Death and New Life

January 12, 2020

St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois

Matthew 3:13-17

I took some time off after Christmas to travel to Michigan to visit my in-laws. While I was gone, I missed out on a special event here, the baptism of Ayva Lynn Schmitt. I heard from some of you, and from Rev. Shanks, that it was a beautiful ceremony. Baptism is one of those events in the life of the church that is sure to bring tears of joy and fill us with love as we are reminded that God is with us, renewing us, washing us clean, and helping us to love one another.

“In officiating at a service of baptism, the pastor acts as a representative of the church universal.”[1] The whole Church of Jesus Christ, church with a capital “C”, celebrates the baptism, since we represent the Church in this particular place and time. It is “a sign and seal of our common discipleship. Through baptism, Christians are brought into union with Christ, with each other and with the church of every time and place.”[2] This is what we do as members of the family of Christ, blessing the new ones and promising our love and care. Even though the minister sprinkles the water, we merely act as representatives of God who takes the initiative in the sacrament.

It occurs to me that the minister also acts symbolically as the representative of John the Baptizer. After all, it was John baptizing Jesus that got this whole Christian baptism thing going. Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist. Imagine, for a moment, as we prepare to baptize a baby in the front of the church, if I came through the door in a camel-hair robe with long hair and a beard, shouting “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” I probably wouldn’t be invited to lead any more baptisms!

Well, back to the symbolism. Part of what we signify in the ceremony of baptism is the death and resurrection of Christ. In some churches this is more apparent as the person is dunked completely under the water and brought back up. We just sprinkle, though it works just as well, since it is only symbolic of the real baptism performed by God.

Paul wrote to the church in Rome about the symbolism of baptism, saying, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”[3] Baptism symbolizes the death and resurrection of Christ, and shows us that the life of resurrection is not only a spiritual life in heaven, but right here and now.

We don’t dwell on the aspect of death in the ceremony. After all, it is usually a baby that is being baptized and we are celebrating a new life. But the symbolism of death is there, reminding us that we are mortal, and reminding us also of the hope we have of new life despite the reality of death.

It is easier to dwell on new life. It is easier to find hope and joy in the new life of a baby than it is to find hope and joy as a person nears the end of their life. We just celebrated Christmas, and the baby Jesus; but Good Friday is not that far off, and it wasn’t that far off for Jesus when he was baptized by John. As a minister, I have celebrated a baptism in the morning, and spent the afternoon at the bedside of a dying person. The cycle of life sometimes swings from high to low and back more quickly than we would like.

How do I reconcile those two experiences? How do I celebrate birth and mourn death in the same day? It helps to not be afraid of death. I found inspiration about facing death in a story told by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her book On Death and Dying[4].

The story is about an African-American woman who was part of the maintenance crew in a hospital where Kübler-Ross was working. The woman made beds, cleaned rooms, and emptied bedpans. But the staff noticed something special about that woman. In the rooms where she was doing her work, patients seemed to do better. They were more content––more peaceful. Kübler-Ross asked the woman what she was doing that helped the patients. She said:

Well, I’ve been up the mountain and I’ve been down the mountain. I’ve lived in many valleys. The worst was when I went to a public clinic with my three-year-old daughter in my arms, and before we could see a doctor, she died of pneumonia. I could have become cynical and angry, but instead I decided to use my pain to help others. I’m no stranger to death, and that’s why I’m not afraid to talk and touch those that are dying. I try to give them hope.

Remembering that Baptism is new life and a reminder of the hope we have – even when we are swimming in death, moment by moment, can bring hope and peace.

Many of you may be familiar with another idea from the book On Death and Dying. In it, Kübler-Ross introduces what we know as the Five Stages of Grief:

1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

Understanding the journey represented by those five stages of grief has been enormously helpful to dying people, their families, their doctors, and their care givers. It helps us to understand that the emotions we feel are normal, expected. In understanding that there are stages to grief, we can be reassured that even though we feel these emotions strongly, in time they will diminish, and we will be able to move into a newness beyond the grief.

Another way of thinking about dying in Christ and rising with Christ means dying to the ways of the world which lead to death, and rising in The Way of Jesus which leads to life. We can allow the divisions between people brought on by hatred to die away, and we rise to a new vision where we see the image of God in every person. We can eliminate the sinful ways in which we divide ourselves into us and them: racism, sexism, homophobia, misogyny, xenophobia, patriarchy, ableism, ageism, tribalism, nationalism, and classism. We can rise to the way of looking at the world where each person matters, each person has value, every death is tragic, every act of violence hurts our family, and every act of kindness and compassion is a gift of the grace of God.

In our time we are seeing changes in which these divisive forces are losing their power. In the history of our own denomination we have healed divisions, uniting Congregational and Christian, Evangelical and Reformed, and becoming a United Church. We were early in the fight to end slavery, and continue to bring to life a world where racism is being overcome. We long ago drowned the idea that women were less worthy of leadership, and we celebrate women ordained into the Christian ministry. We sent away the bitter falsehood that any race, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, nationality, ethnicity, marital status, economic status, or physical or mental condition could ever separate people from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

The ways in which our society is changing, putting an end to the structures, ideologies, and powers that diminish people, are in a way causing those powers to die. And it has been pointed out to me that we are seeing the five stages of grief play out in society as a result of these changes. There are those who are in denial, holding on to old prejudices. There is plenty of anger, and even bargaining, rejecting change or seeking to go back to old ways of thinking when we imagine things were better.

I am confident, however, that there is new life to be found beyond the divisiveness of the world. Though there may be grief at the loss of a world neatly divided into us and them, there is joy and hope in rising to world where we are all siblings, all members of one family. It is wonderful and beautiful to hear the words of Jesus’ baptism knowing that we are included in that blessing. “These are my children, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”  Amen.

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[1] Reprinted from Book of Worship © 1986 by permission of the United Church of Christ Office for Church Life and Leadership.

[2] Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, Faith and Order Paper No. 111 (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1982).

[3] Romans 6:3-4. The scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

[4] Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, On Death and Dying: What the Dying Have to Teach Doctors, Nurses, Clergy and Their Own Families (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1969).