Baptisn More than Membership
June 1, 2025
The Gospel of John reading is problematic because the writer of the gospel of John can get quite circular and confusing in his explanations.
The version you heard today was the cleaned up one from the Message translation of the Bible. In my opinion the most important line goes like this, “just as God is one in me, and I am one in you, therefore we are all one in God and God is in us.”
The Acts reading is also problematic because the slave woman with the prophetic spirit is almost immediately forgotten. Even though it is her faithful proclamation that starts the whole story in motion. Her witness leads directly to the baptism of the jailor and his family, but she remains unnamed. But on this baptism morning it is essential that we break open these two passages because I believe they speak to the very heart of why we bother with baptism at all.
Let’s start with the story from Acts.
It makes me smile because honest to God I only remember one Greek word from my seminary class in biblical Greek and that is ‘doúlos’ which is one of the 13 verb forms for slavery. I noticed that in most translations of this story that word for slavery as in slave-girl is later translated as a servant when it comes to Paul and Silas. This is why I specifically had Lynn read servant slave in the scripture reading this morning to capture that tension. But we all know that there is a vast difference between a slave and a servant.
The woman is a slave bound by economics and law to her master. Whereas she proclaims that Paul and Silas are also slaves but bound by love to Jesus. The gifts of the Spirit of prophecy that she has, offers profit to those who pay for her services, and she receives nothing whereas the gift of the Spirit that inhabits Paul and Silas offer salvation not just for the Paul and Silas but for all.
Many times, I have puzzled over why would Paul silence his best advertiser? She is like his best local social media influencer. She is a walking talking TikTok video. The story says he was annoyed by her not leaving them alone and proclaiming his message of salvation. That is very possible particularly because I know we male preachers hate it when somebody else steals our thunder. But there is another real possibility which is, as I said, being a slave is not the same as being a servant.
If you have a gift, even a gift that benefits others, but it makes you a slave, then it is not a gift to you nor to those who on the surface are benefitting from it.
Salvation on the other hand, once you clear away all the theological word jumble means a reconnecting with community and family, a reconnecting to creation and the Creator in which we live and move and have our being. If Salvation is re-connecting than you cannot be saved in isolation from community. Community acts like a mirror in which we can see our best self, our most gifted and treasured self. And then we then we can be part of that mirror for others encouraged and supporting and helping each other to discover beneath the foolishness and human frailty, the divine who has been there all along. In this understanding of the Acts reading, the words of Jeus found in the gospel of John today makes sense. Jesus is saying that his life mirrors the presence of God in him. So, when we strive to mirror our lives in the way of Jesus, then we are mirroring God. This morning when we looked at little Winnie, we saw hope and love and gifts beyond measure. It wasn’t just Rev. Gaylyn holding her up, it was all of us.
Rev. Gaylyn and I were talking about baptism and the nesting process that Trinity and Forest Hill are on. For the guests who don’t know about that journey just ask and we’ll be more than excited to tell you about it. Anyway Rev. Gaylyn can across a quote from the book "Roots & Wings' that the Circles Study group is discussing this. She thought it was great and I agree. Here is the quote:
"As a human family destined, we believe, to evolve beyond all we think we are or can be, we are invited to risk the flight of life on our untried wings. We can only do this because we have been nurtured in a good "nest". The nest is where our deep roots are and where they always will be. The nest has been our place of growth thus far. We have been cradled in the story of life itself and nourished by the source of that life. That same life now calls us to fly north - but not alone. Can we believe and trust that we will be held as securely in our flight as we have been in the nest? What does the 'flight' mean for us, and what new visions await us if we risk the leap?
I believe that baptism is still important because it gives us a ritual to claim a community, a nest in which to safely develop. And a place risk growing in our God given gifts and finally a place from which we can risk loving more, caring more, serving more and being more than we could ever imagine.
Amen