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Imagine you've arrived at a great concert hall. It is packed to the door with eager and excited music lovers, who are waiting for the concert to begin. You know what the music ought to sound like. Then the announcer tells you that the famous musician has arrived. Everyone gets to their feet, to welcome the one who is going to fulfil all the expectations. However, as you stand there eagerly, a figure appears who doesn't look at all like the celebrity you had expected. And, as you listen, the music certainly isn't what anyone had imagined either.
Now listen as John the Baptist fans the flames of expectation through this announcement - which comes just before the passage we heard Sue read - "The real action comes next: the main character in this drama - compared to him I'm a mere stagehand - will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out."
John was preparing the way for a great leader - perhaps even the living God Himself - to come and sweep onto the scene in a dramatic blaze of light and colour, transforming everything and everyone at once. Yet, after all the build up and anticipation, instead we're told that "Jesus then appeared" and that He "wanted John to baptise him." John must have been horrified. Why would Jesus - of all people - be coming for baptism?
What's happened to the blaze of light and colour, to the thunderous music and wonderful noise? Surely if anything, John needed to be baptised by Jesus?
Jesus' reply in today's Gospel tells us something vital about what was now going to unfold - "the real action" - but in a most unexpected way. "Do it. God's work, putting things right all these centuries, is coming together right now in this baptism." Yes, Jesus was indeed coming to fulfil God's plan, the promises which God made ages ago, and had never forgotten. But if He, Jesus, was to do this, then He would do it by humbly identifying Himself with God's people, by taking their place, by living their life, and ultimately by dying their death.
Yet what good would all this do? And how would it bring about the result that John - and his audience - were looking for?
To these questions, the answer Matthew gives is this : read the whole story. And, in the baptism of Jesus, you and I are given some key pointers as to what that answer is finally going to be. For in the baptism of Jesus, the heart of the Gospel - the heart of God - is laid bare.
Baptism. Outwardly it is a simple act - an immersing in, or sprinkling with, water. Yet it is also a richly symbolic act, which draws the baptised - including Aaron, and you and me - with Jesus into the "real action", to "God's work", and invites us to share in it.
So let's spend a few moments now looking at some of the symbols connected with baptism (all found on order of service).
Dove - What's a bird got to do with baptism? Dove - symbol for the Holy Spirit : "The moment Jesus came up out of the baptismal waters, the skies opened up and he saw God's Spirit - it looked like a dove - descending and landing on him." Jesus received God's Spirit in a new way, declaring Him to be God's Son "chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life."
Dove also symbol for peace - God's work through Jesus would mean the making of peace.
What's this? - Shell - Used at Aaron's baptism - scallop shell.
Ancient symbol of Christian beginnings - also of pilgrimage or travel. A reminder that baptism marks journey's beginning, not journey's end, the start of a journey of faith, of pilgrim's progress. Aaron - and all the baptised - share that pilgrimage, together with Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith.
Fish - What has a fish got to do with baptism? Water?!
Was used as a secret sign by early Christians who were being persecuted in first century Rome, and has now been adopted again by many Christians and used on car stickers, necklaces and lapels. The Greek word for fish is I-CH-TH-U-S - and, if each Greek letter is used to begin another word, this phrase can be made: Jesus Christ, God's Son, Saviour. And so the fish-shape was first used as a way of declaring a person's allegiance to Christ. The One who at His own baptism was declared to be God's Beloved Son.
Cross - What about the cross? Aaron - Signed with the sign of the cross, the sign of Christ. Reminder that at the heart of the Christian faith is a cross. Cross of Christ, which is the way to peace, way to salvation, way to life. The place where old life and new life meet - something that Paul connected with the waters of baptism in Romans 6 : "When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace - a new life in a new land! That's what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus … When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us."
Symbol opposite the Bible reading? Trinity - Present in today's Gospel - Father's voice - Spirit's descent - Son's baptism. Aaron - baptised - not just about being joined to worldwide church, fellowship of faith - connected to, interwoven with, the life of the community of the Holy Trinity, being part of that communion which transcends time and space, and has God at the centre.
Candle - Aaron - will receive a candle - lit from Easter candle symbol of light of Jesus Christ - continues to shine in the darkness - lead us into light of God's glory - show us the way to our true and abiding home. Reminder as we receive so we are called to share - freely you have received, freely give - as we have been lit, so we are to shine with Christ's light to the glory of God.
Aaron - like many of us - won't remember the day of his baptism. But his family, godparents, and friends, and we the wider church family, are called - and have undertaken - to help him to understand more of rich meaning and inexhaustible depth of this holy sacrament. And to encourage Aaron - as we are also to encourage each other - to live out the full nature of our baptismal calling as God's beloved children - shining with the light of Jesus Christ, and sharing with Him in God's work in God's world.
John Barr
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