There is a new film out called Brooklyn, based on a book by the same
name. Brooklyn is the story of a
young Irish girl, Ellis Lacey, who leaves her family and her village in Ireland
and immigrates all alone to the United States. She has never traveled, never
done anything risky, never been away from her family, and she goes off on this
adventure to find a better life in Brooklyn. She does this because she has more
opportunities in Brooklyn, economically, socially and spiritually.
Nancy Rockwell writes that Brooklyn offers Ellis
the promises of Advent: love, joy, hope and peace (source: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/biteintheapple/learning-to-swim-in-holiness/). But
Ellis must die to her old self in order to live into those promises. She has to
take on a new look in order to get a job. She has to be more assertive in order
to keep that job. She has to be out-going and talk to strangers as a shop girl.
This puts her way out of her element. She has a chance at love with a young
Italian man but this means she must adjust to the ways of a boisterous Italian
family with strange foods and customs.
Then she has to make peace with her mother and
with leaving Ireland behind. Rockwell writes: “Brooklyn is a baptism for Ellis
Lacey, and it is not a splash, it is a long learning to swim in strange waters”
(ibid). It is a baptism because she is totally immersed in a new life. She is
never the same after she goes to Brooklyn. She is blessed by the experience.
She is transformed by Brooklyn.
We know with blessings come some level of risk. We
know this from our own lives. In order to experience something new that is a
blessing, we have to step into a new future, and leave the old behind. Ellis’
character, in order to be blessed, must leave everything behind, her home, her
family, and her people. She has to die to her old life in order to be
resurrected into a new life in Brooklyn.
The people of Israel learned this lesson from John
as he was teaching and baptizing along the Jordan River. The people who came to
John in the wilderness were sort of risking their lives because bathing in the
sea was not an ordinary experience and people did not know how to swim in those
days (ibid). These people wanted to leave their old lives behind. They wanted a
new life. They wanted to step into something new.
Being baptized by immersion, which is when you let
the person dip your whole body into the water, well, this was an act of real
faith, don’t you think? You had to trust that the person baptizing you had the
strength to hold you and lift you back up out of the water.
For Ellis Lacey, there were many hands involved in
her baptism that she had to trust. She was fearful at first, but over time she
learned to trust. She trusted the woman who ran the boardinghouse where she
lived and the other women who lived there. She learned to trust the supervisor
at her store, and Tony, who became her boyfriend. She trusted her dying sister,
who did not tell Ellis she was dying, so that Ellis would not get stuck caring
for their mother. Ellis must choose to embrace the arms that wanted to help
her, the arms of her baptism.
Christians have several ideas about what happens
when we get baptized. John said that baptism cleanses us from our sin. It seems
like everything will be fine with us once we are baptized and washed clean, but
of course, we know as Christians that life after baptism is not a bed of roses.
We will still encounter hardships.
In some Christian traditions the one who is baptized
is wrapped in holiness, with water on the head, oil on the heart and white
linen cloths wrapped around and around the one who is baptized as a symbol of
holiness.
In other traditions baptism is a symbolic death
and resurrection. The baptized one is tied to a future beyond this world.
Being baptized means that we balance ourselves in
the waters of life in this world; which includes both death and holy blessing.
Even Jesus had to be baptized. You might think
that he was too perfect. Why would he need to die to an old life and be raised
up into a new life? But Jesus came to John and presented himself for baptism.
When he was baptized, so the story goes, the heavens opened up, and the Holy
Spirit came down in the form of a dove. A voice was heard that said: “You are
my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.” This was God claiming Jesus
as God’s own child. This was a Holy Spirit baptism.
We get a Holy Spirit baptism too. Many of us were
baptized as infants. We don’t even remember the event, but that does not make
it any less important. On the day I was baptized, both sets of grandparents
traveled from Texas to our home in Kansas to celebrate. Because you see, when a
baby is baptized, we claim the Holy Spirit with that child, forever more. This
child has not been around long enough to truly sin, so the child does not need
to be cleansed of any wrong doing. But the child is claimed by God, just as
Jesus was: “This is my beloved child, with you I am well pleased.”
When you were baptized, God said these words to
you: “This is my beloved child, with you I am well pleased.” Whether or not you were immersed in the water
or sprinkled with a few drops or had water poured over your head, it does not
matter. The water is a sign. You left behind a life without God and stepped
into a new life with God. Just like Ellis Lacey left behind her life in Ireland
and stepped into a new life in Brooklyn. She was taking a risk and God is
taking a risk on us.
So what does it mean to live as a baptized person?
First, we put our trust in God’s promises. We live as people who expect the
best out of one another. We treat one another as a child of God. You see, if I
believe I am a child of God, then I also have to treat you like a child of God,
precious and beloved.
How would this world be a different place if each
one of us treated everyone else as a precious and beloved child of God? What if
all the people who claim to be Christian would do that? Treat others as
precious and beloved children of God? We would have a revolution of kindness.
What if we all believed in ourselves? You see,
when we are baptized, we are marked forever as God’s own children. God makes
people who have gifts and who have something to contribute to the world. God
does not make losers. So what if rather than being so hard on ourselves, we
decided to believe in ourselves and live out our dreams? The world would be
filled with people empowered to live the calling that God put them on this
earth to live out. How wonderful that would be.
What else does it mean to live as a baptized
person? It means we live with compassion. We don’t just think of ourselves and
our own families. We care about other people. We want to serve God by serving
others. We feed the hungry, give comfort to the sick, we show compassion to
those who grieve.
Living as a baptized person also means we are
generous. We don’t worry about not having enough. We recognize that God will
provide for our needs, and so we give generously to help others. When we have
an abundance, we share. We give thanks for God’s blessings in our lives, and
rather than hoarding, we share what we have with others who are in need.
I
read a prayer this week in Joyce Rupp’s book Fragments of Your Ancient Name that said,
“Jesus…I
understand you are more than a name.
To know you
is to allow your teachings
To reach
into the core of my daily life,
To have your
vision be the vital substance
Of what
truly guides and rules how I live.”
(Source: Fragments of Your Ancient Name, Joyce
Rupp, reading for January 7.)
You see, once we are baptized, we invite Jesus’
teachings into the core of our daily lives. We have his vision guide and rule
how we live. This is because the Holy Spirit is living in us and we are paying
attention to that Holy Spirit.
It’s like this: once we are claimed by God, we are
marked as members of God’s family. We are marked by the water of baptism.
Nothing we do can un-do that baptism. We might become terrible people, commit
crimes, never go to church, do everything we can to turn away from God, but God
never turns away from us. God is always there waiting for us to come back,
because we are baptized, and filled with the Holy Spirit.
That spark of the Holy Spirit always lives in us.
It may be deep inside. The fire may be a tiny flicker, but the Holy Spirit is
always in us. This Spirit is what connects us to God. When we feel a sense that
God is pulling or pushing us in a certain direction, that is the Holy Spirit in
us. When we feel a sense that God is leading us down a path, that is the Holy
Spirit at work.
You see, just as the young Ellis Lacey was
immersed in her experience of Brooklyn, and was forever changed by it, we are
immersed in the waters of baptism and forever changed. The Holy Spirit takes up
residence in our hearts and will never move out.
Today in worship, we gave people an opportunity to
remember their baptism. We had a bowl of water. It symbolized the waters of
baptism. We were invited to come to the water and touch it, remembering that we
are blessed by the Holy Spirit. You were claimed in your baptism as God’s
beloved child and you are still that beloved child today. You can do this at home today too. There is no magic to the water we used. Pour yourself some. Then come to the water, touch the water, and
remember that you are blessed. You are
God’s beloved child, with whom God is well pleased. Amen.
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