Home

Our Church

Services of Worship

Getting Married at Holy Trinity

Youth

Sermons

Prayer

Education

St. Augustine's

Anglican FAQs

Inspiration

Links

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

Mark 1: 4 - 11

Our neck of the woods here in Devonport has for over 150 years seen a regular gathering of people who claim to be Christians. The more specific tag we give ourselves is Anglican, and the particular gathering of Anglicans we are, we’ve labelled Holy Trinity.

If you want to be specific, first and foremost we are Protestant Christians, secondly we are Anglicans in the Diocese of Auckland, and thirdly we are people of Holy Trinity in the Parish of Devonport. But is all this detail necessary? It’s what you might call descriptive overkill.

Descriptive overkill reminds me of an old friend with whom Faith and I used to sing and who had an ancient little suitcase in which he kept a variety of small musical instruments. He would pull these out at the most surprising times in order to supplement the music. If you’ve never come across a gazoo before and someone suddenly begins playing it in the middle of a song – well you get the idea. When you opened Graham’s suitcase up, on the inside of the lid was written in a 6 year old’s handwriting, “Graham Jones (not his actual surname), 54 Smith St, Ixopo, Natal, South Africa, Africa, The World, The Universe.”  Descriptive overkill! Very few people would need all that detail in order to locate Graham!

Likewise the only really important bit about us is that we are Christians who worship a God whom we say is a trinity: 3 persons yet 1 God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

In the last 3 verses of this morning’s gospel reading we encounter all 3 persons of the Trinity: the Son comes up out of the water, the Holy Spirit descends upon him in the form of a dove and the Father speaks his pleasure as to what has just happened.

But in the well-known words of Chris Tarrant in Who Wants to be a Millionaire, “We don’t want to give you that!” Of course what Chris means is, “We’ll give you that and more!” The 3 persons of the Trinity make a rare appearance together and that, on its own, is highly significant; but it’s the occasion and its significance that is of particular relevance – not simply the fact that God showed up in force.  

What was that occasion? Well, as reflected in the Church calendar today, we are referring to Jesus’ baptism. We should ask ourselves why God got so excited about that event and what it might mean for us. We also today have the happy co-incidence of the baptism of the Revd. Rau Kapa’s grandson, Te Houtaewa, and of course we ask ourselves what Jesus’ baptism means for us as the family of God into which this little boy is welcomed today.

John the Baptist, the person Jesus referred to as the greatest of all men, was preaching in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. So baptism at its simplest level symbolises washing, a cleansing - a turning away from sin and a turning to God.

John was fulfilling the words of the prophet Isaiah as the one who would prepare the way of the Lord – he was the herald of the Messiah’s coming. And the message is plain: if you want to receive the Christ – turn away from sin. And the people flocked to hear him and be baptised in the river Jordan.

John was a prophet of great mana and yet he says in verse 7, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.’ Clearly he is expecting someone great indeed. In fact in Matthew’s account of the baptism, John almost refuses to baptise Jesus, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ Jesus as we may know replies in verse 15, ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfil all righteousness.’

The Christ (or the Messiah) would bring new life. And he will do that by immersing the believer in God Himself. John says in verse 8, I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’ That same presence of God who in the form of the Holy Spirit swept over the face of the waters of creation and brought light, separating it from the darkness, will bring light to our dark lives, implies John, and the source of all that is the Messiah: Jesus.

There is great power in baptism because it is associated with salvation – and salvation is found in Christ alone who plunges us into the life of God – who in John the Baptist’s words, baptises us with the Holy Spirit. We would do well to talk to God about these things and how they apply to our lives both as individuals and as members of the Church, the Body of Christ.

That’s our first consideration this morning: that Jesus (who had no need of baptism for he was sinless) set an example for us to follow, and doing so can soak us in the very life of God. It’s no wonder the Trinity showed up!

I’d love to spend time sharing with you how relevant our baptism is to us today, how we can live the power of our baptism every day, how this was foretold and illustrated by a major part of Old Testament history – namely (following the departure of the Israelites from Egypt) in their escape through the Red Sea and in their following the fiery Pillar Of Cloud to the Promised Land – but that will have to wait for another occasion. Suffice to say that living our baptism by faith is the key to making progress in the Christian life. It is the process of growing mature as believers and is key to a joyful Christian life. 

That would be the second consideration for us this morning: that baptism is an on-going force for the improvement of our Christian lives and needs careful consideration by each person.

But what about we Anglicans, who instead of waiting (as some Christians do) for our children first to repent of their sins before we recommend the next step of baptism,  baptise them (as indeed we did with our children and as little Te Houtaewa Kapa’s parents do today), while they are babies? How does that work?

Well, the idea of accepting children into the faith as young infants dates back a long way to the covenant God made with Abraham, where every male Hebrew child was circumcised on his 8^th day of life as a sign that he was dedicated to God. Both then and now, we bring up our children in the understanding that doing so well will result in them following God. I assume we’ve all heard the saying that it takes a village to raise a child?? Well it does. The community’s responsibility is to assist the parents in the job of bringing up a child in what Paul in Ephesian 6: 4 calls “the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” That’s where the Church and godparents play an especially important role.

And that’s the third and final consideration: how do we contribute towards assisting Christian parents to bring their children up in such a way that eventually they will follow God of their own accord?

So here are our 3 considerations for the day:

1.     Given the importance Jesus gave to baptism, what does it say to us about its importance? Are we soaked in the very life of God? In John’s words, has Christ baptised us in the Holy Spirit? If not, what do we do about that?

2.     Is our baptism an on-going force for improvement in our lives? Are we growing as joyful Christians, becoming more like Christ in the process? If not, what do we do about that?

3.     Do we contribute towards assisting Christian parents in bringing their children up in such a way that eventually they will follow God of their own accord? Do we do something to assist all young people to know Christ? If not, what do we do about that?

These things are not that complicated, nor that difficult. My friend Graham did not need a long address on his suitcase. Most people in the village of Ixopo would have known him and where he lived. Had any of us found his little suitcase, all we would have needed to do in order to return it to him, would have been to phone someone who knew – the local shopkeeper, or post mistress, or school teacher.

The same thing applies to our 3 considerations today. If you want to know how to make the most of your baptism or how to help towards leading young people to do the same; just ask someone who knows. God is a good place to start. God’s ways are designed to be achievable.

Moses called the Israelites together in Edom before they entered the Promised land and said to them in Deuteronomy 30

11 Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away. 12It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?’ 13Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?’ 14No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.

God’s ways are straightforward. There is no need for overkill of any kind. It’s an old truism that God does not look for ability, he looks for availability – and that’s the key. Had my friend Graham lost his suitcase he would not have needed a long address on it in order that it should be mailed back to him. He just needed someone willing to pick up the phone and enquire.  

The question therefore, is how willing are we to engage with the powerful potential our baptism holds in our lives for spiritual growth?

Amen.

Download this sermon in MS-Word format