On Baptism

Sermon by the Revd Dr Brutus Green
Readings: Amos 7:7-15; Psalm 85; Ephesians 3:1-14; Mark 6:14-29

It’s a chilling reminder –  for someone about to take a baptism – that John who embodies the practice –  he is called John the Baptist after all – In the end gets beheaded for it. But those were more difficult times. Jesus, whose ministry begins with his baptism by John – meets an even worse end. 

Baptism is a symbol of resistance. And because of that, ever since, baptism attracts danger. Our very own St Margaret of Antioch – is counted among the many baptised martyred in the fourth century Diocletian persecution. Christians worldwide remain the most persecuted faith group. 

It might seem strange, but the Romans weren’t very religious as a culture. To begin with they stole most of their gods from the greeks. And any culture that turns its emperors into gods is likely to attract a certain degree of scepticism.  Imagine if Boris suddenly decided he was a God. Even among the Conservative party faithful there might be some eyebrows raised. He might well find himself stabbed in the back by backbenchers. There is precedent.

But to the Romans conformity was everything. It didn’t really matter what you believed, but you had to show obedience. The Christians were unusual for the time because they took religion seriously. It must have been perplexing for Romans to see the lengths Christians would go to for their faith. That witness, of course, leads to the conversion of what becomes the Holy Roman empire. Western Civilization is built on 300 years of the martyred baptized, beginning with John the Baptist and Jesus. 

Today, things are a little different. Christianity is the established religion. Baptisms are a normal way of celebrating a birth; Like a sequel to a big wedding; They may be seen as part of our cultural inheritance –  following grandparents and great-grandparents; to be British, Christian and a Royalist, and make fun of the way Americans say Oregano. Baptism are also a step towards a church school, with its cultural and educational credentials. And they may be seen as a sort of eternal life insurance. We’re not completely sure how to get to the pearly gates and avoid the overheated basement, but joining the historical club in the old building seems like a smart move. Church, “repairing wayward souls for 2000 years; your one-stop-shop on the road to paradise.”

But for all the established, cultural, niceness of the Church of England, the tea and biscuits afterwards; the baptismal liturgy is pretty direct. I always warn families to make sure the godparents have recently seen the liturgy. It’s not every day you get asked if you ‘reject the devil and rebellion against God’; or ‘the deceit and corruption of evil’ Or ‘to turn to’, ‘to submit to’ and ‘come to Christ’. For one thing it’s just not very British to publicly assert such things. Only of course for nearly two thousand years it absolutely has been.

And for many now inverting the martyrdom of the saints, the words trip out with crossed fingers and toes, echoing the pax romana; the pragmatic keeping the peace. While for others it is the opening of the soul to God It’s not for me, or the Church of England, to make windows into men’s souls (as Elizabeth I said), but godparents should beware they may be letting in a little chink of divinity into their lives; As the old vestry prayer puts it – what we speak with our lips, may we believe in our hearts and show forth in our lives.

Which takes us neatly to John the Baptist himself. He’s a figure who stands for honesty and judgement; both currently culturally unpopular. John removes himself to the desert and lives simply. It’s like Love Island but with worse food and stricter quarantining. Hearing of this holy figure the people leave the city to come out, repent and be baptized.

We tend to think of repentance as a reckoning with guilt. We think of criminals acknowledging some great crime, or children stealing pears from a neighbour’s garden, the office affair you had years or weeks ago. How you snuck out to the shop when you’d been told to self-isolate, And deleted the app. Your drive to Barnard castle; Which is to say, we think of the thing on our conscience; What keeps us awake at night; We think of the guilt we carry. What we’d be ashamed for our neighbour to know. And it may be that every time we come to the prayers of penitence, you think of the same thing. This can solidify in our mind into a heaviness we carry with us everywhere. Sin quite easily translates into guilt and shame.

But repentance need not be so emotional. Repentance is about honesty. Part of the problem of guilt and shame is that they tend to make us dishonest – with ourselves and others. They make us cover up to others; They lead to obsessing or sublimating. For this reason, I can say with some confidence that guilt and shame as feelings have little to do with God. You can tell this, because those feelings are rarely changed by hearing the words of absolution – The voices of guilt and shame will tell us that we are not yet absolved or free. Which, theologically, is dishonest.

And John the Baptist came for honesty. He’d want to baptise you of your fake news echo chamber, your Instagram filtered profile picture, your friends’ alarmingly cheerful holiday snaps status updates. Your weak excuses. What penitence requires of you is ‘the word of truth’, an openness with God and yourself. A friend once told me you can’t be fully employed, a good father and a good husband. I think you can be good enough. But now at the point of confession I will normally be thinking about my failings in at least one of these areas, But it shouldn’t be a lament, a self-scourging. Sometimes we can do no more. Sometime we might understand instead that we should be kinder to ourselves. The point is not to find something to wring our hands about, but to face the current reality of our life honestly in the light of the love of God. If we can adopt that, we might be thinking less about guilt or shame and more about acceptance and grace –What Paul speaks about in ‘the riches of his grace that he has lavished upon us.’

But John the Baptist also came with judgement. Like Amos, he is the plumb-line God has set among the people to measure justice. John the Baptist more frequently gets compared to the Son than The Sun Newspaper but they share the job of holding powerful figures to account.  It’s an uncomfortable task being the voice of honesty to others. For a country that’s struggled over the past years with very vocal points of division, the next few weeks will be challenging in different approaches to the easing of social distancing. When dancing becomes legal once more we may also find some people losing their heads. Even in church we’ll have to negotiate the return to singing, handshaking and the chalice. I’m looking forward to the guidance, which I expect will be received at least 24 hours before. But judgement matters. We must try to discern right from wrong, with humility.

We should remember, then, that baptism is a radical gesture. Not of conforming but of standing out: It serves a moral imperative. To honesty, to justice; a reminder that as well as belonging to a state and society, we belong to God. God consistently judges people throughout Scripture on their integrity and how they treat the most vulnerable in their society. Our baptism is a reminder of this. Do you renounce the deceit and corruption of evil? Do you come to Christ, the way, the truth and the life?

To be baptised means not conforming to the standards of the world; like the players at Wimbledon, and of course later tonight: 

to ‘meet with triumph and disaster
and treat those two impostors just the same’

but don’t be conformed to the standards of the last 55  years; and

‘keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you’;

John the Baptist may have met with disaster, he may like  Gareth Southgate 25 years ago, have lost his head, but now John the Baptist is venerated throughout the world, while Salome is routinely confused with a cheap cured sausage. So today, remembering the disaster and triumph of John the Baptist, we are reminded of our shared baptism. Of the call to be honest with ourselves and with God and find the riches of grace in that. To renounce the deceit and corruption of evil, and to turn to Christ.  Amen.