The Risk Of Baptism In The Holy Spirit
Sermon
Some years ago, Japanese game shows were quite popular on television. They were a kind of endurance test, whereby the one who endured the longest through a number of different "games" was the eventual winner of the show.
Although "games" must be something of a classic British understatement, for they always looked to me to be more like refined acts of torture. It's amazing what people will put themselves through in order to reach some enticing reward.
In the case of the Japanese games show the reward was a large cash prize, so that the whole thing was somewhat reminiscent of those dancing contests in the Thirties, where young people would dance until they literally dropped in order to win a cash prize.
But some people undergo tests of endurance not to win a cash prize, but in order to gain entry to some highly valued organisation. Years ago, some primitive tribes had initiation ceremonies to mark the rite of passage from adolescence to adulthood. And there are both military organisations and secret organisations which continue to demand the passing of initiation ceremonies before full membership is granted.
Most of the organisations with which I've ever been involved have stylised their initiation ceremony, so that it now involves little more than shaking hands and accepting a badge. Although most of the children's organisations, like the Brownies and the Cubs, demand that new members recite the promise and a few rules before they are admitted.
It's interesting to read in Jewish War 2 by Josephus, that great Jewish historian who wrote around the time of Jesus, that there was no immediate initiation for those who were eager to join the Essene party.
Josephus says:
Rather, he gives one a small axe, the loincloth and white garments.
But then Josephus immediately adds:
putting him under a discipline for one year while he remains outside.
138 And if during this examination period he gives evidence of his self-control, they lead him nearer to their discipline, letting him participate in cleaner waters for purification. But he is not yet received into their common life. For after proving his endurance, his character is tested for two more years. And then, if he appears worthy, he is admitted to the community.
139 But before he touches the common meal, he professes awesome vows:
First (1) he is to be pious towards God.
Next (2) he is to keep justice towards men;
(3) he is to wrong no one either deliberately or on being forced;
(4) he is always to hate the unjust and to take the side of the just;
140 (5) he is always to extend trust to all, especially those in power. For no one's rule can prevail against God; and
(6) if he should rule, he is never to vaunt his authority, nor by dress or any outward ornament outshine those in lower ranks;
141 (7) he is always to love Truth and challenge liars;
(8) he is to keep his hands from stealing and his hands clean from unlawful gain;
(9) he is neither to hide anything from party members nor to disclose anything of theirs to others, even if tortured to death.
142 Besides these, he vows:
(10) to transmit their teachings in no way other than that in which he received them;
(11) to keep apart from banditry; and
(12) to protect the party's books, and likewise the names of the angels.
Such are the vows by which initiates are bound. (Josephus, Jewish War 2, 137-142)
It all sounds like pretty tough stuff to me!
John the Baptist was thought to have been at least associated with the Essene community. Some believe him to have been trained by them, hence his sudden emergence from the desert which was where the Essenes were based.
John was what we would now describe as a "hellfire preacher". He demanded total immersion from his followers, which symbolised that inward purity and repentance which would deliver them from immersion in the coming river of fire. John was thought to be the last of the old prophets who preached about the coming day of reckoning, and who visualised it as something utterly terrifying. The images of purification are always of refiner's fire, as though the badness and evil could only be burned out of people's souls. Hence the medieval images of Hell.
The people loved John's preaching, and although some left him to follow Jesus, he still had plenty of disciples of his own at the end of his life. Indeed his disciples continued long after his life, for some, called Mandeans, survive to this day near Baghdad.
Jesus was one of those who came to John for baptism by total immersion. And this seems to have been a transforming moment in Jesus' own life, for it was after this that he began his own ministry in Galilee.
Mark certainly regards this moment as the beginning of Jesus' ministry, for he describes the heavens as "rent asunder", torn apart. And Mark uses the identical phrase at end of Jesus' ministry, when Jesus is hanging on the cross and the curtain of the temple is torn apart.
At the same moment a dove, a symbol of the Holy Spirit borrowed from Genesis, from the creation of the world when God's spirit hovered like a bird over the waters, is seen hovering over Jesus. (See John M. Allegro, "The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross.")
We don't know whether all this was an internal or an external experience. Although it's written to sound as though it was external, it passed by unremarked by any of the onlookers or the other people who were baptised with Jesus. And John doesn't seem to have taken much notice of it since he continued with his own ministry and his own disciples until he died. So it's perhaps more likely to have been an internal spiritual experience for Jesus.
Whichever it was, for Jesus himself it clearly marked a defining moment in his life, a moment of turning to God, putting the past behind him and accepting the ministry God offered him.
Ever since then, baptism has marked entry into the Christian Church, which is why all our medieval churches have the font at the back of the Church near the door, symbolising entry. All who are baptised in whatever Church are full members of any Christian Church throughout the world.
Baptism today is much easier than it was in the early days of the Church. In those days Baptismal candidates had to undergo months of instruction and catechism and fasting before they could be admitted as full members of the Church, at Easter.
Today, those of us who were baptised as infants have no memory whatsoever of our baptism. But it's through life-giving baptism with the Holy Spirit that Jesus will create a new people of God (Mark 1:8).
There's no initiation ceremony for this baptism. There's no catechism or vows or fasting. There's no long period of waiting. Anyone who turns to God and puts the past behind them can receive that baptism.
The risk is, that after accepting and acknowledging the God within, the Holy Spirit, God might ask us, just as he asked Jesus, to step out into some new form of ministry.
And then what would we do?
Although "games" must be something of a classic British understatement, for they always looked to me to be more like refined acts of torture. It's amazing what people will put themselves through in order to reach some enticing reward.
In the case of the Japanese games show the reward was a large cash prize, so that the whole thing was somewhat reminiscent of those dancing contests in the Thirties, where young people would dance until they literally dropped in order to win a cash prize.
But some people undergo tests of endurance not to win a cash prize, but in order to gain entry to some highly valued organisation. Years ago, some primitive tribes had initiation ceremonies to mark the rite of passage from adolescence to adulthood. And there are both military organisations and secret organisations which continue to demand the passing of initiation ceremonies before full membership is granted.
Most of the organisations with which I've ever been involved have stylised their initiation ceremony, so that it now involves little more than shaking hands and accepting a badge. Although most of the children's organisations, like the Brownies and the Cubs, demand that new members recite the promise and a few rules before they are admitted.
It's interesting to read in Jewish War 2 by Josephus, that great Jewish historian who wrote around the time of Jesus, that there was no immediate initiation for those who were eager to join the Essene party.
Josephus says:
Rather, he gives one a small axe, the loincloth and white garments.
But then Josephus immediately adds:
putting him under a discipline for one year while he remains outside.
138 And if during this examination period he gives evidence of his self-control, they lead him nearer to their discipline, letting him participate in cleaner waters for purification. But he is not yet received into their common life. For after proving his endurance, his character is tested for two more years. And then, if he appears worthy, he is admitted to the community.
139 But before he touches the common meal, he professes awesome vows:
First (1) he is to be pious towards God.
Next (2) he is to keep justice towards men;
(3) he is to wrong no one either deliberately or on being forced;
(4) he is always to hate the unjust and to take the side of the just;
140 (5) he is always to extend trust to all, especially those in power. For no one's rule can prevail against God; and
(6) if he should rule, he is never to vaunt his authority, nor by dress or any outward ornament outshine those in lower ranks;
141 (7) he is always to love Truth and challenge liars;
(8) he is to keep his hands from stealing and his hands clean from unlawful gain;
(9) he is neither to hide anything from party members nor to disclose anything of theirs to others, even if tortured to death.
142 Besides these, he vows:
(10) to transmit their teachings in no way other than that in which he received them;
(11) to keep apart from banditry; and
(12) to protect the party's books, and likewise the names of the angels.
Such are the vows by which initiates are bound. (Josephus, Jewish War 2, 137-142)
It all sounds like pretty tough stuff to me!
John the Baptist was thought to have been at least associated with the Essene community. Some believe him to have been trained by them, hence his sudden emergence from the desert which was where the Essenes were based.
John was what we would now describe as a "hellfire preacher". He demanded total immersion from his followers, which symbolised that inward purity and repentance which would deliver them from immersion in the coming river of fire. John was thought to be the last of the old prophets who preached about the coming day of reckoning, and who visualised it as something utterly terrifying. The images of purification are always of refiner's fire, as though the badness and evil could only be burned out of people's souls. Hence the medieval images of Hell.
The people loved John's preaching, and although some left him to follow Jesus, he still had plenty of disciples of his own at the end of his life. Indeed his disciples continued long after his life, for some, called Mandeans, survive to this day near Baghdad.
Jesus was one of those who came to John for baptism by total immersion. And this seems to have been a transforming moment in Jesus' own life, for it was after this that he began his own ministry in Galilee.
Mark certainly regards this moment as the beginning of Jesus' ministry, for he describes the heavens as "rent asunder", torn apart. And Mark uses the identical phrase at end of Jesus' ministry, when Jesus is hanging on the cross and the curtain of the temple is torn apart.
At the same moment a dove, a symbol of the Holy Spirit borrowed from Genesis, from the creation of the world when God's spirit hovered like a bird over the waters, is seen hovering over Jesus. (See John M. Allegro, "The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross.")
We don't know whether all this was an internal or an external experience. Although it's written to sound as though it was external, it passed by unremarked by any of the onlookers or the other people who were baptised with Jesus. And John doesn't seem to have taken much notice of it since he continued with his own ministry and his own disciples until he died. So it's perhaps more likely to have been an internal spiritual experience for Jesus.
Whichever it was, for Jesus himself it clearly marked a defining moment in his life, a moment of turning to God, putting the past behind him and accepting the ministry God offered him.
Ever since then, baptism has marked entry into the Christian Church, which is why all our medieval churches have the font at the back of the Church near the door, symbolising entry. All who are baptised in whatever Church are full members of any Christian Church throughout the world.
Baptism today is much easier than it was in the early days of the Church. In those days Baptismal candidates had to undergo months of instruction and catechism and fasting before they could be admitted as full members of the Church, at Easter.
Today, those of us who were baptised as infants have no memory whatsoever of our baptism. But it's through life-giving baptism with the Holy Spirit that Jesus will create a new people of God (Mark 1:8).
There's no initiation ceremony for this baptism. There's no catechism or vows or fasting. There's no long period of waiting. Anyone who turns to God and puts the past behind them can receive that baptism.
The risk is, that after accepting and acknowledging the God within, the Holy Spirit, God might ask us, just as he asked Jesus, to step out into some new form of ministry.
And then what would we do?
