Perhaps you have seen the e-mail that has been widely distributed that begins like this: “We are all familiar with a herd of cows, a flock of chickens, a school of fish and a gaggle of geese. However, less widely known is a pride of lions, a murder of crows . . . an exaltation of doves and, presumably because they look so wise, a parliament of owls.
“Now consider a group of baboons,” the e-mail continues. “They are the loudest, most dangerous, most obnoxious, most viciously aggressive and least intelligent of all primates. And what is the proper collective noun for a group of baboons? Believe it or not . . . a Congress! I guess that pretty much explains the things that come out of Washington!” the writer of the e-mail concludes.
Clever, isn’t it? The only problem is that it isn’t true. I hate to spoil a good source of humor (particularly at Congress’ expense), but it just isn’t so. According to PolitiFact, the Pulitzer-winning fact-checking service, even though the rest of the information in the e-mail is correct, somebody just made up the idea that a group of baboons is called a congress. Actually the proper term is a troop of baboons. (1) So baboons of the world relax. No one can properly defame you by calling you a Congress.
I guess that is a good lesson in accepting everything as gospel that people send you via e-mail . . . or Facebook or wherever you get your information.
But I have to tell you my spirits were lifted just a little bit when I was introduced to the idea that a group of doves is called “an exaltation.” I haven’t been able to find that description of a group of doves anywhere else, but I hope that it is accurate.
What a beautiful word--exaltation. Exaltation is not a word we use very often anymore, except in referring to God, as in Psalms 34:3, “O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together” (KJV). Or in Philippians 2 referring to Christ: “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (9-11).
And guess what appeared at Jesus’ baptism? Luke tells us in our lesson for today: “When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’” The Holy Spirit came upon Jesus in the form of a dove.
I used to wonder, did anyone beside Jesus actually see the Holy Spirit come upon him like this? After all, as you read Luke’s account, you could surmise that Christ alone was aware of the coming of the Spirit and the voice saying, “This is my son . . .”
However, the Gospel of John answers that question. The writer tells us that John the Baptist gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One” (John 1:32-34).
What a magnificent scene. In one compact event, Christ’s baptism, the three persons of the Trinity come together--the Son being baptized, the Father expressing his approval of His Son and the Holy Spirit descending as a dove . . . No wonder on the second Sunday of Epiphany each year we celebrate Jesus’ baptism. How much closer to exaltation can we come than the concurrent presence of the Trinity? And a small dove was very much a part of it. So why should we not call a group of doves an exaltation? It’s a good reminder of what happened on the day Christ was baptized.
This scene ought to also remind us how important every baptism is. [Whether of a child, a youth or an adult] every baptism is an important occasion.
United Methodist bishop Will Willimon tells a wonderful story about a baptism he once conducted. It was at a small rural church. A twelve-year-old boy wanted to be baptized by immersion. The boy’s pastor conveyed the request to Willimon. Methodists rarely baptize by immersion, but Willimon was willing if that was the lad’s request.
Willimon arrived at the church that Sunday morning, and sure enough, there was the pastor standing on the front steps of the little church with a small boy. “Jeremy, this is the bishop,” the pastor said. “It’s an honor for you to be baptized by the bishop.”
Young Jeremy looked Bishop Willimon over and said only, “They tell me you don’t do many of these. I’d feel better if we had a run-through beforehand.”
“That was just what I was going to suggest,” Willimon said. They went into the church’s fellowship hall where the pastor showed them their newly purchased font.
Jeremy said, “After you say the words, then you take my hand and lead me up these steps, and do you want me to take off my socks?”
“Er, uh, you can leave them on if you want,” Willimon said. He obviously wasn’t an expert at these kinds of baptism. But they had a wonderful service. The bishop preached on baptism, the choir sang a baptismal anthem, then the whole congregation recessed into the fellowship hall and gathered around the baptismal font. Willimon went through the baptismal ritual. Then he asked Jeremy if he had anything to say to the congregation before his baptism.
“Yes, I do,” Jeremy said. Then, addressing the congregation of that small church, Jeremy said, “I just want to say to all of you that I’m here today because of you. When my parents got divorced, I thought my world was over. But you stood by me. You told me the stories about Jesus. And I just want to say to you today thanks for what you did for me. I intend to make you proud as I’m going to try to live my life the way Jesus wants.”
Willimon who is a very humorous man, says, by this time he was weeping profusely. Jeremy asked him, as Willimon led him up the steps into the pool, “Are you going to be OK?”
“I baptized Jeremy,” concludes Willimon, “and the church sang a great “Hallelujah!” (2)
And sing they should. They were acknowledging and accepting a fine young man into the family of God. It’s an important event, perhaps the most important event that will occur in Jeremy’s life. I worry that sometimes we view baptism as just another ceremony, just another ritual that we go through in the life of the church. Baptism matters.
Why does it matter? It matters for several reasons. For one thing it says something about the person being baptized. The person being baptized now belongs to God. We hear people say defiantly, “I’ll do what I want. It’s my life.” Not so with a person who has been baptized. You now belong to God. You may not be everything God wants you to be, but you still belong to Him.
Ben Helmer, an Episcopal priest in Arkansas, tells about a baptism of a 55-year-old man who had just started coming to his church. The man’s first question was, “What do I have to do to be baptized?” As is the custom in the Episcopal Church, a bishop was also present to officiate this man’s baptism. On the day of his baptism, he stood at the small font. A tall, athletic man, he bowed his head as the priest poured water on him. The bishop sealed his baptism with chrism, which is consecrated oil used for anointing the newly baptized person with the sign of the cross. As the oil is applied, the bishop or priest says to each newly baptized person that “you are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own for ever.”
Afterward, this man shared how moving the experience had been for him. He told how something had always been missing in his life. He had been a counselor until his retirement. He had often tried to help others find purpose in their lives. But now he had found that sense of purpose in his own baptism.
This man is now a servant of Christ, says Ben Helmer, volunteering at a food pantry, and on Christmas Day offering to help cook and serve Christmas dinner for others at a local health clinic. He spent Christmas weekend with his family, but Christmas day itself he was at the clinic feeding those in need. (3)
Did it matter to this 55-year-old man whether he had been baptized? It marked a new chapter in his life. He now belonged to God. Baptism matters.
Father Tommy Lane, a Roman Catholic priest, tells about the difference baptism made in the life of a prominent world leader, one that may surprise you. It was just before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Father Lane was in his first years of theological study in Ireland. One of the professors was teaching them about the importance of baptism. The professor mentioned that President Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union at the time, had been baptized as an infant. The professor expressed his faith that baptism must make a difference in a person’s life, even the leader of a communist state.
It seems that Gorbachev’s grandmother had him secretly baptized by a Russian Orthodox priest. His grandmother and his mother put an icon of Jesus on the wall in every room in their house. Gorbachev’s father was a staunch Communist and put a picture of Stalin next to each picture of Jesus.
Three years later after hearing his professor say that baptism must make a difference in Gorbachev’s life, Father Lane was studying in Rome when the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989. Then on December 1, 1989 he went to St. Peter’s Square and watched President Gorbachev being driven into the Vatican to meet Pope John Paul II. The two met and spoke in the Pope’s private library for seventy minutes. (4)
Was Mikhail Gorbachev aware that he belonged to God? Could that realization have affected his actions at that critical time in history? It’s an important question. After all, Vladimir Putin was also baptized into the church. We’re told that Putin regularly attends the most important services of the Russian Orthodox Church on the main Orthodox Christian holidays and has been responsible for the restoration of many Russian churches. No one would claim that Putin is a saint, but do not discount the effect of baptism on Putin’s life. Who knows what the future may hold? That is the first reason baptism matters. It matters because it says the baptized person belongs to God.
Baptism also matters because of what it says about the church. Christian baptism is a rite of the church. When you are baptized, you are baptized into a family. That family is the Christian family. There are far too many people who are under the delusion that they can live a Christian life apart from the church. You may live a moral life, you may live a constructive and happy life, but the Christian life can only be properly lived as part of the body of Christ.
Now churches vary greatly. Not every church is a place where you can find God. But church is where you are most likely to find Him. It may be our church or another one. It may be a large church or a small one. But we were baptized into the body of Christ, and only within the body of Christ will our commitment to Christ be complete.
Rev. Dr. Stephen R. Montgomery tells about a young woman he once knew who was looking for a church in which to get married. She nearly drove her fiancé and her mother crazy, scouting out just about every sanctuary in the city, looking for just the right one--the one with the prettiest stained glass windows, the one with just the right length of the center aisle, the one most accessible to the interstates, and so forth.
Finally, she made a decision. She ended up getting married in an old, cinder block, rectangular building with florescent lights, and an electric organ. A few homemade felt banners that the youth group had made in the ’60s or ’70s were still up on the walls.
Why the change? She finally realized something very important. She realized that this was the church where she had been baptized, where she had gone through confirmation class and had met her husband, where her grandparents’ memorial services had been held. This was where she had come to know something of the love and grace of God, and she finally realized that, yes, the building was important, it was a sacred center, but its importance was in being a means to an end and not an end in itself. (5)
We sometimes chuckle about people who simply use the church to be hatched, matched, and dispatched. That is to say--to be baptized, married and then buried. The other side of that is that the church envelopes all the important events of our life. It should be central to our life.
Baptism is our initiation into a special group, the church of Jesus Christ. Notice that today I have cited examples from a wide variety of churches--Catholic, Protestant, evangelical, liturgical. We may baptize in different ways, but all churches are united in this one way: baptism is a requirement of acceptance into the body of Christ. Baptism is important because of what it says about the person being baptized and what it says about the church. Every baptized person is part of the church.
Even more important is what it says about the grace of God. God’s grace is available to all. We are not baptized because we are perfect. None of us is perfect. The use of water symbolizes that our sins have been washed away.
A lady tells about a baptism service that took place in her evangelical church. It was after a series of evangelistic services at their church. One hundred and two people were scheduled to be baptized. The men wore black robes; the women wore white robes.
During the baptism the dye from the black robes began to make the water look dirty, and she heard two little boys sitting behind her discussing the matter.
“How come the water is getting so dirty?” The first boy asked.
“That’s their sins being washed away,” replied the second. Well, he may be right.
Sam Houston was the first president of the Republic of Texas. It’s said he was a rather nasty fellow with a checkered past. Later in life he made a commitment to Christ and was baptized in a river. The preacher said, “Sam, your sins are washed away.”
Houston replied, “God help the fish.”
God accepts us as we are. He would prefer that we be like Jeremy, the 12-year-old boy who vowed his intent to make the people who were responsible for his baptism proud by trying to live his life the way Jesus wants. God would prefer that we would be like the 55-year-old man who is now serving Christ by volunteering at a food pantry, and on Christmas Day offering to help cook and serve Christmas dinner for others at a local health clinic. But God accepts us as we are. Baptism is important because of what it says about the person being baptized and what it says about the church. But most important is what it says about the grace of God. If you have been baptized it must make a difference in your life. Let that difference begin today.
2. Willimon, William H. The Best of Will Willimon: Acting Up in Jesus’ Name, Abingdon Press. Kindle Edition.
3. Ben Helmer, http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2013/12/31/1-epiphany-a-2014/.
4. http://www.frtommylane.com/homilies/years_abc/baptism_of_our_lord-2.htm.