St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Strathroy, Ontario

The Law of the Universe

January 8, 2012

Many of the most significant moments in the Bible are marked by the presence of water in one way or another.  In the Creation story, we are told that the Spirit of the Lord moved upon the formless deeps that covered the planet at one time.  When the Israelites escaped from Egypt, they crossed the Red Sea at some point along its length;  then, when they finally decided to enter the Promised Land, the waters of the Jordan pulled back to allow them to come across.  Naaman, the Syrian general, dipped his head under the waters of the Jordan seven times in order to be cleansed of his leprosy – this is similar to the later Jewish tradition of the mikvah, the ritual purification after something has made a person unclean.  At the end of Ezekiel’s prophecies, there is the vision of a river of water that purifies everything it touches pouring out from the Temple, signifying that God’s blessings bring life to those who come to Him.  John baptized people to signify their desire to be forgiven and in a better relationship with God, and Jesus Himself went down to receive this same baptism at the time when His ministry was to start.  We don’t know whether or not Jesus actually baptized anyone, but we know that His disciples did, and for two thousand years, the ritual act of baptism has been the sign of entry into the family of Christ, and it’s a beautiful and meaningful act in many ways.

One of the first things we did after Kooper, Lyndsay Drew and Austin moved in with us was ask about whether or not they had been baptized – when we were told that they had not, we began to plan a “baptism day” for them and anyone else from the congregations I was serving at that time.  We planned it for Mother’s Day, 2002, and I ended up performing no less than nine baptisms that day, between infants, children, teens and young adults.  We were doubly blessed to have our parents present – it was actually the first chance they had to meet their new grandchildren, and it was a beautiful day in many ways.  Of course, everyone got a great chuckle when both of my boys, apparently having gotten it through their heads quite well that they were the minister’s kids, walked past the baptism font on the way down to Sunday School, looked up at me, and gave themselves a little bit of extra sprinking!  Now, it could have been worse – I’ve seen a video of a Baptist minister’s son who decided that it would be appropriate to cannonball into the tank when it was his turn to be baptized!  I’m not sure if you would call that a “sin” or not – it certainly showed great enthusiasm for the prospect of being baptized into the family of the Lord!

 

Now, when talking about baptism, I realized that I could go on for hours regarding the different theological understandings of baptism that have developed over the last two thousand years.  They are similar to the debates over communion – it’s amazing and actually quite hurtful that a blessing that was intended to unite people can end up dividing them because “it’s not being done right” in some way.  With baptism, there are constant debates about the method – full immersion, full immersion in a body of water as opposed to a tank or tub, pouring, washing, sprinkling…  Another issue us, Is it a purely symbolic act, or is it the gateway to heaven, meaning that once you are baptized, God can never lose you, even if you go right out the door and never, ever come back?  We had a discussion around the table at the hospital’s Pastoral Care Committee not too long ago about what the volunteer chaplains would be comfortable doing if a woman was having difficulty in childbirth and wanted her baby baptized due to illness, injury or potential death.  I examined my own heart and my thoughts about the sacrament and I realized that I would baptize the child, but more for the comfort of the mother and father than for the soul of the child – the baby is in God’s hands, and the baptism, as a symbol of God’s love, is very powerful, very meaningful, and will be remembered.  I do not have the position of those in medieval Europe who took to baptizing infants at the moment of birth in order to secure their place in heaven, or who baptized the bellies of mothers in distress to ensure that the child went to heaven.  The idea that once the water is poured, you’re through the gate, isn’t where I stand on the issue of baptism.  I was baptized when I was six months old;  I made my confession of faith when I was thirteen;  and yet I still feel that I need to work on my relationship with God every day, or else I drift from the path that has been laid before me and harm myself and others in large and small ways.

This is what C.S. Lewis was talking about when he wrote in his book Mere Christianity, “These… are the two points I wanted to make.  First, that human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot get rid of it.  Secondly, that they do not, in fact, behave in that way.  They know The Law of Nature;  they break it.  These two facts are the foundation of all clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in.”

We live in a universe that is bounded by laws, many of which neither communion nor baptism can alter.  Two of the most basic are the law of gravity (or attraction due to mass) and the law of repulsion, where things push apart due to their electrical or magnetic charge.  These are also “natural laws,” but they are ones that we don’t really have any control over or choice about – if I step forward off this ledge, then I will step down to the lower level due to gravity, and I have no choices except whether or not to step off!

More in line with Lewis’ words are those of the Rev. Carver McGriff, who put Lewis’  “Law of Nature” alongside what he himself called the “moral law” and the “spiritual law.”  The Moral Law, as McGriff thinks of it, is concerned with consequences of immoral actions, such as taking something that doesn’t belong to you or inflicting pain selfishly (he contrasts this to a surgeon, who may cause considerable pain now in hopes of much less pain for the patient in the future).  When you don’t behave according to what Lewis calls the Law of Nature, you experience several things, including possibly Guilt, Legal consequences, the Rejection of society around you, and the Unwillingness of God to empower you in other places in your life.  In McGriff’s estimation, only the last is certain, but if one does not have the first element, Guilt, then one will almost certainly find a fifth element, which he calls an encroaching “deadness” in one’s soul.  Guilt is a realization of wrong that is hopefully accompanied by a desire to make things right – if you never feel guilt, you can never move towards the light by trying to make things right with those whom you have wronged.

This is where we turn towards what McGriff called the Spiritual Law, which is that love is intended to be the primary force, focus and purpose of human existence.  He wrote, “The more I strive to give love, the more I will receive love, and the more God will enable me in my endeavours.  I will then be like a sailing vessel sailing with sails unfurled to the prevailing wind.”  Four key elements that would demonstrate the love of God in the life of a believer would be:

• Being interested in other people and their feelings.  If we are to love one another and care for one another, we have to be interested in one another and sensitive to one another’s feelings on various issues and circumstances.  I remind you, though, that this has to be a two-way street – for them to be interested in you, you have to be interested in them;  otherwise, it just becomes an exhausting one-way trip that truly benefits no one!
• Being kind.  Bishop Fulton Sheen was known for saying that the three characteristics of a good Christian were kindness, kindness, and kindness.
• Being forgiving.  We pray in the Lord ’s Prayer, “Forgive us as we forgive others.”  If we hold grudges, and don’t fully forgive others for what they have done, should we not expect God to hold grudges against us?
• And, finally, an acceptance of differences.  I’ve talked about this before in the “we” and “they” mentality of many people today – we tie up our personal identity in the “we”, which is to say those who share the better characteristics we see in ourselves, and tend to reject the “they”, those who do not share those characteristics.  We find ourselves surrounded by those who act and talk and think more or less the way we do, but to reach out with God’s love to the whole world, we have to find a way in our hearts to accept those who live differently and accept that God loves them, too.  When I read this, I thought of prison chaplains who minister to murderers and rapists and drug dealers and try to get to them with the word that “God loves you, too!”  But prisoners are far from the only ones who are “different” and yet in need of the assurance of God’s Word.

Now, believe it or not, this takes me back to the discussion of baptism!  We, in the Presbyterian Church in Canada, believe that you only need one baptism, whether it’s as a child or as a believing teen or adult – we are not generally in the habit of re-baptizing people, though I’ve heard an argument for it regarding older folks who were baptized as children, fell away from the faith for many years, and in their 50’s or 60’s or 70’s have returned to faith and want to make a clear symbolic break with who and what they were for all that time.  Billy Graham was baptized three times – as a Presbyterian when he was a baby, and then twice more as an adult to satisfy various Southern Baptist groups in the States.  I could, in theory, wash water over the brow of someone once a week, every week, and it won’t make the slightest difference in the world if all that is washing over them is the water.

What matters is the Spirit.

It was the Spirit that was on the waters of Creation.

It was the Spirit that descended on Jesus in a form like a dove.

It was the Spirit that came in a rush of wind and in tongues as of flame and that touched the disciples and the hearts of those who heard their words and made the decision to follow their way.

It is the Spirit that guides us and strengthens us and gives us the courage to say and do what God requires of us in this world that has grown so ignorant of Him.

It is the Spirit that stays with us long after the water has dried, long after our bodies have processed the communion elements, long after we leave this place or any other place of worship.

It is the Spirit that we truly need in our lives.

Phil Jackson, who I knew only as the coach of the NBA’s Chicago Bulls and then of the LA Lakers, was a player in New York and New Jersey for thirteen seasons, from 1967-1980.  In his book, Sacred Hoops: Spiritual Lessons of a Hardwood Warrior, he tells of the 1972 playoffs, where he and his fellow New York Knicks took out the Boston Celtics in a tough division series before cruising to victory over the Lakers and claiming the NBA championship.  This was a dream come true for him, the very pinnacle of his sport, something that he had been striving for since childhood.  However, a couple of days later, he went to a celebration dinner at an exclusive restaurant that catered to celebrities, and he realized that something had already faded.  He wrote, “…the intense feeling of connection with my teammates I had experienced in LA seemed like a distant memory.  Instead of feeling overwhelmed with joy, I felt empty and confused.  Was this it? I kept saying to myself.  Is this what was supposed to bring me happiness?  Clearly the answer lay somewhere else… What I was missing was spiritual direction.”

 

Friends, we live in a world that is increasingly spiritually ignorant.  What most people now know of the Bible is what others have told them, not what they have read for themselves.  What is known of the Church is a mishmash of TV and movies and (let’s face it) bad publicity – I mean, every news agency in the country covered the sentencing of Bishop Ramond Lahey this past week;  I don’t remember hearing a thing about the six-hundred-plus-thousand Operation Christmas Child boxes that got sent around the world from Canada alone! There was a song a few years ago that asked, “Why does the devil have all the good music?”  Well, he’s got all the good press, too.

And we are what is supposed to stand against that ignorance.

It has been said many times, but bears repeating:  You are the only Bible some people will ever read.  If you are seen as interested, kind, forgiving, accepting, compassionate, grace-filled and Spirit-filled, then that is how people will see the Church through you, and how they will see God through you.  When we speak of “law” in the Church, we can mean many things – the rules that are contained in the Book of Forms;  the first five books of the Bible, which the Jews call the Torah, the Law, or McGriff’s moral and spiritual laws.  However, what it all boils down to is:  we sin;  and God forgives.

Our baptisms are a step in our faith lives – an important, critical, public step, but only a step nonetheless.  The world needs us to continue moving forward from that step, being honest, forthright and true in what that step meant and means to us, if we are then to be witnesses and world-changers in the name of Jesus Christ who saves us.

So let’s pray about this now, shall we?

 

Eternal God, our world has a hard time wrapping its head around you.  You speak through so many different voices, in so many different churches, to so many congregations, that the fact that some of us lose our way probably shouldn’t surprise us.  In Strathroy alone, there are some thirteen congregations of your faithful that will have met for worship this morning, each with a different style and flavour, each with a different impression of what is “law” and what is not.  It’s no wonder that so many are confused about which “church” they should attend, and that so many others have found themselves burned and rejected when they sought welcoming and compassion – I think of the young man I was talking to this week who hasn’t been in a church in years because of that very reason!  I lift him and so many others up to you, because we are all your children, whether we’ve been baptized or not.  The world needs you, and the world needs us to be your witnesses, your examples, the lights that draw in those who recognize their own darkness and feel that guilt that says, “I need to be made clean.”  Baptize us with your Spirit, Lord, a Spirit that satisfies our true needs.  Amen.

 

I invite you all to join with me now in the brief words of the prayer of the early Church scholar Origen, who lived somewhere between 185 and 254 AD.  The words are on the screen, and we pray together saying,
Lord, you can do everything.  We beg you to take pity on us, making us not merely listen to what you say, but put it into practice also.  Send the flood of your waters over our souls, destroying within us what should be destroyed, and giving life to that which should live. Amen.