SPIRIT JOURNEYS:
BODIES OF WATER, BODY OF CHRIST

July 30, 2023 • Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
Readings: John 7:38, Isaiah 41:10, Matthew 26:26-28, 1 Peter 3:21
Adapted from The Inclusive Bible
Becca Love, COTV, Guest Preacher

[You can view the full worship video recording at: https://youtu.be/tIcy7wUImhM]

My whole life I’ve believed that I was not baptized as a child. By the time my parents had me, they had kind of withdrawn from church, not for any big reason, they just sort of stopped going. Now because I didn't really grow up in church, I had assumed that my baptism was just something that kind of fell by the wayside. I honestly didn’t think about it much. In preparing for this sermon, however, I felt compelled to just make sure. So last Sunday I texted my mom and you can imagine my shock when she says, “I think you were baptized at Bethel United in Anderson.” Now, I grew up in Seattle but both sides of my family are originally from Anderson, IN, where my dad’s parents were very religious and very active in Bethel United Methodist Church. It had never crossed my mind that I would have been baptized in Indiana and not Seattle but suddenly the pieces were coming together. I immediately called the number listed on Google Maps for Bethel United Methodist and left this message: “Hello my name is Rebecca Love, daughter of James and Carolyn Love, granddaughter of Eileen Love, did you baptize me 38 years ago? Please call me back.” I didn’t hear anything for a few days and finally on Wednesday I got a hold of Kristine Marshall, who has been the pastor at Bethel United for the past 6 years. We had a sweet conversation, she knew my Indiana family but she also had some news. I had forgotten that the church had a major fire in 2009 and all of the baptismal records from 1980 thru 2009 were lost in the fire. In fact, nearly the entire building was lost in the fire except for the sanctuary. So my mom doesn’t remember for sure, my aunts don't remember for sure, the records all burned in a fire, and anyone else who might have remembered has passed away. It remains a mystery.

Ok so jumping back to the present, this sermon started as a curiosity about communion or the eucharist and then it evolved to include baptism. I’ve always loved communion. It has moved me to tears many times, and many of those times I don’t think I could have told you why. I don't always know what I’m going to feel when I step up to the table or take communion at home but I always feel something. It’s never neutral and I believe a large part of that has to do with its physicality. There is something tangible about hearing the message, watching the bread be broken, feeling connected to the people next to me or the faces on zoom, and then actually taking a piece of that physical food and drink and taking it into my body. Even during early covid when we were all watching communion on zoom, I felt connected to the bread and cup because I knew it was physically there. Similarly with baptism, I have witnessed a number of people be baptized and, while I didn’t know any of the people being baptized very intimately, many times I’ve been moved to tears at the beautiful and intimate event occurring. In baptism we see a person present themselves in front of God and their community, or in the case of an infant, be held up to God and to the community, saying “Here I am! This is my body, given for you.” And then in turn the community replies, “We see you and we love you and we are with you. Here we are! This is our body, given for you.” A body is presented to us and as a body we say “Welcome, touch the water we stand in. Drink from the cup we drink from.” 

There is a reason we turn to physical sensation in order to engage with our collective spiritual memories. We don’t just *talk* about water and then consider ourselves baptized, we put very real water to our very real skin. The role of the body in baptism is just as important as the water. The same can be said of communion. We take a real piece of the bread, dip it into the cup, and consume it. Even just watching the bread be broken and the cup be poured, we are using our bodies to witness. We take into our bodies spiritual and physical nourishment at the communion table. The role of the body in communion is just as important as the bread and cup. Without a body to baptize, there is no baptism. Without the ability to taste and/or see, there is no communion. Without a gathering of community, all hoping to move towards God together, there is no church.

Our bodies are a source of wonder. There are lots of things we can do to help our bodies grow or heal or stretch but all of those things are mostly helping the body do what it naturally does. Even in illness or injury there is room for awe at this body we inhabit. We can marvel and wonder at its strength and we can be humbled by its awesomely delicate nature. If you can sense that wonder in your own physicality, then follow the river to its source and find God. I don’t mean metaphorically. I mean, literally look for God and you will find God, and the wonder at seeing God will open you up to all that is possible. Find God in the water at Riis Beach, find God in a meal shared with your best friends, find God at a queer wedding in San Antonio, Texas, find God in baptism, find God in the bread and the cup, find God in your sense of belonging and like Moses and Samuel and Jacob and Abraham and Mary you can respond and say, “I am here!” 

I got a used book recently about Baptism and there were a couple of small pamphlets inside from the previous owner. One was this one: When United Methodists Baptize. It was a short intro on what it means to be baptized, I think for someone considering baptism or for someone preparing to baptize their child. I loved the final paragraph, which goes like this: 

“When someone is baptized, it is a crucial event in the life both of that person and of the church. What happens to that member of the Body of Christ will make a difference to every other member, and the rest of us can never again be the same. By the act of baptism the church pledges to that member: “ Your joy, your pain, your gain, your loss, are ours; for you are one of us.``

The scripture from Isaiah that Jason read says

do not fear, for I am with you,

do not be afraid, for I am your God;

I will strengthen you, I will help you,

I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.

When we stand together with someone who is being baptized we are given the opportunity to model God’s love to this person who is presented before us. We know their life will include pain and we know that we come to the waters with our own struggles. We don’t promise a life without loss, we could never do that. Even God doesn’t promise a life without loss. Instead, God says “I am with you, I will help you.” And we are asked to say the same to each other. Both your joy and your loss are ours.

Similarly, God knows that we will be fearful and that our fear could even lead to shame. We may have fear of abandonment, fear of making a mistake, fear of being inadequate or of being too much. God knows that we may even become fearful of our own anger at others and afraid of our shame that we have accumulated for doing harm to others. And if that anger towards others makes us feel unworthy of love, God reminds us that we are lovable. And when the shame we may feel for causing harm makes us feel like we are unworthy of God’s love, God reminds us that we are forgivable and as a community we can choose to say the same. It is still on us to make amends and heal relationships but God remains present throughout. Fear not, for I am with you. You are loved and forgiven.

And sometimes that is hard to believe. We don’t necessarily come to the table because we are full of faith. Similarly, we don’t initially come to the waters of baptism because we have achieved some maximum quota of belief. It is not a graduation ceremony for reaching the pinnacle of unwavering piety. Rather, our baptism is a moment when we say, I want to be closer to God. I want to live into an ever fuller faith. Like the parent says to Jesus in the book of Mark, “I do believe. Help my unbelief.” I might not know the entire route that lies ahead, in fact, I definitely do not. But I want to trust that God does and that my community will look out for me wherever that route takes us. We might fear our own anger and we might not always believe or trust in ourselves. So we put our trust in a community and in a God that believes in us.

Reverend Elizabeth Edman follows the same thought in her book Queer Virtue when she writes, “Ponder a God who loves you like crazy, who wants to be loved back by you, who values your love, who values you. Ponder this God who also loves the people around you like crazy, in all our diversity. Ponder this God who is amazed by our efforts to find them. Who smiles at the myriad ways that we enter mystical space to experience and celebrate the sacred… Can you imagine in your mind's eye a God who is real, who accomplishes the unimaginable feat of undermining abuses of power without actually abusing power themself? Can you imagine the One who would rather see you healed than punished? How badly do you want to be caught up in a movement that understands God this way? How fierce is your desire to enter into sacred reality- especially if it looks and feels like that? …Remember that this God created you to be in community with other people who yearn for the same life you do. Imagine what it would be like to be reminded, every time you are together with that community, just how real and powerful and exciting and terrifying and important your life together is.”

Later in her book Reverend Edman talks about the importance of coming out, noting some early research that suggested that the single factor that most affected how someone felt about homosexuality was whether that person knew someone who was openly gay. Coming out is not just about the individual recognizing their own true self, though that in itself is vital. Coming out reveals a possibility and a reality. It makes real something that otherwise may have remained a fearful idea. Coming out is an act that changes the world. It shifts the community because each of us individually make up a community. Like Edman says, Coming out makes it easier for the person standing behind you to come out.

In an interesting parallel, Christians talk about the importance of witnessing to our faith. But how do we do this? For the most part, Christians aren't demonstrating a healthy, respectful way to evangelize, and! before you get scared of that word, remember that the word evangelize has its root in the Greek euangelizesthai, which basically means to share the good news. And because even that can sound a little scary depending on what you’ve heard, The Good News is that we are lovable and loved. We are forgivable and forgiven. We are held with care and affection and we are, at our core, GOOD and loved as such. Baptism is an opportunity for a community to take one of its members by the hand, bring them to the river of living water, and share this good news. For those who come to baptism as adults, it's a chance to not only hear the good news but to then say to God, to that community, “I hear you! I am here!” For the families who bring their infant to the waters, it is a chance for that child to hear directly from their church community for the first time, “fear not, for we are with you.” And God, knowing that we are human, and need reminders of who we are, brings us back over and over again, through gathering with each other, through moments of incredible wonder, and through communion, where we are reminded of jesus’ words, “This is my body, given for you.” We are invited to a table that is open to all, and filled with nourishment that is for our bodies as much as it is for our spirit.

Nobody in my family seems to remember my baptism for sure, but I have felt called towards God for as long as I can remember. The official records of my possible baptism may have been lost in a fire, and the memory of what might have happened in 1986 in Anderson Indiana might be hazy but the reality of a call towards God has always been present for me. And it is a wonder and a blessing that over and over again I have been presented with communities that have helped me feel seen and have helped me see God. I have always been baptized; before I could name it I knew it and I said Here I am! I have always felt the coolness of the waters we share and I’ve been nourished at the table where we gather. This is my body. Thanks be to God.

Copyright (c) 2023 - Becca Love
All rights reserved.