Proper Way
Matthew 3:13-17

January 9, 2005

When you are a church there are lots of ways to do things properly. Our way is not the only way.

The Manichaean Church had a distinctive way of initiating its members into the mysteries of life. The Manichaeans were originally followers of a Mesopotamian prophet by the name of Mani. His world view consisted of two separate realms, that of the world and the body, and that of the spirit. The goal, generally speaking, was to rid ourselves of the entrapment of the body and escape to the security of the spirit. Lots of people bought this approach, and lots still do. Perhaps the most famous convert to Manichaeism was St. Augustine in the years before his real conversion to orthodox Christianity.

Our tradition has baptism and communion as the sacramental means to express God’s salvation and redemption of ourselves and our children. The Manichaeans had a big meal, sort of like communion, sort of like baptism.

The church was divided into two levels - the Elect and the Hearers, clergy and laity in a rough manner of speaking. The food for the big meal (Ruwanagan in Middle Persian) was gathered and prepared by all the Hearers in gratitude for the service of the Elect. A prayer was said to absolve the Hearers from all sin they had committed in gathering the food. The Elect would then eat the food and as it passed through their holy digestive systems, the food would be cleansed and release particles of light that would bring about salvation and new life to all creation. How would we lowly Hearers receive this life-giving light? The Elect would belch loud liturgical belches, releasing the light particles into the atmosphere and we would all feel better.

Can’t you imagine the conversation at the coffee hours through the years of a congregation? “Old Reverend Jones could really belch one out there! He practically split our eardrums, but, wow, we felt alive after that!”

Instead, aren’t you glad that we all join together in eating a small piece of bread and a sip of grape juice, and pour a little water on the children and adults who are becoming part of our company?

Baptism is perhaps our most simple sacrament, but even though we have baptized people for a long time in this simple way, other churches do it quite differently.

Many Christian churches that identify themselves by this sacrament – “Baptists” – believe and practice the reenactment of John’s baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan. Complete immersion of the candidate under the water symbolizes the death of the old person of sin. Then the candidate is pulled back up out of the water, resurrected, as the new person in Christ. While a river is the most preferable, baptismal fonts and tubs work better in Saskatchewan weather.

We emphasize water as the sign of life, and we let it pour and run, as the Bible calls it, “living water,” not stagnant and full of disease and death. Often we tend to forget that with this physically wet element we demonstrate that this is how new life, real life, begins and continues and begins anew.

In the Orthodox Church, a young infant is baptized as soon as the child is able to fed the eucharistic wafer from a spoon. With baptism and communion in one fell swoop, the child is a member of the church. Some denominations insist that one cannot neither be baptized nor receive communion until he or she is old enough to comprehend and understand what it is all about. That would still rule out me. The Orthodox recognize that God understands us first and this is where we as human beings have to begin. In the very first instance, you and I are Christian. That is our starting point.

John was baptizing all sorts of people in the Jordan for the remission of their sins, washing them spiritually clean just in time for the arrival of the new kingdom. Then as he looked up he saw the one sort of person approaching that he had not expected.

“I am not worthy to baptize you,” John said. Jesus was adamant, “But you need to, it is the only proper way to do what you and I are supposed to do.” John baptized Jesus properly. The proper way is that Jesus was baptized like you and I have been baptized. If Jesus was exempt for any number of good reasons, then some of us, I assure you, would figure we’re good enough already to be exempt. Yet as we have to struggle as human beings, fraught with faults and weaknesses, then it encourages us to remember that Jesus went every step of the way with us. Jesus walks at our pace. I hope still that we can keep up.

Martin Luther was a person who fought all sorts of demons, psychological, physical, spiritual and political. There were many a time he felt lost, defeated and depressed. At those moments, he said to himself, “But, I am baptized!” No matter how bad things are, I have been given the grace of a new life. It is not to be squandered. Not an easy life, nor a successful one in worldly terms, but a new one full of grace and truth, as the creeds say. Remember that. Be sure that Ella remembers it too.

Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan