The annual Christian feast called Epiphany always occurs on January 6, which in 2007 was yesterday. That makes today the first Sunday in the Christian season called Epiphany. We have just come through the first two seasons of the Christian year: the season of Advent, which includes 4 Sundays, and the season of Christmas, which includes 2 Sundays. This year the season of Epiphany will include 7 Sundays before the season of Lent begins. Epiphany can include anywhere from 4 to 9 Sundays depending upon when Easter Sunday falls.

Epiphany means "manifestation" or "revelation" or "showing forth." There are several places in the Bible where Jesus is shown to be the Son of God that he is. For example, the Magi see a star in the east that signifies the birth of the King of the Jews and they follow it to worship him. The feast of Epiphany commemorates this "showing forth" of Christ to the world, when His presence was revealed to the three Magi. Other epiphanies, or manifestations of the divinity of Christ, are commemorated throughout the season of Epiphany.

For example, the first Sunday after Epiphany (today) the church commemorates the baptism of Jesus because of the epiphany that occurred on that occasion. You will notice from our text how, when Jesus was baptized, 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" (Verses 21-22). That is an epiphany—a manifestation of Jesus as the Son of God.

So this is a date for us to consider baptism: the baptism of our Lord and our own baptisms as well. There is a lovely baptism scene in the movie, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" The movie is set in Mississippi during the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Three fellows have just escaped from a chain gang and are in search of a buried treasure that will help them make a fresh start. Along the way they are swept up in a trance-like baptismal scene where a congregation is making its way through the woods and fields singing, "Let’s go down to the river and pray."

But Delmar recognizes that his baptism is not just about washing away past sins or securing a future reward. It is about living a new and better life in the here and now. So later, when the three convicts steal a hot pie from a windowsill, Delmar returns and places a dollar bill in its place. The old days of stealing pigs and pies are over for him. He is a new man living by new principles. The old man is dead and buried under the surface of that baptismal water. A new man had been raised up.

The title of our message for this morning is "Baptism: Symbol and Reality." If Delmar had come out of that water and made no amendment of his life, then that would have rendered his baptism empty and meaningless. We must guard against our religious devotion degenerating into mere symbolic ritualism. As long as I get baptized, become a card-carrying church member, take communion on occasion and go through some other similar religious motions; that should be sufficient, right?

Wrong! All those symbolic gestures point to certain spiritual realities we are called to live out in our lives. As the quote at the top of our bulletins from the Book of Common Prayer puts it, sacraments such as baptism are "Outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual graces." Neglect the inward graces and the outward signs are worthless. A fairytale wedding, indeed a Prince Charles and Lady Di wedding, is a sham without a marriage. By the way, in the Roman Catholic Church marriage is a sacrament. In our faith tradition we have two sacraments: Holy Communion and Holy Baptism.

Let us turn to our text to see what it has to say about baptism as a symbol and a reality. The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ (Verse 15). We are in the midst of a series of sermons from the Gospel of Luke that is running from the beginning of Advent through Easter. We have covered Luke’s birth narratives during Advent and Christmas. Our New Testament text for last Sunday was Luke’s interlude about Jesus as a 12-year-old boy both asking questions and giving answers, which was appropriate for our annual "Questions from the Pew" Sunday.

Now Luke jumps ahead to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry as a man, which began with his baptism. Prior to his baptism he is unknown to the multitudes that have been prepped by John the Baptist to expect the long-awaited Messiah. Naturally, the multitudes begin to wonder in their hearts if this baptizing prophet might not be the Messiah himself. John perceives this unasked question and immediately dispels any confusion about his role. In the process he tells us something about baptism as both symbol and reality.

Let us begin by considering baptism as a symbolic event. John answered them all, "I baptize you with water. John baptizes with water. He takes people into the Jordan River and, like the pastor with Delmar, immerses them beneath the water. Or maybe not. Maybe he sprinkles them with water, or pours water over their heads. Maybe he only baptizes males. Or maybe females as well—indeed, maybe entire families including and children and infants. We do not know.

Given how we do not know, it is very interesting how the Christian Church has argued over the proper mode of this symbolic ceremony. The Roman Catholic Church baptizes infants and, under certain circumstances, fetuses by sprinkling. Certain Protestant denominations such as various brands of Baptists and Churches of the Reformation movement such as the Disciples of Christ, baptize youth and adults by immersion. Some Pentecostal groups only consider a baptism valid if the person is immersed three times in succession and in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Many denominations do not accept the validity of other modes of baptism, and require converts to be rebaptized before they can transfer their membership. In fact, you may have heard the term "Anabaptist." It means, "to baptize again." Contemporary groups with early Anabaptist roots include the Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites, Brethern and, of course, the Dunkards. Indeed, many denominations do not consider a person to be a Christian or saved unless they have been baptized a particular way.

This controversy surrounding the symbolic practice of baptism goes all the way back to the founding of Christianity. Some in the early church believed that a person was not genuinely baptized unless the baptism was performed by their favorite preacher, whether Paul or Apollos or Peter. Paul responded to this nonsense by asking: Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptized into my name. (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don't remember if I baptized anyone else.) (I Corinthians 1:13-16).

Clearly, Paul was not so much interested in the symbol as in the reality of baptism. And so it goes in Community Churches such as ours. We do not require new members to be rebaptized because we practice all modes of baptism. My own children were dedicated as infants and baptized in the lake at Church Camp when they were around 13 years old. I happen to have been baptized both as an infant and again as a young adult by my own volition. This is not to say that the baptismal service is not important to us. It is important, but only to the extent that the outward and visible sign points us to the more substantive inner grace. What is that inner grace all about?

John the Baptist compares his symbolic baptism by water with a much more substantive baptism that will follow his. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Verse 16). We have witnessed many water baptisms this past year--probably a record number for us in a 12-month period. We know what symbolic water baptism looks like, but what does it mean to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire?

Notice what happens to Jesus after his water baptism in the Jordan River. Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil (4:1-2). Jesus is led by the Spirit to the desert. In the Bible the desert is where God tests the faith of his people. You will recall how God led his people out of their bondage in Egypt and into the desert wilderness to test whether they would trust his protective and providential care—to test whether they would trust him to provide food, as he did in the form of manna from heaven, whether he would provide water, as he did from a rock, to protect them from the militarily superior inhabitants of the Promised Land, as he did from the Egyptians.

The Israelites failed the testing of their faith and had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years until that faithless generation died away. As it happened, the next generation passed the testing of their faith and followed God through many dangers, toils and snares into the Promised Land to possess it. As the psalmist put it, …we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance (Psalm 66:12). In case we miss the connection between the testing of Israel’s faith in the desert and the testing of Jesus’ faith in the desert, Luke gives us a clear literary cue when he says that Jesus was in the desert 40 days.

God is not going to be satisfied with mere lip service. It is nice when we publicly testify to our faith when bringing our children or ourselves for the symbolic sacrament of holy baptism, but we can be sure that our faith is soon enough going to be tested in a baptism by fire to see what it is made of-- whether gold or dross. Fire serves a refining purpose in this sense. There is nothing pretty about gold ore. It basically looks like rocky dirt. But put it in a furnace and the dross burns off or can be skimmed off leaving mouton metal to cool into pure gold for fashioning into beautiful things like wedding rings.

Our baptism by fire serves a similar refining purpose. In alluding to the resurrecting power of God, Peter wrote: In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed (I Peter 1:6-7).

So let us not be surprised when the Holy Spirit leads us from baptismal water into hot water. It happened to Jesus, it happened to Peter, it happened to Paul, it happens to everyone of faith and it will happen to us as well. Being good, doing the right thing as God gives us light to see it, standing for the true and noble--these things will certainly get us into trouble in this world of woe. Not because God is a cosmic child-abuser, but because he must test our faith just as educators test our knowledge—to help us grow and mature and develop our God-given potential.

If you are facing trials right now, not of your own doing because of sin but because of righteousness, then rejoice and be glad that you have been counted worthy to bear the cross of Christ. Rejoice because a resurrecting experience is close by if you do not give up. Rejoice because your symbolic water baptism is being confirmed by the reality of your fire baptism as you allow yourself to be led by the Holy Spirit of God—the Spirit that sometimes leads us into the desert for a season of testing, refining and purifying a saving faith.