Remember Your Baptism

Genesis 1:1-5; Acts 19:1-7; Mark 1:4-11

Today I'm going to test your memory a little bit. I hope your memory is good. Some of us sometimes lament that our memories aren't as good as they used to be.

The other night I was listening to an interview of President Reagan. I guess it really was time for him to retire. He was complaining about the fact that his memory was failing him. But, he explained that he shouldn't feel too bad about it. "After all, the longer a person lives," he said, "the more a person has to remember!"

But, there are accounts of persons with amazing memory abilities. One of the most amazing that I have heard is about how a 22 year old law student at the University of Padua, Italy, gave the following demonstration of an astounding memory in the year 1561: He listened to one continuous recital of 36,000 words of gibberish, barbarous, disconnected and meaningless words -- a sort of 16th century doubletalk. After hearing it only once, he was able to repeat the entire six-hour-long recital from memory -- either in the original order or reversed. He could also spice his performance a bit by alternately skipping every second and third word.

Now, most of us here, including myself, aren't quite as good as that with our memories. But, we do admire those among us who can remember things well, especially those of us who can remember names.

Dr. George A. Miller, conducting a study for the Office of Naval Research, discovered that the average person can remember accurately only seven items on any list read to him.

Dr. Miller offers this intriguing suggestion: Perhaps, since the human memory is limited to seven, this might explain why the number seven crops up so often. For instance, there are the seven wonders of the world, the seven notes of the musical scale, the seven seas, the seven deadly sins, and the seven ages of man, not to mention seven digits in our local telephone number.

Indeed, our memories are often a perplexing mystery to us. I remember, for instance, how my grandmother was so good at remembering things that happened to her when she was a little girl. She could recall stories of about her brothers and sisters on the farm near Hadley. She could remember the names of all of her dogs and cats. And, yet, in spite of her amazing ability to remember these things, she couldn't ever seem to remember where she had put her glasses.

The Christian faith often asks us to do some unusual things with our memories. In many churches, for instance, often printed upon communion tables, are the words: "Do this in remembrance of me." These, of course, are the words of Jesus to his disciples when he shared the Last Supper with them. "Do this in remembrance of me."

Jesus says these words to us, as well. We are to remember Jesus as we partake of the elements of the Lord's Supper. But, how many of us can remember Jesus? Certainly, most of us can remember stories of Jesus. We can remember movies we have seen with an actor performing the part of Jesus. But how many of us can actually remember meeting Jesus? And if we can't remember meeting Jesus, how can we eat the Lord's Supper in remembrance of him?

But, of course, many of you here today may, indeed, be able to say that you have met Jesus. For you don't need to have physically met the historical Jesus to have spiritually met the Christ. Albert Schweitzer said it well in the words I memorized in seminary: "He comes to us as One unknown, without a name. As of old by the lakeside, when he came to those men who knew him not, he comes to us and speaks the same words: 'Follow thou me.'" And we remember Jesus. But, how we remember him is a marvelous, ineffable mystery.

Our gospel lesson for today tells us about Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist out in the Wilderness along the Jordan River. In those days the Wilderness was simply anything east of the Jordan River. Israel, the land which God had promised to his people, was on one side of the river. And on the other side of the river was the Wilderness.

It had been to this Wilderness that God had led Israel in their exodus from Egyptian bondage. It was in this Wilderness that God tested and strengthened and revealed himself to his people. And it was out from this Wilderness at the Jordan River that the people God had solemnly crossed into the Promised Land.

We are told that John the Baptist's preaching and teaching in the Wilderness was very much like the Wilderness experience of the Israelites with Moses. Whole families from all over Israel, persons who felt a need to repent of their sins and be closer to the Lord went out to be with John, often for a forty day period. They went out there to experience what their forefathers and foremothers and their children and infants had experienced. And, after days of listening to John and learning from him, they would conclude their experience in the Wilderness, much as their ancestors did with their own families. Individuals, couples, and whole families, would cross the Jordan River, hand in hand, and be washed in its water as they went. And it didn't matter to them if they were totally immersed or just got their feet wet. What was important wasn't what got wet. Rather, what was important for them was what crossing the Jordan meant. For them this was a remembrance of who they were. It was a remembrance that they, indeed, were the people of God.

For them, the words, "Remember your baptism" meant remembering that they were among the people of God.

Some of us may remember when we crossed over into the Promised Land. Others of us, on the other hand, and probably the majority of us, crossed over into the Promised Land at a very early age, carried in the arms of our parents and other loved ones. If we can remember the actual experience, that's fine. But, if we can't that's all right, too.

Some people say that if you can't actually remember being baptized then you weren't really baptized. For the orthodox Christian, that would be like saying, "If I can't remember being born, then I must not have been born!" Indeed, the Church, down through the ages has baptized adults, children and infants. Persons of all abilities to reason, from the most intelligent to the least, from the oldest to the youngest, have been welcomed by the Church into the Body of Christ, through the sacrament of Baptism.	I hope no one ever tells me that I should not baptize a person unless that person has reached a certain ability to reason. Otherwise, I'm afraid that there would be quite a few persons who could never be counted as one of God's people. And that would be a terrible shame. Indeed, I've been thankful over the past eleven and thirteen years to be able to look at my own children and know that we are brothers and sisters together in Christ.

Some of you may be surprised to know that in the new United Methodist hymnal there are four orders for the sacrament of Baptism. The first service is a service that could be used to baptize persons of all ages and reasoning capabilities. But, it may also be used for those who would like to be confirmed, or reaffirmed in their faith, as well as for those who would like to join the United Methodist Church or be received into a congregation.

The second baptismal service in the new Hymnal is a little more specific in that it is solely for little children and others who may be unable to answer for themselves.

The third baptismal service in the new Hymnal is specifically for those persons who can answer for themselves, and is also used for confirmation, reaffirmation of faith, reception into the United Methodist Church, and reception into a local congregation.

And the last baptismal service of the new Hymnal is for those who have already been baptized, but who wish to reaffirm their baptismal covenant. Indeed, I am very pleased that baptism and reception into membership are now seen by our denomination as so closely related to each other that the same service may be used to do both.

Remember your baptism. We can say that to each other because we know that it doesn't necessarily mean remembering a specific historical event in our lives. Rather, we know that remembering our baptism means being able to celebrate the experience of knowing Jesus as members of his Body, as brothers and sisters among the people of God. Amen.