Posted on Baptism of Jesus

When I was a boy growing up in church, I learned a lot about Heaven and even more about Hell…about how good people went to Heaven and bad people went to Hell.

But then I also learned there was a third place called Purgatory. Purgatory was a place for all of those people who died who had not been baptized as a Christian, so they couldn’t get into heaven.

They were in this kind of “in between” holding place where God would eventually decide their fate.

They were in Limbo, which to me was even more frightening than Hell.

Growing up in church, we were especially asked to pray for all the little babies who were in Purgatory…the babies born to good Christian families, but whom had died before they could be baptized.

Being baptized as a Christian, we were taught, was the only way to ensure a place in Heaven.

But as I grew in my spiritual understanding, I came to see that none of this made any sense. The God I came to know – the God that Jesus spoke of – was a God who was all-loving and all-forgiving.

Jesus told us – time and time again – that God’s love for us was unconditional, which means “without conditions” … conditions such as baptism.

Now, most of us in this room have been baptized at some point in our lives. Some of us as adults, but most of us as infants. So, most of us don’t even remember being baptized, and I think many Christians don’t really understand what baptism is.

The church in which I grew up explained baptism as the washing away of sin. But, how can a newborn infant have sinned?

Well, the Church said we were born with Original Sin.

But, you know, Jesus never spoke of Original Sin, because Jesus, you see, never heard of Original Sin.

The concept of Original Sin is not in the Bible. It was a concept that Church fathers (hundreds of years after the death of Jesus) came up with, and it was used as a means of control.

Some of you may be familiar with Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong. He was one of the world’s foremost Biblical scholars of our day. He passed away just a few years ago.

Bishop Spong wrote many wonderful books, but in his very last book (published the year he died), he wrote this:

“I don’t believe Hell exists. Religion is in the control business. If you have Heaven as a place where you are rewarded and Hell as a place you are punished, then you have control over the population. And, so, the church created this fiery place which quite literally scares the hell out of people…and it’s all part of control tactics. Original Sin is simply wrong and it has got to go. We do not need salvation. We need the love and affirmation that accepts us as we are and empowers us to be all that we are capable of being.”

We do not need salvation, he said. We need love and affirmation.

Another pastor who preached something similar ended up losing his entire ministry.

His name was Bishop Carlton Pearson, and he just died back in November at the age of 70.

During the 1990’s, Bishop Pearson led one of the largest Christian churches in the United States with more than 6,000 members.

He was so popular that he appeared weekly on TV, sold millions of books, and was invited the White House.

They even made a movie about his life, entitled, “Come Sunday.”

But, as Bishop Pearson grew in spiritual wisdom, he came to the understanding that there couldn’t be a Hell, because God is all forgiving.

And, so he began to preach that…and to preach people didn’t need to be saved, because God’s love for them was unconditional, just as Jesus said.

And so, Bishop Pearson began preaching what, he called, the Gospel of Inclusion.

But, you see, the people in Bishop Pearson’s church didn’t want to hear that, and so they fired him. He lost his job. He lost his home. He lost his marriage. Everything!

It’s funny how people want religion to be about Reward and Punishment…about who’s in and who’s out…who’s saved and who’s unsaved.

Bishop Gene Robinson recently said, “It’s funny, isn’t it? You can preach a judgmental and vengeful and angry God, and nobody will mind. But start preaching a God that is too accepting, too loving, too forgiving, too merciful, too kind…and then you’re in trouble.”

My friends, I believe that people shouldn’t be coming to church to hear about how sinful they are and how they are in need of salvation.

People should to be coming to church to hear about how much they are loved.

And, that is what the ritual of baptism is all about.

It’s not about removing Original Sin or ensuring our place in Heaven.

I mean, think about it: If baptism was necessary for salvation, then why would Jesus need to be baptized?

Surely, he was without sin and already saved, so why did he need to be baptized by John the Baptist?

Well, the ritual of baptism is an affirmation of God’s love.

As we heard in today’s gospel reading, as John the Baptist is baptizing Jesus and other in the River Jordan, a voice from heaven declares: “This is my beloved child in who I am well pleased.”

That’s what were doing when we baptize a baby here at our baptismal font. We’re not saying, “Here is a baby filled with sin and we’re going to remove it so that God will love her.”

No, we’re affirming in the baptismal ceremony that God already loves her. That she is God’s beloved child in whom God is well pleased.

Baptism is not magic. Religious rituals are not magic.

A marriage ritual, for example, doesn’t magically create love between the couple, does it?

No, that love already exists, and we come together in the marriage ritual to recognize and affirm that love.

So, it is the same with the baptism ritual. God’s unconditional love for the child already exists. God’s Light in the child already exists. We’re just coming together to recognize and affirm that love and that light.

That’s why we call it a Christening, for we’re recognizing and affirming the Christ Light in the child being baptized.

And, we use water in baptism to symbolize the immersion of the human into the divine, symbolizing their Oneness.

The Sufi poet, Rumi, said: “You are not just a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.”

The ALL-ness of God is within you…or as Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is within you.” That’s what we’re affirming in baptism…that God loves us so much that God makes its dwelling place within us.

In the Bible (in the book of the prophet Isaiah), God says to us, “You are wonderfully made. You are precious and holy in my sight and I love you.”

The problem is that many of us don’t really believe that. We think that we’re not good enough or worthy enough. We think that we need to earn God’s favor and win God’s love.

But the Truth is that you already have it…unconditionally! And, you don’t need to do anything to ensure your place in Heaven, because your place is Heaven is already assured by an all-loving and all-forgiving God.

And, so, my friends, on this day in which we remember the Baptism of Jesus, may we also remember that we, too, are God’s beloved.

In you (yes, YOU!) God is well-pleased, for you are holy and perfect in God’s sight.

When you know this Truth (really know it and start living from it), you will be set free.

May it be so. Amen.