Rejoice, baptism!

Rejoice, baptism!

Luke 3:10-18 & Philippians 4:4-7

I want you to be happy, always happy in the Lord, I repeat what I want is your happiness. Let your tolerance be evident to everyone. For the Lord is near.

We couldn’t ask for a better piece of scripture today for Gaudete Sunday, for rejoicing for being joyful in the Lord than this gospel from Luke. Because people are coming to John the Baptist and asking what they should do when they’re baptised. And this reading is in two halves in the first half, in that first paragraph we can see there, people are asking John, what should we do when we’re baptised?

What changes? How should we live our lives? And John answers them. He tells them exactly what to do in their lives. He tells them to live out their faith, that their faith is not something they shouldn’t carry on like everything is just the same and nothing has changed.

When you’re baptised, you don’t come to Church, get baptised, have the party, go home and nothing has changed. Everything changes because now you are baptised with the Holy Spirit and with water and God is helping you every step of your journey. Actually, the examples couldn’t be more practical.

Tax collectors. What should we do? And what does John say to them? Stop cheating people, put the bad things behind you and live your life properly. Live your life in the way that Jesus taught us to live.

Soldiers came to John and said, what should we do? And John said, be a good soldier. Don’t beat people up, don’t knock them around the heads. Don’t steal from people. Be a good soldier.

So in baptism you’re in one sense pulled out of the world and then you’re put back in it to live your faith in the world. And that’s a good reminder for all of us who are here in Church today who come week after week is that our baptism pulls us out of the world and puts us back in it to live in the way that Jesus taught us to live.

In the second part of our gospel. John does the other thing that we are all called to do as baptised Christians.

And that is to point to Jesus in all that we do.

John could have got caught up in people saying, you’re the Messiah, you’re the Messiah. He could have gathered followers. He could have had everything that he had ever wanted. But instead, what he did was he told people to live good lives and he said, One is coming who I am not fit to tie the sandals of. He pointed to Jesus Christ.

That’s it. That’s what being baptised means. It’s as simple as that when you are baptised at that font in a few moments time you are taken from the world. God claimed you as His own. You turn your back on evil in the world and you are placed back in the world to live a good life, to be happy in the love of God.

And Saint Paul puts it best.

I want you to be happy, always happy in the Lord, I repeat what I want is your happiness. Let your tolerance be evident to everyone. For the Lord is near.

Amen