Redeemed by Fire and Flood

Chaos.    What comes to mind when I say that word?  Chaos.    Do you think of natural catastrophes… like the huge avalanche in Colorado this week that knocked two carloads of people off of a mountain pass and into the trees?  Do you picture a wall of snow one hundred feet wide and fifteen feet deep hurtling down a mountainside… turning the earth and sky blinding white ...heaving… rolling… tossing two full-sized vehicles around like Matchbox cars… people screaming in terror… and then the awful silence… except for people moaning in pain and crying for help.    Chaos.

Or do you think of historical disasters, like the hurricane that hit Galveston Island in the early morning hours of September 8, 1900.  One day, Galveston was a thriving, bustling city… larger than the city of Houston at the time… and the next day, Galveston was a sodden, twisted pile of death and debris.  In between, all the fury of the heavens focused on that small piece of real estate.  There were hurricane winds so strong that, at 155 mph, they broke the equipment designed to measure them.  The barometric pressure was the lowest ever recorded.    The highest elevation on the island at that time was eight feet above sea level.  The storm surge from that hurricane was over fifteen feet high.  And it came in the middle of the night… in the darkness… and caught everyone unprepared.  More than 6,000 people died in a single night… the equivalent of entire population of Giddings… Granbury… or even Lampasas… wiped out..  Most of the dead were swept out to sea in the incredible storm surge that covered the island.  And the city of Galveston has never recovered the status that it once had as one of the largest and most profitable ports in the country. 

            In most religions, the stories of creation begin with chaos.  Not human acts of wanton destruction against other humans, but the chaos of unformed, uncontrolled, unfocused, non-existence.  Even scientific theory… the so-called “Big Bang” theory of evolution begins with violence and destruction…the explosion of a universe into being billions of years ago.  “The earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep.”  “The Spirit of God swept over the face of the waters” …the limitless expanse of the primordial sea.    I picture that primordial sea like the ocean in the movie, “The Perfect Storm”… huge waves… constant motion… powerful… destructive… restless energy without focus…   And God spoke.    From chaos came life.    From water and the Word of God, the heavens and the earth were created.    And, on the final day… in those final hours… came the culmination of the effort of our almighty and all-powerful God…humankind.  Created in God’s own image… a Creature blessed with Godlike perfection… and, yet, not God, but human… fallible… weak… vulnerable to temptation… to sin… and to destruction. 

            In perfect love, you were created.  Out of chaos, you were given life.  Formed from the dust of the earth, you have been shaped by the Master’s hand… breathed into being by God for only one purpose:  to glorify God and be in relationship with God forever.    And the Word of God is in you… for with the Word of God, you were created.  As John says in his gospel:  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  That Word of God was given to us when God gave us breath… the breath of life… breathed from God.  We belong to God.    Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, we belong to God... as a painting belongs to the painter… or a piece of sculpture belongs to the sculptor… regardless of where it is… or who uses it… so, too, do we belong to our Creator... to the One who gave us life. 

            So, what does all this have to do with our passage from Isaiah… or the baptism of Jesus?    The answer to that is very simple:  We tend to forget who we are… and whose we are.    And, it is not that we have not been reminded of whose we are.  For throughout history, God has worked to claim us over and over again… from death and destruction… from sin and evil… from our enemies and those who persecute us…   We can read the story of Noah and the Great Flood… the story of Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah…the story of Moses and the Egyptians… the story of David and the Philistines… and many other stories as well.  God has worked overtime to preserve and defend us.  For we are God’s chosen people.  Time after time, God has redeemed us.  And, in one great act of love, God sent his only Son to die for us… and, in that act, to cleanse us and restore us to holy perfection.    God came to live among us and, in an ultimate act of sacrifice, gave his own life for us… us, God’s creation.    And it is in the waters of baptism that we remember our creation… and our Creator… and our redemption… and our Redeemer.  For it was in Jesus’ baptism, that God claimed him before the world as God’s own Son… with a rending of barrier between heaven and earth… and with the presence of Holy Spirit descending to rest on him in the form of a dove. 

            Here is the irony that we deal with in the church today when we baptize our own:  That the ceremony that we use to remember our creation and our redemption at the hands of God bears little or no resemblance to the chaos in which those acts took place.    Think about some of the infant baptisms that you have witnessed in your life.    Men and women, dressed in their Sunday best, come forward to the chancel area… bearing a child often decked out in a frilly, lacy white “wear-it-once” outfit… to meet a man or woman robed in black.  Everyone moves slowly… somberly… as they gather together.  Whispers are exchanged… instructions on where to stand… confirmation of the baby’s name... other details.  Then, words are spoken aloud… a few questions… a few answers… a few drops of water delicately sprinkled on the baby’s forehead… sometimes in the form of a cross.  Not much water… just a little.  Water from a tiny little shell… tame water… peaceful water… still water… holy water…  The baby cries.  More words are said.  Documents are given to the parents… tiny pieces of paper that mark the moment… like legal documents in a legal ceremony.  Then everyone sits down… and life goes on as usual. 

            What happened to chaos… to destruction… to sin and death… to fire and flood… to evil in all its forms… to hell and damnation?    Did you see it?    Did you truly understand what God was doing for that baby in that moment?    Did you witness the cosmic war that was won in that brief ritual? 

I believe that, for us to truly understand a tiny piece of what happens to us in baptism, we need to picture this entire sanctuary flooded with water… all the way up to the ceiling.  Turbulent water… churning water… water filled with blood… Christ’s blood that was shed for us… the blood of salvation.    Then, at the moment of baptism, the pastor, acting on behalf of Christ himself, takes the baby in his or her arms… as God has taken us… and just dives into that swirling, churning water… fully clothed in all his or her humanity and sin… and the congregation prays, in blind faith, that God will somehow save them both before they drown.  We need to see that water swirling around them… chaotic… destructive… to feel it pulling at their clothes… at their lungs… to feel that powerful undercurrent that threatens to suck them down to death and the fires of hell… and we need to know their terror.    And then, we would need to see the hand of God lift them out of that chaos… gently … powerfully… lovingly… as father lifts his own children in his arms… and set them both on dry land… dripping wet… naked as they were created… naked as they were born… radiant with God’s holy light… clean… spotless… perfect … holy and righteous in God’s sight.    Now that would be a baptism! 

There is something else that happens to that baby… that happened to you… in baptism:  That child receives a name… and is baptized into a name.  Up until the moment of baptism, in God’s sight, the child is nameless… unknown.   A name is given by the parents… the name by which the child will be known… at least legally… for the rest of the child’s life.   How significant is that?    How significant is your name?  Psychologists tell us that there is no other word in our entire vocabulary that is more important to us than our own name.    There is no other word that we can pick out of the conversation of a group of people standing some distance away from us as easily as our own name.  There is something about our name that speaks to us at a deeper level than conscious thought… something that reaches out and touches us.    Early in the life of a new child, parents learn not to say or even whisper the name of their child when they are in the child’s room… even when the child seems to be asleep.  Why?    Because the sound of our own name is the first sound that we learn to recognize and associate with ourselves.  Speaking his or her name will rouse a sleeping child.  It will reach a comatose patient.  It will spur a person on to greater effort.  And it is often the last word that a dying person can recognize. 

More than that, our name puts us under the law… in this country… in every country.  Our name becomes a part of our identity… a part of the legal system just as soon as that birth certificate is filed… the name by which we are responsible to society and to the world.

We are given a name and we are baptized into a name.  We are baptized in the name of the Father… and of the Son… and of the Holy Spirit.  We are baptized into God… in God’s name… the name of the Trinity.    But wait… God does not have a name… or so the Bible tells us.  “I am Who I am.”  Yahweh… the unpronounceable name of God.    God has no name, because God is not responsible to the law.  God is above the law… God is beyond the law… and there is no name that can call God forth.  It is God who comes to us… at God’s pleasure… in God’s time… and not when we call God forth. 

So, the child with no name is given a name… putting that child under the law … earthly law… our law.  And then the child is baptized in the name of the One who has no name… releasing that child to the inheritance of freedom in life with God that goes beyond the law… and beyond the confines of earth and time.    For in our baptism, God claims us and we, in turn, inherit a relationship with God that knows no limits.  From that day forward, we belong to God… to the One who has no name… who is not under the law… who knows no limits… who cannot be called forth… becomes the One who is with us always.    In us… through us… under us… over us… surrounding us… and God’s awesome presence is with us even into eternity. 

You know, I realize that I am talking to the “Frozen Chosen” here… after all, I am one of you… but might you manage to look just a little bit excited… a little pleased… a little relieved, perhaps… a little in awe of this simple and yet miraculous event.    After all, we are talking about you here.  You have been chosen… You have been redeemed...  You have been restored into a perfect relationship with God.  You… and you… and you… and you. 

Before time began, God chose you.    In perfect love, God created you… formed you… shaped you… to be a being in God’s own image.  Then, God breathed on you… and gave you life.    From the chaos of nothingness and disorder… God gave form and order and life…    In baptism, God has claimed you… redeemed you… and restored you to all that is God’s… to a limitless relationship that goes beyond the bounds of earth and time.    Even today… in the chaos of your life… in the chaos of this world… God continues to love you… to seek you… and to gather you to himself.    As Isaiah says, God has called us from the east and from the west and from the north and from the south… to gather us together … for we belong to God.    Even today, God longs to pull you from the chaotic waters that threaten to drown you… from the flood… from the fires of hell… so that God can reveal to you the depth… the height… and the breadth of God’s love… and all the bounty that a life in God was meant to be.    So, I challenge you today to remember the cosmic war that was won on the day that you were baptized… to remember the name in which you were baptized… and to claim all the gifts that God desires to pour into your life… for you belong to God.  Amen.

Isaiah 43:1-7; Luke 3:15-17, 21-22