Year A - First Sunday after Epiphany: Baptism of Our Savior - January 8, 2023
Baptism and Christian Formation
In honor of our Beloved Trinity: God, Christ, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
I was 16, it was Friday night, and I was dawdling outside a White Castle restaurant with a gaggle of my friends. This White Castle was dripping with teenagers most Friday nights in autumn because it sat conveniently near an all-boys Catholic high school and a large public high school. Where else would a teenager go after a football game but a greasy fast food restaurant? There I was finishing my milkshake attempting a cute girl pose when to my shock an adorable brown-eyed boy walked up with a flirty grin and said, “Hi, I’m John, can I ask you a question?” I returned the handshake with excitement and replied, “Sure.”
John stepped in a bit and asked, “Have you accepted the light of Jesus Christ into your life and follow him as your Lord and Savior?” Now John, who was likely John the Baptist boy, had seen my heels, and mini-skirt, and Cyndi Lauper make-up, and assumed my soul was in danger.
What poor John the Baptist boy did not know was that I went to Presentation Academy for Girls and we talked about our spiritual life All. The. Time. Plus, I had just been confirmed. So I pulled John in a little closer and said, “Yes, I have. I stood in front of my parish and declared my faith, renewing my vows to love God and obey the Church. Then I knelt in front of my Bishop and as he placed his hands on my head to invoke the Holy Spirit over my life, I saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and a voice from heaven said, ‘You are Beloved, with you I am well pleased.’”
John replied, “Really?” I grabbed his hand in both of mine said, “Let us pray.” By the time I got through the Lord’s Prayer and the Gloria Patri John had wriggled away and hightailed it across the street. I was unusually proud of the fact I scared off a good Evangelical boy with my own Christian testimony and prayer, but that isn’t very kind.
The point of the story is the importance of spiritual formation. Not just Sunday School or confirmation class, or bible study, but sustained formation in worship. Worship that springs from the practices of the ancient Church. Our ritual around the altar in weekly eucharist was established before the New Testament was written down. The Nicene Creed which describes our core belief of God, Christ, salvation, and the Holy Spirit was confirmed at the same time as the canon of Christian scripture.
There is a lot of Christian media that tries to convince us only spiritual ecstasy and dramatic conversion experiences can result in a deeply committed Christian. Somehow, baptism only sticks if accompanied by tears and wailing. We understand it to be a lifelong commitment to living out our vows, closer to marriage than infatuation.
John the Baptist boy had been taught that without the trappings of a sheltered, bible-quoting, religious lifestyle, I couldn’t possibly be saved. Folks, it was my worship formation that gave me confidence in my faith, not Christian pop music.
Week in and week out in this sacred space we invoke the Holy Spirit over our lives. We read prayers as one because these ancient words hold power. We sing hymns all the way through 4 or 6 or 8 verses because they teach theology. We stand and sit and kneel and process together because these actions train our souls.
Regular worship with a loving community of faith sustains our identity as Christ’s own forever in baptism. Whether we were sprinkled, soaked, or dunked as infants or adults, the waters of our baptism folded us into the Body of Christ. And it is the Body of Christ, together, every week that can get us through all the joys and tragedies of life.
I sincerely hope John the Baptist boy experienced the same spiritual grounding I have received through the deep tradition of liturgical worship. I pray his faith matured to understand that inviting someone to faith is an act of love, not judgment.
There is a prayer we reserve solely for baptisms. You won’t hear it when we just renew our baptismal covenant on Easter or at Confirmations. It uses the Anglican structure of a collect, but bubbles from a tradition over a thousand years old. Please turn to page 308 in the Book of Common Prayer.
Reading together, let us pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you that by water and the Holy Spirit you have bestowed upon these your servants the forgiveness of sin, and have raised them to the new life of grace. Sustain them, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit. Give them an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works. Amen.
Dean Vanessa Clark+