Baptism of Our Lord
Wicker Park Lutheran Church
Rev. Kwame Pitts
January 13, 2019
Grace and peace to you,
My sisters
Brothers
And
Siblings in Christ.
As we travel,
Down to the river
To pray,
Let’s allow the Word
To immerse us in
Sink us in
The Goodness of God
Into the many paths
The Creator lays out before us.
Good Lord,
Show us the way
O Beloved,
Let’s go down,
Come on down
Down where Jesus wants
Down into the river
In the water
To witness
And experience
Redemption
And
Love.
Amen.
(pause)
Where is there a river, deep enough
Wide enough,
Clean enough
To wash away the muck
That clings to us,
That sometimes we don’t even bother to wash away?
(pause)
Where are those sacred waters,
That can grab and twist away from our fragile being
Those poisonous elements,
That fall,
Manufactured by the proverbial factories of this world
That spew out enough toxicity
Until we cannot see the reflection of Jesus
In one another,
And therefore
We only can see the ugliness smeared on the surface?
(pause)
And when we do finally allow ourselves,
To be led to the rushing waters,
Will we be hesitant to immerse ourselves,
In its power,
That feels as if the Holy Spirit indeed is physically rushing through us!
Will we run into its healing,
Or will we resist,
Because we know,
With the Waters
Infused with the Holy Spirit,
Empowered with the Word,
Tears and consumes,
That which is illness
Sickness
Revealing
Exposing
Renewing
Our very being,
Into the Light
Of God,
And to where,
The Creator calls.
(pause)
My mother has been asking this same question,
Each time our conversation centers around
This tumultuous time in our global society,
This emptiness of relationship
And community
This disconnect especially among,
People of faith.
“I’m not understanding,
Those that are suffering at the border,
Fleeing from violence and chaos
How anyone could listen to that rhetoric,
Especially calling themselves Christian?”
(pause)
Those have been my questions,
Throughout my faith journey,
Because how we live our lives as human beings
And how we fail time and again,
How we break those bonds,
How we do not live into that baptismal promise,
Bothers me deep into my spirit,
Until the answers before me,
Bring myself
Into a place
Of
Doubt.
(pause)
We call ourselves,
Baptized Christians
And yet,
We are denying our sisters,
Brothers,
Siblings
In Christ,
In Faith
In Love,
A sustainable existence.
(pause)
Flint,
1,830 days
And still
No clean water
No clean water to go about daily life,
No clean water,
To celebrate
Baptism,
Remembering Baptism.
(pause)
Haiti,
7 years
And still
There are places that have not been renewed,
Made livable,
And how people still remain,
Without access to clean water
And resources,
And have been forgotten
Is questionable.
(pause)
Puerto Rico,
1 year,
4 months
Without help they need
Without access to resources they need
Without clean water they need,
Are struggling,
To
Breathe.
(pause)
20 days and counting,
800,000 federal workers,
Committed to being a part of the ethos
So that the daily lives of us as Americans
Can go on,
Are now left empty handed,
Without the economic resources
To eat
To drink
To survive.
(pause)
And we have been labeled
As a Christian nation,
That clearly has forgotten
Our Baptismal promise
Our Baptismal vow
Our commitment in the bond,
Through the Water
And the Word
Because of the Spirit
And the Love
Ever flowing
From
God.
(pause)
Those are the questions posed,
By many of the students I encounter
And many of those that I am in community with,
Fighting for the same things,
Not just for my Elders and my People
But for all those who are weary under the oppression
And those who are yearning for true liberation
Fighting for wholeness,
And against the brokenness that comes
When we deliberately distort,
The WORD
And what the Creator God has called us to.
It is the mistrust,
The suspicion
That I have seen reflected in their eyes-
Many who don’t want to be involved,
Converted
Or
Baptized
Into something they feel
Resembles
A
Cult.
(pause)
Strangely enough,
The reason given about why many don’t want to join the church
And be baptized is,
Because they know it’s a commitment!
Imagine that,
People who are struggling in the faith,
Have walked away from the faith,
Hurting from what has been done to them
Through a contorted idea of faith,
CLEARLY GET IT
The ritual of Baptism,
Means
TRANSFORMATION
It means,
COMMITMENT
It is,
A reflection of love,
Unending
From the One,
Who gave us
Life
Through
WATER!
(pause)
And I think sometimes,
We as people of faith,
Feel as if the commitment
Of Baptism
Is only for our checklist,
And our responsibility
To God alone!
In other words,
We rush to get our children baptized,
So they have their reservation in heaven
We rush to get ourselves baptized
So that we have fulfilled that commitment
As spelled out in our doctrine
And dogma
We think that once baptized,
We good,
We’ve taken care of ourselves,
We have our seat-
AND WE FORGET AND IGNORE,
Those around us
We forget,
Those who are still flailing around in the wilderness
Those who are hiding in darkened corners,
Ashamed of who they are
Fearful,
That they will never live up to humanity’s standards
(word/line)
(pause)
And then,
That Voice,
That Voice that has the power
To reverberate into those places in our souls
Where sometimes light can’t reach-
You,
Are
Beloved.
And suddenly,
That FIRE
Which John warns us about
Ignites!
That presence,
Which John proclaims
In my hands,
This is just water
But OH
HE IS COMING
TO ERADICATE EVERYTHING
That attempted to choke the life,
To disconnect us from
That keeps us away,
From the presence
Of
God.
And those Words!
You
Are
BELOVED,
Is not only for Christ alone,
But
For
Us!
(pause)
Even when we mess up,
WE ARE STILL LOVED,
God SAW the absolute worst in humanity,
God wept at the ways we had become (word/line)
And so God SENDS IN,
Jesus,
To experience our lives
To be as we are
And as He was Baptized,
THERE WAS THAT TRANSFORMATION
Jesus knew,
Jesus understood
Jesus began that Walk,
FREE
Free from everything that could have burdened Him,
YES
Jesus lived a life as human,
Jesus knows of our pains, our sufferings, our sorrows
Our worries and those pitfalls
But because GOD LOVED HIM,
God enfolded Jesus into a POWER
TRANSFORMED INTO FORGIVENESS
INTO HOPE
INTO PEACE
INTO
LOVE
(pause)
And because God LOVES US,
Just as Jesus was baptized,
So we find FREEDOM
In those same Waters
Because of that WORD
And because
Of the FIRE
Of the HOLY SPIRIT,
WE
ARE
FREE!
(pause)
Through Baptism we are FREED From any constraints
This world
Has over us.
Free!
Free not only to share this Good News,
But then FREE
To GO OUT
And live out that FREEDOM
Through ACTION.
The WORD,
The WATER
The MEAL
The HOLY SPIRIT
DRIVES US
To do,
For others,
Regardless of who they are
Or how they love
Or how they identify
Or how even,
They question faith.
(pause)
There is a group,
Called Ibeyi
Two sisters,
Afro-Latina
Who sing a song entitled
“River”
Carry away my dead leaves
Let me baptize my soul with the help of your waters
Sink my pains and complains
Let the river take them, river drown them
My ego and my blame
Let me baptize my soul with the help of your waters
Those all means are so ashamed
Let the river take them, river drown them
(pause)
In some way,
Regardless of how we worship,
Call out
Recognize
And
Celebrate the Creator,
We know,
That through the waters
Infused with the Cosmos,
The Word,
The Power of the Holy Spirit
Because these healing waters come from
The One,
Who created all of this,
Who loves all of us
Who has the power
To shatter DEATH
No matter what,
When we call out and weep,
When we give up those things that weight us down,
Our very being are carried to the waters,
As we slip under the waves
We are renewed and brought into the light,
Forgiven
Made whole
And reenergized
To go out,
And
(pause)
Thanks Be to God.