Isaiah 49:1-6; Romans 6:1-14; Luke 1:57-66, 80; Psalm 139

June 24, 2018

Craig Terlson

 

Immersed in the Culture of Christ

(Being "in Christ")

Today I am finishing my three-part homily on baptism. I wanted to give you some broad strokes summaries of what I've covered in the last couple of weeks, and then turn my attention to the concept of immersion... notably immersion into what I am calling, the culture of Christ.

In the first part, I talked about baptism being a "woke" moment - or a moment of awareness, a moment of "getting it"... but at the same time, baptism is a surrender. I likened this surrender to giving into the current of a raging river. So what, or who, do we surrender to in this sacrament? Well, our word sacrament, derives from a military oath, as well as being linked to the pagan word for initiation rites: mysterion. So this mystery military oath of baptism was given so that God could come down... as God did in Jesus' baptism - and call us beloved.

These homilies are about learning to hold many "both/ands" (as opposed to either/or polarities) - the second week looked first at infant baptism - and how it is  an example of us seeing that "it is not about us", it is about God with us, God in us. An infant is not able to make any sort of intellectual decision, but rather is offered to the community, but moreover, to God, for that blessing and initiation. Again, so God could come down.

As well, I talked some Greek grammar around what has become known as the Great commission - showing that the imperative verb in this passage is to disciple one another.
So then... I am linking this idea of discipleship, with the giving over or surrender to a woke moment. And further, this giving over to God is a childlike surrender.
To put it altogether...  this ritual that says, yes Lord I believe - even if I don't fully understand... which brings us to today.

We get it, and we want to give ourselves over to it. We want to dive deep. Okay, dive deep into what? Now before I go into this, I want to say that I hope this exploration will have value both for those not baptised, and for those that can reflect on what their baptism meant - infant or otherwise.
Deep breath. Here we go.

As some of you may know baptism at its root has the Greek word Baptizo, which means immersion. Other forms of the word, like bapto, mean dip. But don't worry, I am not going on another Greek grammar lesson this morning. Nor is this about the completely futile arguments about dipping, versus pouring, versus immersion. But rather, I want to explore what is mean by this immersion. To be baptized is to be immersed - to be fully covered, surrounded, fully into... Into what?

First, a couple of examples of immersion. When I decided at the age of 22 to move to Toronto to start a career as an illustrator, I needed to immerse myself in the culture of art, publishing, and even Toronto itself, to succeed. This immersion changed me. When our good friend Stewart begins Med School in the fall, he will be immersed into the culture of medicine - studying, living, and if you know how intense that program is, he will be probably eating and drinking medicine. He will be immersed in it, and it will change him. When you send your daughter or son to a French Immersion school, it is so they will be immersed into that French language culture, so much so that the speaking of English will be dissuaded. And they will be changed by this immersion.

These examples show the kind of immersion I am talking about. When we are baptized, we are immersed in Christ - or as I like to think of it, immersed into the culture. This community baptised me in the muddy Assiniboine river when I was 33. For the last 22 years, I have been immersed in a culture that was really quite foreign to me. Maybe at first it was the culture of the church, but more and more I see it was the culture of Jesus. And it changed me. And it continues to change me every day.

Now this immersion brings me to a very important phrase that I want to explore with you a bit. Immersed in Christ. Or to be: in Christ.

This idea of being in Christ has many examples in scripture - and I don't point these out as some sort of proof texting, but more to show other ways to get at this central message.  

A few examples:
"Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. (Jn. 15:4-5)

In John 17, Jesus prays his final prayer with the disciple before his crucifixion "As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us" (Jn. 17:21)

On many occasions, in (Romans, Corinthians, Thessalonians) Paul uses the term en Christo…in Christ, to describe the new life of the Christian

Once immersed in Christ, the life of the believer takes on the form of Christ’s life.
As we share in his death so we share in his glory and new life: ‘You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him’ (Col. 2:12; cf. Rom. 6:5).

A bit more on this Romans passage 6: 1-14

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ 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.

I'd love to go deeper into these few verses, as they are both challenging, and full of meaning. But just a few things.
Do you not know - Paul here is talking about what all Christians know, that being baptized is recognizing a death (you could call this a surrender to all that we are), and then we are buried with Christ Jesus by baptism - that is a very "in Christ" image - we are buried with Christ.

Now for Paul, and all these early Christians, burial was an expression of hope, a hope of resurrection, or a rising, so that, while still "in Christ" we are raised by the glory, and so that we can walk in newness of life.

Newness of life - transformation. Being in Christ to the point of dying to all, the self, being buried, and then raised so that we can become something altogether new - wow, quite an image.

Early saints of the Church portray a relationship with God where the concept of participation is shown to be one of immersion and enfoldment. Of being "in Christ."
Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) often uses the image of water to communicate her understanding of being plunged into the mystery of the divine. For Catherine ‘God is closer to us than water is to fish’

Tertullian: "But we little fish, like our Fish Jesus Christ, 2 are born in water, and it is only by remaining in water that we are safe." Born in water, remain in water, remain in Christ.

Julian of Norwich (c. 1342-1416) teaches that we exist where ‘we are enclosed in the Father, we are enclosed in the Son and we are enclosed in the Holy Spirit’ We are immersed in the Trinity as a fish in water.

When we realize that we are within God, it changes and deepens how we pray. We don’t just pray to God but pray within God. Within God. In Christ.

And since ‘God is love’ (1 Jn. 4:8), every expression of human love then becomes a participation in God. Loving absorbs us into the God who is love and the source of love.

This is a lot to take in, but think of these words - absorb, enclosed, plunged into mystery, remain in me - and you may start to get a picture of what it means to be In Christ - it is something you hear in worship or maybe read it sometime "In Christ" - have you stopped to consider what that means? Being in this sort of immersion will change you, I'm going to say that boldly.

So here is another bold thing. My homilies are not meant to convince anyone of some need to be baptized, rather I have come to the place where I have found that the very most important thing is to be: In Christ.

And for me, my own baptism, when I think on it was a beginning of the realization that yes, I was, and have been, in Christ.

I'd like to just take a moment here. Like 30 seconds or so of silence - and for us to be quiet, and hold the phrase in Christ with you - hold it there, with an open hand, an open mind, an open heart. Meditate what it means to be: in Christ.

 

Silence.

 

To be baptized as an infant, a child, a teen, a young adult, a middle-aged person, a senior, an elder is to know that you are in Christ.

God comes down and calls you beloved... and God is pleased.