All Saints, Dorval
The Baptism of the Lord, Year B
January 10, 2021
Artist’s depiction of Luther confronting the devil.
Three years ago this weekend, I finished up at the job I had before coming to Montreal, a two-year stint as an associate interim pastor at a Lutheran congregation on the New Hampshire seacoast. (In the US, as in Canada, Lutherans and Anglicans/Episcopalians are in “full communion” and can serve each other’s churches.)
It was a wonderful, vibrant congregation at which I had a lot of fun as well as doing some good ministry. And I learned a lot about Martin Luther, whose thought and example still plays a role in the denomination that bears his name, in a way that really has no equivalent in the Anglican tradition. (I also happened to be there for the 500th anniversary of the 95 Theses, in October of 2017 – that was an experience, let me tell you!)
Luther, of course, started out as a Roman Catholic priest, monk, and theologian, who was increasingly tormented by his feeling that he could never be good enough to please God. Rereading Paul’s letter to the Romans, he had a blinding revelation of God’s freely given grace, and realized that God’s love and blessing was not dependent on his ability to follow rules, but solely on God’s decision to choose and save him. From that revelation, it is only a slight exaggeration to say, flowed the entire Protestant Reformation.
I’m starting today with Luther because his understanding of God’s grace and blessing was rooted in his baptism. Baptism, for Luther, was the ultimate expression of how we belong to God, no matter what. Once we are baptized, there is no power, in heaven or on earth or under the earth, that can separate use from God’s love. As the BAS states flatly: “The bond which God establishes in baptism is indissoluble.”
Although Luther’s conversion experience while reading Romans changed his whole outlook on life and faith, it certainly did not mean that he never experienced doubt and struggle again. Thrust into the role of a leader of the new Protestant movement – when all he had ever wanted to do was reform the Church, not found a new one – he lived a turbulent life, constantly debating his opponents and in danger from the authorities. He translated the whole Bible into German while holed up in an ally’s castle to avoid being captured or killed. Not surprisingly, he was often plagued with fear and anxiety, and with doubt and discouragement about whether any of this would ever bear fruit.
When all of this started to get Luther down, he had a unique strategy: he would stand up, face down the devil that he believed to be tormenting him, and yell, “I am baptized!” (He was also known to throw ink pots across the room.) Some sources indicate that he would write the same phrase – “I am baptized” – in chalk on his desk, to remind himself, as he worked, of his unbreakable connection to Christ and to the communion of saints.
We could do worse, I think, than to do the same. There is a lot to get us down these days. A lot to make it seem like evil is ascendant in the world, and like fear and despair are a logical response. A lot to make us wonder where God is in the midst of the chaos.
But in our baptism, God says to each and every one of us, as God said to Jesus in the river Jordan, “You are my Child, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
To quote the BAS again (this is on page 146, if you’re curious):
Baptism is the sign of new life in Christ. Baptism unites Christ with his people. That union is both individual and corporate. Christians are, it is true, baptized one by one, but to be a Christian is to be part of a new creation which rises from the dark waters of Christ’s death into the dawn of his risen life. Christians are not just baptized individuals; they are a new humanity.
Our participation, through baptism, in the communion of saints is not just something to be celebrated in the good times, in the times of triumph when the saints come marching in bright array. It is also something to be held onto through the bad times, when we feebly struggle and God feels far away. In this time of plague and insurrection, we can perhaps sympathize more than we might have been able to before with someone like Martin Luther, trying to stay alive and preach God’s word in a Europe fractured by religious violence and subject to periodic outbreaks of the Black Death.
God’s people have always been tempted, tested, and sorely tried. And always, our strongest weapon in the fact of doubt and despair has been to stand up and shout in the devil’s face: “I am baptized!” Not “I was baptized” – “I am baptized.” Then, at the time of my baptism; now; and forever after, I stand in the assurance of God’s blessing and belovedness, because I am a member of the body of Christ and of the communion of saints.
(Throwing an inkwell is optional.)
And so, in remembrance and renewal of our baptism, let us bless water according to the form on page 156 of the BAS.
Thanksgiving over the Water
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
We give you thanks, almighty God and Father, for by the gift of water you nourish and sustain all living things.
Blessed be God for ever.
We give you thanks that through the waters of the Red Sea, you led your people out of slavery to freedom in the promised land.
Blessed be God for ever.
We give you thanks for sending your Son Jesus. For us he was baptized by John in the river Jordan. For us he was anointed as Christ by your Holy Spirit. For us he suffered the baptism of his own death and resurrection, setting us free from the bondage of sin and death, and opening to us the joy and freedom of everlasting life.
Blessed be God for ever.
We give you thanks for your Holy Spirit who teaches us and leads us into all truth, filling us with his gifts so that we might proclaim the gospel to all nations and serve you as a royal priesthood.
Blessed be God for ever.
We give you thanks for you have called us to new life through the waters of baptism. Now sanctify this water, that your servants who have been washed in it may be made one with Christ in his death and resurrection, to be cleansed and delivered from all sin. Anoint us with your Holy Spirit and bring us to new birth in the family of your Church, that we may become inheritors of your glorious kingdom. We give you praise and honour and worship through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, now and for ever.
Blessed are you, our strength and song, and our salvation.
Now, I invite you to dip your hand into the water and make the sign of the cross as I conclude with this prayer from, appropriately enough, the Lutheran Worship Book:
Holy God, creator of light and giver of goodness: your voice moves over the waters. Immerse us in your grace, and transform us by your Spirit, that we may follow after your Son, Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
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