The Ven. Margaret Grayden
“Remember Your Baptism”
February 11, 2024
“Remember your baptism!” I’m so conditioned now that whenever I hear that phrase, I’m tempted to duck on the theory that someone—here’s looking at you, Ernie—someone with a sprig of rosemary is about to fling holy water in my direction. In all seriousness, I appreciate those periodic reminders that come with asperging, or the ritual of asperges—the technical term for sprinkling a congregation with holy water. It is important to remember, or if we can’t remember our actual baptism because we were baptized as infants or very young children, to nonetheless take time to think about its significance. To remember our baptism in this sense is to remember our core identity—who we are, and whose we are.
Jesus had a very memorable baptism, one which made it perfectly clear who He was and whose He was. The heavens were torn apart, the Holy Spirit descended on Him like a dove, and a voice from heaven proclaimed Him the beloved. Wow. My experience of baptism wasn’t nearly that dramatic—at least, not in the externals (the inner experience of baptism is a different story—but that’s another sermon). And yet, one of the interesting differences between Mark’s account of the baptism of Jesus and the accounts of Matthew, Luke, and John, is that in Mark’s version, there is no indication that anyone other than Jesus saw what He saw and heard what He heard. You could say that in Mark, we get the experience of Jesus’s baptism from the perspective of Jesus himself, as opposed to the perspective of eyewitnesses. The language here is personal—Jesus hears a voice say to Him, “You are my son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”[1] Compare this to the account in Matthew, for example, in which the voice says (as if to a crowd): “This is my son, the Beloved; with whom I am well pleased.”[2] Or consider the version in John, which is told from John’s perspective as a witness to the baptism: “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.”[3]
The gospel reading appointed for this First Sunday in Lent covers a great deal of territory in just a few short verses. It starts with the baptism of Jesus, but then moves immediately to the temptation in the wilderness, and concludes with Jesus proclaiming that the Kingdom of God has come near, and it is time to repent and believe in the good news. If some of this sounds familiar, it should—we heard parts of it in Epiphany, when we marked the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord. These three events or episodes in the earthly life of Jesus, as it were, appear in all four gospels. This liturgical year, we hear Mark’s version, which is full of urgency and drama, but light on details. It’s as if Mark is in such a hurry to share the good news that he offers a high-level summary rather than a play-by-play. In Mark’s version of the temptation, we learn only that Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days, that he was tempted by Satan, and that the Spirit, wild beasts, and angels were also present. In Matthew’s and Luke’s accounts, by contrast, we get a whole dialogue between Satan and Jesus, including the particulars of the temptations and how Jesus responded to them (for example: Satan says: “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” Jesus replies: “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’”[4])
This is all very interesting, but what does it have to do with us, the people of God gathered in this particular time and place? Lent is the season of the liturgical year in which we are encouraged to engage in self-examination and repentance in preparation for Easter. The forty days of Lent echo the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness immediately after his baptism, fasting and battling temptation. Jesus’s journey is our journey—the specifics differ, but the general arc is the same. Each of us has had the experience of being called by God and responding to that call; something (or to be more precise, Someone) has drawn us to church and keeps us coming back when we might choose otherwise. Each of us at some point has found ourselves in the wilderness—either literally or metaphorically—battling temptation. And God calls each of us again and again to turn away from sin, from that which separates us from the One who created us and loves us beyond measure, and to turn toward Jesus—in short, to repent and believe in the good news. In fact, as pastor and theologian Chelsey Harmon has noted, some baptismal liturgies dating back to the second century include a series of renunciations and commitments that mirror the very Lenten journey summarized in today’s Gospel text.[5] This is certainly the case in our particular stream of Christianity, the Episcopal Church. Take a look at the service of Holy Baptism in the Book of Common prayer and think about that. And if you have been wondering if God might be calling you to be baptized, pay attention to that nudge from the Holy Spirit and reach out to one of the clergy. Lent is the perfect time to prepare for baptism.
Just a few days ago, on Ash Wednesday, we were invited, in the name of the church, to the observance of a Holy Lent. There are many different ways to do this. Here are a few possibilities. Try a new spiritual discipline or practice, such as Morning Prayer, Compline, or Centering Prayer. Engage in works of service, such as collecting food items and toiletries for students at CA House and The Belfry. Consider giving up something important to you during Lent, such as a favorite food or activity, in order to better focus on God. Make time to gather with others to study and pray. Our rector Pamela is teaching a class on the prayer book, and Helen Campbell is offering a discussion group exploring the theme of forgiveness. There is more information about each of these Lenten opportunities in the announcements. Remember that it isn’t so much what we choose to do to observe Lent that is important. Rather, it is the spirit in which we do it that matters. May we continually strive to cultivate a spirit of humility and openness, so that, in the words of today’s Psalm, we can pray: “Show us your ways, O God, and teach us your paths” this Lent and really mean it.
[1] Mark 1:11; see also Luke 3:22
[2] Matthew 3:17
[3] John 1:32
[4] Luke 4:3-4; see also Matthew 4:3-4
[5] https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2024-02-12/mark-19-15-4, accessed on 02/17/24.
