Luke 3:15-22

“And all were questioning in their hearts concerning John.”

Last week I talked about that questions could, if used in a positive manner, draw us closer together through the seeking of their answers in one another. Questions create community when used as God’s intended purpose but like all good things that God creates, as humans, we can warp them into something virtually unrecognizable and evil. We can use questioning authority to unite us as nation or we can use it to divide us into chaos.

When I was growing up, reciting the pledge of allegiance started every school day. The entire class proudly stood with our hands over our hearts and recited these words: “I pledge allegiance to the flag, of the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Remember that?

But within my lifetime, this has fallen apart. It’s not that I want to bring the pledge of allegiance back, that isn’t it at all, it’s that I want to be a part of something bigger than myself that I can proudly say I belong to. I want to be a part of something that is united in common cause, common value, and common goal.

Boy, did I seek the wrong vocation didn’t I? Maybe 50 or 100 years ago but certainly not today. The holy catholic church mentioned in our creeds certainly doesn’t feel united, there are even divisions in our own denomination. What about within just our local church?

I wonder perhaps, what questions did you have about me 4 months ago. Yeh, four months can feel like a long time can’t it? Did your questioning unite you or divide you? Did you question the authority the United Methodist Church was assigning to you? Did you question the one doing the sending?

I hope you did. But I also hope that your questioning drew you together rather than causing divide. I also kind of hope you’re at least mostly content about being stuck with me in this time where our world, our country, our people, our families stand divided over… well pretty much any excuse they can find to cause division amongst themselves.

Last week, we celebrated the coming of the magi. Strangers, foreigners from a far off land that received a sign to come and unite their lives through a tiny Messiah. They came to fall on their faces before him, tossing aside their pride and self-reliance, to pay homage to a little star of hope in the world. They gave their wealth but more importantly, they gave themselves.

This week, we celebrate the baptism of that child and we remember our own.

We know the baptism of Jesus is important because the story is told in every Gospel. All three speak of the heavens opening up and the spirit descending upon in him a physical form like that of a dove, peristeran.

If you’re an inquiring mind like me, there are in fact 353 different species of doves all around the world. My first undergraduate degree was in Biology, so I care about these things. When they are pretty and white we call them doves, but when they are brown or gray, we refer to them as pigeons, aka flying rats. But, they are a symbol of peace because it can live virtually anywhere, survive off of virtually anything, and… are generally harmless although possibly terrifying if you’ve ever been mobbed by a flock of them because you had bread in your hand.

Back to our Gospels. Matthew gives us a lovely account of John and Jesus arguing that it is John who should be baptized by Jesus not Jesus by John. Otherwise, the three gospels give very similar accounts.

1. There is always a crowd present. Community appears to be important to all of our Gospel writers.
2. Always the spirit descends in the form of a dove, the symbol of peace.
3. A voice from heaven claims Jesus as its Son.

The Gospels unite in their accounts as baptism unites us together in Christ.

I am giving you this theological lesson to stress some things. The magi did not come alone. Jesus was not baptized alone. Faith is not something we do alone. We are baptized into the community of Christ. It is what unites us together as a church, as a community, and with Christians all across the world theoretically creating one world-wide Christian, nation of believers.

Our common cause, our common value, our common goal. The thing which our questions should draw us closer to rather than create division from.

For Christ to do this, we must stand together as one people under God, indivisible and as the pledge to our nation here on earth once said, we must stand indivisible through what Jesus Christ has taught us: liberty and justice for all. But, oh how easy we forget that those are his teachings: to set free the captives and liberate the oppressed.

Imagine that, Jesus taught us that a community bands together not by whom they exclude but by whom they include. Who they are willing to fight for. Freedom comes through liberation not through oppression.

I want you to pay attention today as we reaffirm our baptism because it is also a reaffirmation of our commitment to what we believe in as Christians and how we should behave as Christians. Actions which draw people into our community rather than turn them away.

Unity occurs for two reasons: Hate and love. People unite together to combat a common enemy. This is a unity of hatred. Or, people unite together to protect one another, a unity of love.

If a church exists only to combat the world outside, it will fall because it is not built upon the love of Christ. If we only exist here in this space to separate ourselves from what is beyond these walls, we are not showing love for them or to them.

Hate can form unions very quickly, but they are shallow pools, easily evaporated when the slightest amount of heat is applied. But unions formed by love, last lifetimes and even generations of lifetimes. A union formed in hate seeks to destroy or make something disappear while unions formed by love seek only to protect one another.

Hate is offensive while love is defensive. Unions formed by love are the strongest shields we can surround ourselves with.

Baptism a shield of love, made of the Holy Spirit, sent down from God, to embrace and claim his Son, and his Son’s community. It is a beautiful reminder that God does not have offensive players on his team but instead claims an impenetrable wall of defense. Christians do not attack but stand strong through any attack. Not based upon our own strength but the strength which God has surrounded us with.

Baptism is a community event whereby a choice is made to give a soul over to be claimed by God as God’s child and part of the catholic union of believers , a community which has gathered together to bear witness. Without the community to hear and witness, nothing is heard. If a voice calls down from the heavens to lay claim to those on earth and no one hears or tells anyone about it, how much power would that claim have?

God is known for embracing the lowly and the meek. God sent the spirit down not as the power of lightning or the force of a hurricane but as the embodiment of a pigeon. We can call it a dove if you like pretty things but as a recognizable symbol world-wide “I claim you, as my child, in peace and love.” Not by force but by choice. Not to unify you against a common enemy but to unite you in love for one another from now, as it was in the beginning and will be until the end of time.

We are to be one nation in Christ. One nation under God.

A single unified defensive force in the world against injustice. Instilling liberty to all who believe. Baptism you see is open to everyone. God’s love is open to everyone. We’re allowed to ask questions, we’re allowed to be different, we’re allowed to be that which God created us to be. What unifies us is our love of Jeus Christ and our willingness to follow the life teachings of Jesus Christ. To adopt common cause, common value, and common goal.

We are united by choice. A choice to love one another as we love our God. A choice that needs reinforced as we tend to forget from time to time what that really means to us.

All stand in body and or spirit as we together, as one community united in love, as we renew the promise we made together.

May, the Lord bless you and keep you;
May the Lord make his face to shine upon you
And be gracious to you;
May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you
And give you peace