Don Bartlett     11 January 2009    MARK 1: 1-13 BAPTISM

CHILDREN'S ADDRESS - in the probable absence of any children

Last November Helen and I made our annual pilgrimage to our granddaughters' ballet concert in Ballarat.  Peter our son was in the middle of renovations,

or more correctly, the third wave of renovations.  There were building materials everywhere, including the trailer which was full of old timber that he intended to

take to a friend with a wood fire.  I said to him "Lets do it now."  Knowing my penchant for keeping busy he capitulated quickly.  On arriving back from the

wood drop with the empty trailer, I proceeded to fill it with more old building materials scattered about and coerced him to help me take it to the tip. 

I'm sure the guys here would agree, there's no better way to bond with your son than a trip to the tip - it's a grounding experience I've enjoyed with Peter for

some 30 years. 

After we'd finished, even he admitted that the place looked  a lot better.  Standing in the area where the mess had been he said to Jessica our eldest

granddaughter, "Just look at how tidy this place is now. Isn't Pa a good influence".  She thought for a moment and then said, "Well .… sometimes".   

Now perhaps it wasn't the most diplomatic thing she could have said and I know that I wouldn't have been that candid with my own grandfather who frightened

me a bit, but how right she was.   The reality is that we are all sometimes a good influence and sometimes not.  Sometimes good and sometimes not so good.

The truth is that Jess had insights that others are too guarded to declare.  Yet her comment did not displease me one bit  Rather, I was both amused and

delighted by it.  With both our children and particularly with our grandchildren, I have made an effort to let them see I am far short of perfect.  Indeed, in my view

too many parents project an image of infallibility that their children must find impossible to emulate.  So despite my imperfections, I hope that they have recognised

that I try to follow a moral compass based on the teachings of Jesus and that I recognise that our Creator still loves me despite my flaws. 

When later I reflected on what delighted me most about what Jess said, it was not so much her candid comment, but rather that, despite her insight that I was

not perfect, she loves me unconditionally.   I'm sure those of you with children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews can identify with their unconditional love. 

And I think that is just the way it is with God.  God too knows we are both a good influence and a not so good influence.  We are complex and stained

individuals, yet despite all our faults and baggage, God loves us unconditionally.

The Old Hebrew reading in Genesis 1 and the New Testament reading in Mark 1 that we have just heard have at least two things in common.  They are

respectively the first stories told in the Old Testament and in the New Testament Gospels and they each tell about the beginning - the beginning of the Earth

and the beginning of Jesus' ministry.  You will recall that the Gospel of Mark, although it is placed second in the New Testament, was the first Gospel written. 

Matthew was, however, placed first because one of its main points of focus is that it tries to show that so much of what Jesus does was preordained.

So it provides a link between the Old and New Testaments.  Matthew is always saying "All this took place to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord

through the prophet". 

Yet neither the Genesis story nor Jesus baptism in Mark are the first written down in either Testament.  No passage in the Bible has generated more controversy

within the Church than the Creation Story, yet both sides of the debate seem to miss the point.  For me, it is the underlying message and not the story that is

important. The creation story is generally believed to have been written by anonymous “Priestly” writers in the 6th Century BC, during the exile of the Israelites

in Babylon.  It was written to a bewildered and dispossessed people.  Their message was that in creating the world God had brought order out of chaos and

he would do it again. 

Like the Creation Story, Mark's Gospel was not the first preceded by Paul's letters by a few years.

I felt compelled to focus on the Mark reading about the baptism of Christ today for a number of reasons.  Firstly, Andrew covered the Creation Story well in

October and secondly it seemed to me that the Mark reading is a very important one, although for me it is hard to fathom exactly why.  At the very least the

Gospel writers all clearly see the baptism of Jesus as a most significant, if not a perplexing, event. This story is covered in all the Gospels, in John somewhat

obliquely, and in Acts.  However, none of the Gospel writers shed much light on why Jesus was baptised.  Why did Jesus feel he needed to be baptised if he

had no sin and needed no repentance.  Certainly the writer of Matthew felt that way because in Ch 3:14 John says "I ought to be baptised by you and yet you come to me".   Yet in response Jesus simply says "We shall do all the Lord requires" 

Baptism is a pivotal event across most Christian churches and particularly in the Uniting Church.  Baptism and the Eucharist are the only two sacraments within

the Uniting Church.  They are the two sacraments that Jesus clearly saw as significant.   Some other Churches have many more sacraments.   For example,

the Catholic Church has seven, including ordination, marriage and anointing of the sick.  Simply put, a sacrament is an outward sign that conveys an inward,

spiritual grace through Christ.  It is the moment in our lives where we believe that God really touches us - where the spiritual meets the earthly.  Some might say

that the Uniting Church confuses baptism with confirmation, but I don't want to get bogged down in such issues which detract from the real issues.

But what compelled me most to focus on baptism today was prompted by a story Julie Perrin told of her baptism, at the Advent Pilgrimage that Rosemary

and Adel organised just before Christmas.  She told of her own baptism in the Baptist Church which resonated with my own experience and perhaps yours.

  It would be unfair for me to try to tell her story, but I'll tell you of my path to confirmation.

I was brought up as a good Presbyterian, going back generations, with both father and grandfather steeped in the Presbyterian tradition, whatever that stood for. 

Through my teenage years I knew no other religious experience.  However, I had been given to understand that there were some peculiar practices in the

Methodists and Congregationalist churches and that the Church of England indulged in ostentatious displays of ritual, which was bore a striking resemblance to

the Catholic Church - and we still remembered what they did - Guy Fawkes and all those Papist plotters undermining the British Empire.  Now that is all a bit

of an exaggeration, but nevertheless there was a strong undercurrent of religious intolerance.

I had no doubts about the truth of the Bible.   I had been baptised as a baby and my parents and all their friends professed to be Christians and even people like

my scout masters and footy coach, who only came to church for the annual scout and footy club services never raised any questions.  The basic problem with

my faith was that I knew I didn't measure up.  I certainly wasn't in fit condition to take that transforming step of confirmation.  But one by one my mates at

Bible Class took the step and were confirmed.  This put more and more pressure on me.  As the group of we remaining unconfirmed heathens got smaller in

number the pressure became greater.  How was it that these old mates, who seemed on the surface no better than me were in, while I was out.  One Sunday,

I could take it no longer.  I fronted the minister after church and told him I was ready.  To show the depth of my theological insights, I recall asking him some

rhetorical question about the Holy Spirit.  I nodded at his response which was utterly incomprehensible and I was signed up.  It had been a most perfunctory

preparation.  Not that my first communion was not an emotional journey.  It was.  I can still picture exactly where I sat for my first communion in St John's

Presbyterian Church, Elsternwick.  My problem was that I didn't feel transformed.  I did not feel more Godly, indeed I felt a bit of a phony and it is a feeling

that remained with me to varying degrees until perhaps the last decade. 

It took me a long time to understand that being baptised and being confirmed in the Uniting Church was not about becoming good.  Rather, it was about

recognising and accepting that I was a mixture of good and bad, a good influence and a not so good influence as young Jessica made plain to me a few

months ago. Yet what is central to being baptised is to know that God loves us irrespective of all this baggage.  It is only by recognising the breadth of

our personality traits and emotions that we can begin to make progress toward being the person that God would want us to be.  And for me baptism is not

about joining the Christian Church or about being in or out.  Rather it is an agreement we make with God that we are committed to the struggle - the struggle

we have to follow Christ's example.  We take on that commitment knowing that we will never achieve the goal.  Yet we take it on knowing that God still loves us

unconditionally.

So why did Jesus ask John to baptise him in the Jordan River that day and why did he wait until he was nearly 30 to take the symbolic step that I took at the

age of 17?  It seems to me that Jesus' baptism was about nailing his flag to the mast; about recognising and accepting the enormity of the ministry before him. 

He knew his message would be unpalatable to many.  He knew even many close to him, his Nazarene neighbours, would reject him and the Pharisees and

Roman masters would be confronted by him and would set out to destroy him. And we should never forget that while Jesus was fully divine, he was also fully

human and had to battle through life just like the rest of humankind.  Preparation for this momentous day of committment, his baptism, took time that only the

wisdom, insights and preparation of years could bring, for after that there could be no turning back, whatever the alienation, whatever the hardships and

whatever the suffering.

I think for us, baptism is also about nailing our flag to the mast.  When I look back those 50 years on my baptism, it wasn't that I took the step too early,

but rather that I did it for the wrong reasons.  Baptism, is not a case of suddenly being propelled into the Christian Church and about suddenly being transformed. 

Rather it is making a decision to commence a journey - about nailing that flag to the mast.  Unlike Christ, we will fail him many times in all sorts of ways,

yet baptism gives us the goal - to aspire to a life like Christ, to model his compassion, his goodness and his inclusiveness. 

And when we fall short or falter as we often will, in faith we know that God will be there to pick up the pieces and set us back on the journey with his

unconditional love.   Thanks be to God.  Amen