Baptism

It can be very annoying when we break something. It brings out anger in us when we clumsily drop a plate or glass, or cup, or when we accidentally knock over an ornament that has meant a great deal to us.

Equally we get angry with our children if they break something as if it is only our children and not us who break things. We may say to them after a few seconds, ‘don’t worry, accidents happen’, but our initial response is to lose it just for a second.

None of us likes to break anything, and a toy that breaks can bring endless tears to a child, and a precious item can make us feel bereft for some time, even though we know consciously that these are only ‘things’.

Just think of a time when you have broken something. How did you feel? Remember a time when a child has broken something expensive, or the disobedience of touching something despite being told not to. Think of the sign we see in shops ‘Beautiful to look at, lovely to hold, but if you break it consider it sold.’

Some things however have to be broken to be of any use to us. For example what good would an egg be if we didn’t break open the egg in order to get hold of its contents. The old saying ‘you can’t make an omelette without breaking an egg’ is quite true. Or again if you don’t break some things you cannot share it with others, or even have some yourself. For example a loaf of bread is no good just to look at whole, you have to break it in order to make the proper use of it, and to let others benefit from it.

It is also true that unless you break into some objects you cannot see and understand what is going on inside. When you break it you learn something about an object’s content. Breaking it reveals something to us of what the object is all about, and what its intricacies are.

This article is about how we learn something about God through breaking, and through brokenness. To do this we will look at some passages of the bible.

• Genesis 1, 1-5

At the very beginning of time, place, history, ‘things’ existing, God broke out of and through the limits of lifelessness and nothingness. At the very beginning when there was only a watery void covering the earth he broke through this with his power to create. Over those waters God’s Holy Spirit hovered like a mist that covers a Scottish loch. From out of the mist creation begins, and the process that ends up with the world that we know breaks out of the constraints, and life begins - New life out of lifeless water.

Just try to imagine how your lives have been changed and transformed by the birth of your child – the joy that new life brings to you. Think of that on a much bigger scale and rejoice that God’s creative power is all around us in everything that lives, and in the inventiveness that he gives to our minds and our hands. We join him in his inventiveness through our human contribution to life. We are given the privilege in God’s order to be co-creators.

Just think what precedes the arrival of your child. Before birth begins, what happens? The mothers waters break! The miracle of child birth follows.

In baptism we are rejoicing in the new life that has broken into the world, a life created by human love, and by the power of our Creator God. God is revealed through the breaking forth of his creation. Without breaking out, God would not have revealed himself.

• Exodus 14

Moses is one of the best known characters of the Old Testament and a great leader of the Hebrew people – the people that God is forming into a special relationship with him. The Hebrews are being held captive by the Egyptians and held in slavery. God calls up Moses, who is not without his own faults and weaknesses (remember he was a murderer), to help the people to break out of their captivity. The story of the crossing of the Red Sea is a wonderful example of a bible theme that has much to do with the baptism. When Moses and the people are escaping from the Egyptians they encounter a major obstacle in their way – the Red Sea. God instructs Moses to raise up his staff (stick) and the waters break open in front of them, dividing to the left and to the right, creating a path through to safety on the other side.

The people pass through the broken waters and are safely on the other side, when the waters crash down again and drown the pursuing Egyptians.

In this example we can see the image of water breaking, and God’s people passing through from danger to safety, from being slaves to being free, from death to new life, from being condemned to being saved. A journey towards salvation!

When someone is baptised he or she is passing through the waters of baptism just as those Hebrew people did through the waters of the Red Sea. In passing through the waters we pass through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We journey in the death and resurrection of Jesus. (This we call the Paschal, or Easter mystery)

• Romans 6, 1-4

At the point in the baptism service when we ask the Holy Spirit to be present on the waters of baptism I would like you to think of two things 1. The Spirit of God moving on the waters at the beginning of our creation. 2. your child passing through the waters to the freedom of being a child of Christ. Think of those opposites – danger/safety, slavery/freedom, condemnation/salvation.

In baptism we follow the journey of Jesus as he broke through the powers of death, and erupted into the new life of the resurrection. God reveals his love for us in breaking the waters for his people to pass through, and in Jesus breaking out of the chains of death and sin. He shows us something of himself through the act of breaking. Baptism is the sign of breaking through the darkness of sin into the new resurrection life with Christ.

• Mark 15, 21-39

When we try to imagine God - what he looks like, what does he do, what has he got to do with ‘me’ – We may end up with the image of a distant being, some sort of super power that exists somewhere else and who just keeps an eye on everything. We may think that God is too busy with everything, so how can he possibly be interested in ‘me’ or anything I might say in ‘my’ prayer. It just may all seem too much, and far easier not to think about God at all, just giving him the occasional nod of recognition every so often, like a wedding, a baptism, or a funeral.

Sometimes though we might be furious with him for seemingly allowing something terrible to happen at a personal level, or in some act of someone else’s terror, or a natural disaster. Strange isn’t it that the God we don’t much bother with when all is going well, so quickly gets recognition (and blame) when something goes wrong.

Firstly there is nothing wrong with being angry with or at God – we may feel so exasperated at times that we have no-one else to turn to. The Book of Psalms in the Old Testament is full of ‘angry psalms’, and one psalm in particular gives us a true picture of God, not the one who exists in the distance and who cares not for each of us.

• Psalm 38, verse 11

These are the words used by Jesus when he is hanging on the cross before his death, and in Jesus we have the answer to all those questions about where is God, who is God, what has he to do with me. The Christian faith teaches that if you wish to know God, then look to Jesus. He is the mirror image of God, God’s reflection in the Creation. The question is – does Jesus reveal to us a God who is distant – no! Does Jesus reveal to us God who is too busy to be bothered with us – no! Does Jesus reveal to us a God who is so almighty and powerful that it matters nothing to him if people suffer – no! God reveals himself to us through Jesus in brokenness. The human body of the Son of God is revealed to the world, to you and me, as a broken down, beaten, scourged, scarred, damaged human body, with hardly enough energy left to draw a breath. God is revealed to us through our broken humanity – to you and me with all our weakness, frailties, mistakes, illnesses and so on – he is revealed to us through the broken body of Jesus Christ. That is how he shows us his love. That is how he shows us our healing and oneness with him. God does not need perfection, he just needs you as you are.

Baptism reminds us of our basic humanity – the death caused by our own sins and darkness – and through the brokenness of Jesus we pass through the waters of baptism into the freedom of being reconciled, made one, with God. We call that in Christian language ‘salvation’. We are ‘saved’ by Christ, born again, and the sign of this is the breaking of the water in the font over the head of your child.

Summary

Waters break before a child is born. God brought new life by breaking through the waters to create. Moses lead the people through water to safety (salvation). Through the death of Jesus we see the true face of God, and in that brokenness our humanity is lifted up to share the new life in the company of the risen Jesus Christ. God reveals so much wholeness and mending of human beings through the acts of breaking and brokenness.

• Luke 24 13-35