hasn't done anything inthe story yet.
This is chapter three in Mark.This happens in chapter one.
There's no miracles, nodisciples, no teaching, nothing
yet. Just Jesus' realizationthat to fulfill all
righteousness, he needs first tofall into the loving arms of his
(18:52):
father before anything else. AndI love that.
And yet, we're still not done.Because after Easter, after
Jesus is resurrected, after heappears to his disciples, he
calls them to be witnesses tothis resurrection, to
resurrection all around them allthe time, and he charges them to
(19:15):
change the world by pointing outthat good news. Everything we
talked about last week. But thenin Matthew 28, Jesus says,
therefore, go and make disciplesof all nations, baptizing them.
In the name of the father andthe son, the holy spirit,
teaching them to obey everythingI have commanded you.
(19:38):
This right here is where baptismactually now officially becomes
part of Christian practice. Acommitment not only to the law,
but to the way of love that isembodied in the person of Jesus.
And yet, even here, now that wefinally arrived in Christianity,
(20:02):
baptism still isn't done. Itgets yet another layer of
meaning. Paul picks this up inRomans, and he adds, don't you
know that all of us who arebaptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into his death?
We were therefore buried withhim through baptism in order
that just as Christ Jesus wasraised from the dead, we may
(20:23):
begin a new life as well. SoPaul takes this image that
starts with the mikvah, apractice to the commitment of
the way of God that John uses tosymbolize a turning away from
sin, that Jesus uses todemonstrate his resting God's
grace that Christ sees as anentry point into the way of
(20:45):
love, Paul now says, well, look,in looking back, maybe we can
add another layer here as well.Because going down under the
water, well, that looks a lotlike death. Maybe we can
symbolize our identificationwith Christ's death, everything
our eyes are open to on thecross. And coming back up out of
the water, that can connect uswith that same resurrected life
(21:09):
that now infects the world andtransforms our experience of
everything in the light ofEaster.
And so, in the Christiantradition, baptism is all of
this. And yet, maybe even more.Because historically, Christians
(21:31):
have also seen baptism as whatwe would call in our tradition a
means of grace. So not just acommitment, not just a turning
away, not just a resting in God,not just an entry point into the
way of love, and not just anidentification with Christ, but
also a unique moment in ourlives where we experience the
(21:54):
grace of God physically in ourbodies. Here at Commons, much
like we do when we talk aboutthe Eucharist, we would use
language that would affirmbaptism as more than just a
symbol, more than just apersonal decision that we've
made toward God, as if all theimportant parts of faith are
(22:17):
happening on our side of theequation.
No. We would choose to trustthat God is actually somehow
present, meeting with us therein that moment that we are
experiencing something of divinewelcome as we choose to follow
Jesus into and through the waterof baptism. And I think in part,
(22:41):
what we're trying to say withthis language, at least half of
faith, maybe even the mostimportant half of faith, is
somehow actually happening onthe other side, on God's side of
the equation, in the universe'songoing invitation for us to
discover grace all around us.And all this means that in
(23:05):
baptism, you are making acommitment. You're turning from
your sin.
You're resting in God. You'refollowing Jesus' way. You're
identifying with Christ, and youare trusting that grace will
meet you somewhere in the water.And it may be that for you, one
(23:25):
or two, maybe even remarkablyall of those images are where
you will encounter the divine.Because in the technical
theological language, what wesay is that baptism is a means
of grace, not a source of grace.
And, what we're saying with thisis that the sacraments being
baptized, these moments can'tcreate or manufacture. They
(23:48):
can't bestow grace on anyoneever. But, they are liminal
moments in which we encounter,experience, we offer ourselves
to be touched by somethingdivine. But, the question that
often comes out of thatstatement is then, well, does
(24:09):
that mean that if you'rebaptized, you get a jet out of
jail free card? You'reautomatically saved now.
Or does that mean to be saved,you have to be baptized?
Personally, not a particularlybig fan of those questions or
even that language in general,really. I have found that
(24:30):
putting people into categoriesof saved or unsaved is not all
that helpful in real life. Ithink we are all of us in the
process of being saved everysingle day as grace weaves its
way throughout our world. Someof us, we're just lucky enough
to be aware of it as it happens.
But generally, no. Christianshave not believed that baptism
(24:53):
in and of itself can saveanyone. However, almost all
Christians, almost all Christiantraditions do see baptism as an
important part of a faithfulresponse to Jesus' teaching and
invitation. Mean, he tells us tobe baptized, so we should
probably do it eventually. Thequestion then is, well, then
(25:18):
when is eventually?
And that actually gets a littlecomplicated. In the early
church, there are someindications that baptism was
held back, reserved for a periodof learning and discernment. In
the early third century,Hippolytus suggests that a
minimum of three years must goby before a new convert is
(25:41):
baptized. And this was likelydone for the protection of that
person. This was in the periodwhere Christianity would
probably not leave you in goodstanding with the Roman
authorities.
And so it seems that the earlychurch in those first few
centuries was intent onprotecting people from making
rash decisions. Are you sure youwanna do this? It could have
(26:06):
consequences for you. Maybe slowdown, take your time, learn
before you figuratively and,well, literally jump in. That's
it.
In the scriptures themselves, weactually find a much more open
posture to who should bebaptized. For example, in the
book of Acts chapter eight,Philip, one of the disciples,
(26:28):
meets this Ethiopian man whohappens to be riding by in a
chariot, and Philip notices thathe's reading the Hebrew
prophets. So Philip runs afterthe chariot, tracks him down,
says, hey. Do you know what'sgoing on there? That that book
is talking about Jesus.
This Ethiopian man is intrigued,so they walk together. And
Philip explains things to him.And then in verse 36, the man
(26:50):
says to him, look. Here's somewater. What can stand in the way
of me being baptized?
Philip says, nothing. Let's gofor it. In another example, Paul
is locked in this jail inPhilippi, and there's this huge
earthquake. It literally shakesthe door off its hinges. And the
jailer thinks, look.
I'm done for. Prisoners aregonna escape. My life will be on
(27:14):
the hook for theirs. He'sactually about to off himself
when Paul calls out and says,don't hurt yourself. Don't harm
yourself.
We're all still here. We're notgoing to let our good luck turn
into your misfortune. And thejailer is mystified at this
generosity. So Paul tells himthe story of Jesus. And that
night, the jailer and all of hishousehold, which would have
(27:36):
included not only his wife andchildren, but any slaves he
might have had in his house, allof them were baptized.
And so, again, there's this verybroad imagination for who
deserves this kind of encounterwith grace. Not even just those
who've come to faith maybe, butmaybe even anyone connected to
them as well. Which is why insome traditions, children are
(28:02):
not just dedicated, but baptizedinto the church. Trusting that
grace is not just something wechoose for ourselves, but
something that comes to find useven through those that love us.
And children or otherwise, Ithink that is undoubtedly true
in my experience of God.
(28:25):
This is why if you've beenaround commons any length of
time, you'll notice that wewelcome all of it. We welcome
families that choose to baptizetheir infants. We welcome
families that choose to wait forwhen their children will decide
for themselves to be baptized.All of it is grace. All of it
has precedence in scripture.
(28:46):
And maybe like all of oursacraments, a little bit of open
handed mystery is good for us tohang on to, which is what brings
me now all the way back aroundto where we started today. This
idea that perhaps like theadjectives we pile along to
(29:08):
describe a thing, baptism isless about the rules we're
taught, less about what you canarticulate theologically or
ecclesiologically, less evenabout the history behind it, and
more about that long, slow,gentle way that even these
(29:29):
practices weave themselves intoour lives. Sometimes even in
contradictory and yet stillprofoundly beautiful ways. See,
it's good to talk about thesethings. And I think it's fun.
(29:49):
It's wonderful even to learnabout the history and the images
that undergird our practices. Weeven offer a baptism class to
prepare you for what you'reabout to experience. But at some
very important level, themeaning of your baptism will
(30:09):
only begin to take shape as youstart to play with the language
that surrounds it. And you layeryour own meanings, and you
uncover the rules of grace thatin the end don't really seem
like rules at all. And if thatsounds like where your story
might be headed, then perhapsbaptism is worth exploring.
(30:35):
Because maybe the rules that noone can teach you are actually
starting to become part of yourvocabulary now, and that is
grace. Let's pray. God, thankyou for these gifts. These
sacraments where the distancebetween the spirit and our
(30:59):
physical bodies seems very thin.Where things like grapes and
bread, like water can become ameans through which your grace
and love that founded andcreated the universe actually
comes down to touch us.
Thank you for these moments thatreally can't be taught, but are
(31:22):
somehow experienced in our lifetogether as community. May the
mystery and the profound beautyof everything that you offer us
in these practices connect usmore deeply to your heart and
the way of love that shapes oursteps through the world. May
(31:43):
that cause us to be more kind,more generous, more open to the
stories that surround us eachday. And, in that, might grace
actually become the path that wewalk. Not just here in church in
these moments, but through eachof our steps in this life.
(32:06):
In the strong name of the risenChrist we pray. Amen.
Hey, Jeremy here and thanks for listening to our
podcast. If you're intrigued bythe work that we're doing here
at Commons, you can head to ourwebsite, commons.church, for
more information. You can findus on all of the socials
commonschurch. You can subscribeto our YouTube channel, where we
(32:29):
are posting content regularlyfor the community. You can also
join our Discord server.
Head to commons.churchdiscordfor the invite, and there you
will find the community havingall kinds of conversations about
how we can encourage each otherto follow the way of Jesus. We
would love to hear from you.Anyway, thanks for tuning in.
Have a great week. We'll talk toyou soon.
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