Sermon for April 11th, 2021

Sacred Promises: Water & the Spirit, Part I

It was the season of Lent in a small, Roman Catholic neighborhood, and that meant only fish dinners, for everyone except Mr. Peterson, who was a Presbyterian. Every Friday night, Mr. Peterson would fire up his grill and put on a nice, mouthwatering steak. The smell would permeate the neighborhood and make all the neighbors green with envy. So they got together with their local priest, who agreed to talk to Mr. Peterson. After a long, very persuasive conversation, Mr. Peterson agreed to convert to Catholicism. The priest baptized him on the spot, sprinkling his head with holy water and saying, "you were born a Presbyterian, you were raised a Presbyterian, but NOW you are a Roman Catholic."

Everyone was happy...until the next year, on the very first Friday of Lent. Mr. Peterson fired up his grill again, and the delicious smell of steak wafted through the neighborhood once more. The neighbors rushed over to his house, and peering over the fence, they watched as Mr. Peterson bent over his grill. He held in his hand a small bowl of water, and as he sprinkled water onto the sizzling steak, they could hear him say to the steak, "You were born a cow, you were raised a cow, but NOW you are a fish!"

Today's sermon is about baptism, an ancient ritual that is important to Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, and pretty much all Christian denominations. Some Christians baptize only adults, others baptize mostly infants, some sprinkle with water, others immerse completely, and entire wars have been fought over how to baptize someone in just the right way, at just the right time, with just the right words.

I think Craig Field is going to address some of those differences in his sermon next week, but today, I want to focus on something really basic, something everyone pretty much seems to agree on: the water, and the Spirit of God that is somehow present in the act of baptism. How did water come to be seen as central to the act of baptism? And how did this ritual (which one of the two sacraments recognized by Presbyterians) come into existence, long before the Presbyterian Church existed, long before Christianity existed, and even long before the time of Jesus, in the ancient faith of the Jewish people.

To do this, we're going to take a trip through the Hebrew Scriptures, which we often refer to as the "Old Testament." And we'll start at the very beginning.

Genesis 1:1-5 (OT p.1)

1 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Genesis 17:1-7 (OT p.13)

1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. 2 And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

Isaiah 43:1-4 (OT p.672)

1 But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. 3 For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you. 4 Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you, I give people in return for you, nations in exchange for your life.

Isaiah 44:1-4 (OT p.673)

1 But now hear, O Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen! 2 Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you in the womb and will help you: Do not fear, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen. 3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my spirit upon your descendants, and my blessing on your offspring. 4 They shall spring up like a green tamarisk, like willows by flowing streams.

Isaiah 55:1-3 (OT p.685)

55 Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.

Jeremiah 31:31-34 (OT p.735)

31 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

Ezekiel 36:25-27 (OT p.805)

25 I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.