What Lies Within

The Rev. Dr. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
March 14, 2010

What Lies Within
Mark 1:4-8

Three men, dirty, hungry,
exhausted, fearful,
shuffling and scuffing along back roads
somewhere in the deep south in the mid 1930s,
deep in the Depression.
All three had broken out of jail a few days earlier,
broken out to escape the brutality and the utter hopelessness
that has always been part of life behind bars.

They hear singing off in the distance,
simple voices together, out in the woods,
somewhere off to their right,
singing that is both celebration and invitation.

They stumble upon a large group of people,
men and women in a line that winds through the trees,
and down a path that leads to the calm waters
of small river.
The people wait patiently,
singing joyfully, confidently, for what awaits them.

The people move forward, slowly,
one by one, each in his turn, her turn,
one by one they reach the end of the path
on the river bank,
one by one they wade into the water,
one by one they walk just a few feet
to where the preacher waits,
and one by one they are plunged under the waters.

One by one they come out of the water
perhaps looking the same,
but utterly and completely transformed within,
utterly and completely transformed by the grace of God
given them in the simple act of baptism.

Two of the convicts are intent on moving forward
farther from the cells they left behind,
farther from the police surely chasing them,
but the third man stops and stares.
He watches for a minute, maybe two,
and then breaks away from the others,
stumbling, running,
past all those waiting,
falling into the waters,
slipping on the rocks beneath the surface
in his effort to reach the preacher
who stands there, arms open,
waiting for him,
as though only for him.

The preacher asks no questions,
makes no demands;
he simply takes the man by his hands
and helps him fall back under the waters,
the man trusting, relaxed, sure.

Just as quickly he’s lifted up,
and walks out of the water,
looking no different to his two amazed companions.
But he knows he isn’t the same,
he knows that in that instant under the water
he was transformed,
utterly and completely transformed.
Washed clean, clean of sin,
the past wiped out,
no, not under the laws of the state,
but forgiven absolutely by God,
redeemed, renewed,
and reborn to new life in Jesus Christ.
(from “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”)

This is what baptism is: redemption,
renewal,… rebirth.
We go under the waters one person,
and come up a different person.
Washed clean of sin,
marked as Christ’s own forever,
and just as important,
filled with the Holy Spirit.

John the Baptizer makes this last distinction so clear,
the distinction between what he did to all those
who came to him along the banks of the Jordan,
and what God would do in the name of Jesus Christ.
John baptized with water,
for the repentance of sins.
But in Christ, we are baptized with the Holy Spirit,
not just forgiven our sins,
but utterly and completely transformed,
in the parlance of today’s culture,
a total, yes, extreme makeover
of all that lies within.

I fear we miss this element of transformation
in our typical baptismal service.
We love to baptize infants and youngsters.
I love the joy that is part of celebrating the sacrament.
Who doesn’t delight in welcoming
our newest brothers and sisters in Christ,
our newest members of Christ’s holy church,
the church universal,

But as difficult as it is to think of an infant
being washed clean of sin in his or her baptism,
it is harder still to think of a 6-month-old child
being transformed,
changed,
made-over.
And yet that is what is happening in baptism.
It is what happened to every one of us in our baptisms,
even if we were sleeping quietly in our parents arms,
or screaming to the heavens
at the indignity of the whole thing.

I think we lose something in the fact that
we don’t celebrate baptisms through full immersion.
We could, if we wanted to, install a pool --
full immersion baptism is allowed in Presbyterian practice.
We tend to use baptismal fonts for their convenience,
reminding ourselves that the water is, after all, symbolic,
even just a few drops will suffice.

But whether it is the full immersion of an adult,
or a few drops sprinkled on a baby’s forehead,
the effect is the same.
We become more than just disciples of Christ,
more than just members of his holy catholic church,
catholic with a small “c” meaning “universal”.
We become new men and women.

We become spiritual men and women,
the Spirit filling us.
The theologian Karl Barth says that nothing less than
“The Kingdom of God resides within us”
as a result of our baptism.
(Church Dogmatics, 4.4)

Filled with the Spirit,
fully spiritual men and women,
we are set “free to become what [we were] not
and could not be before,
and … enabled to do what [we] did not
and could not do before.”
(Barth 4.4)

We are free to become the children of God
that God hopes we will be,
God wants us to be,
God created us to be.

Our baptism is a “commencement
which points forward to the future.
It is a take-off for…what is not yet present.
It is a start which involves looking to
and stretching for a future”
(Barth 4.4)

In a few minutes you will come up the bowls
and put your hands in the water.
Don’t just dip your fingers in the bowl --
Immerse them completely, fully.
Imagine your entire self going under the water,
coming up head, hands and feet,
washed clean,
forgiven,
and even more:
transformed,
reborn
a new creation in Christ
by the grace of God
and through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Then, as you walk back to your seat with your stone,
pray that God will help you to embrace more completely
the term “spiritual”
for it defines you:
who you are and what lies within you,
as a result of your own baptism.

Embrace the word and live it,
live a spiritual life
a life of confidence,
a life as Paul wrote,
in which we can forget “what lies behind
and [look] forward to what lies ahead.”
(Philippians 3:13)

That little stone can, if you let it,
remind you of what lies within you:
the Kingdom of God!
For you are a child of God,
redeemed by Christ,
every inch of you filled with the Holy Spirit;
forgiven,
reborn,
transformed.

So come forward;
Don’t hesitate;
Immerse yourself…
Take the plunge.
AMEN