January 10, 2010
Let the Spirit Loose
- Acts 8:14-17
- Dr. Teri Thomas
When I was in seminary we had a class called “Practical Ministry”. It was a class where we practiced things we would have to do for real some day. We practiced communion, breaking bread and pouring. We practiced counseling with role plays. And one week we practiced the sacrament of baptism.
The professor asked the week before for a doll that we might practice on. Of course no sophisticated seminarian would admit to having a doll, except me. I had a very old Raggedy Ann doll in my closet. I brought her to class and she was baptized at least nine times in one afternoon as we all practiced holding a baby, pouring the water, keeping our sleeves out of the font, getting the words right, asking the questions, dipping and not dropping the kid.
There was a sense among us that we had to do this exactly right or somehow the baptism wouldn’t “take”. We had to have Session approval, we had to have an elder present, we had to say the full Christian name of the child, (and pronounce it correctly), we had to baptize with the Trinity, and we had to get the baby wet.
It was our nerves, more than our theology, that made us fear doing something wrong and messing up the salvation of some innocent child.
Thirty one years later Raggedy Ann is in doll heaven (probably at the head table seeing how many times she was baptized) and I am much less legalistic when it comes to the sacraments. I have come to understand that it is not about what I do in the sacrament it is about what God does. I am simply demonstrating a symbol of what God is really doing. And God doesn’t really need me- or the sacrament to accomplish what God intends to accomplish.
So I don’t lose any sleep over it when we do not administer the sacrament of baptism
Exactly “by the book”.
We have been known to make mistakes occasionally, like when one of the pastors forgot the child’s name or when another baptized without the water.
The child is still baptized.
God is still present.
The child is loved, claimed, and named.
God’s actions are complete.
The pastors are forgiven.
It doesn’t sound as though the disciples were quite as tolerant as I have become. Philip had been out testifying to the resurrection of Jesus. He left Jerusalem and went to non-believers, non-Jews, even to the enemies of the Jews- the Samaritans.
And while with the Samaritans they were converted to the way by Philip’s testimony and he baptized them in the name of Jesus.
This morning’s reading from Acts picks up there. The disciples, still in Jerusalem, heard about the Samaritans conversion and they sent Peter and John to check it out. The idea of the Samaritans being converted doesn’t shock us, only because we don’t appreciate the depth of the rancor and resentment between the Jews and the Samaritans in first century Palestine.
The disciples were undoubtedly shocked. They would have difficulty believing the Samaritans accepted what Philip had to say. They had to see this for themselves and make sure it was done right, be sure it was done “by the book”.
So when Peter and John arrived they prayed again with the Samaritans, laid their hands on them, and the Samaritans received the Holy Spirit.
The necessity to send the apostles to check out the Samaritan baptism was not for the sake of legitimizing or authorizing what Philip had done, but to demonstrate to the disciples what God had done.
The disciples- who did not believe the Samaritans could be like them- ever-
The disciples who did not believe that God could love the Samaritans as God loved them-
had to see that God can indeed work outside of the bounds, boundaries, and limits that we so desperately want to place on God.
The love of God, the desire of God to make every single one of us God's child, is greater than even the disciples could imagine. The story is here not to tell us how to do baptism correctly, but to reminds us that God's Spirit will fall on who God wills.
And that Spirit doesn’t end with baptism.
When Peter and John laid hands on the Samaritans they were filled with the Spirit.
The term "filled with the Spirit" is often equated with the term "the release of the Spirit."
Does it mean something was missing at baptism?
No.
Does it mean the Spirit was not present the first time?
No.
It simply means that at this moment they experienced the presence of the Spirit in their midst.
The Spirit was released in them. And while baptism is something we believe need only happen once in the life of a person, the release of the spirit can happen countless times.
The spirit can be released here- in the sacrament of baptism.
It can be released again here in the sacrament of communion.
And it can be released here when the word is read and preached.
Or it can be released here- in the beauty and passion of sacred music
Or it can be released here in the pews- in the peace shared with a neighbor
Or a prayer offered by a stranger
It can be released here as people kneel for the laying on of hands and commit themselves to serve God and this congregation as elders and deacons
The spirit can be released in the gathering place as coffee and donut holes are shared in conversation
The spirit can be released in the classroom in telling stories and considering ideas
The spirit can be released over and over and over
Because you are God’s
You are precious in God’s sight
You are baptized
You are called
God has redeemed you and called you by name.
God's Spirit will fall on who God wills-
Amen.