Power Failure
12/14/22
During The Freeze I had no power for 4 days. Nothing was to be done but wait for it. There’s a power failure of another sort. When the failure is the person not the power. Decades ago the NFL had the slogan “Feel the Power”. They showed an exciting play, enthralled fans, an energized player, and then came dancing on the screen the words "Feel The Power." And you know you can. I’ve only gone to one NFL game, but there is a tangible power there. You can hear the players hitting. You can feel the energy of a goal line stand. The atmosphere at NFL games is often described as "electric."
You can feel the power of the NFL, and you can feel the power of the world's Christmas. There’s energy in the frenzy of Christmas shopping on a busy day. As a shopper exclaims, "Mom will love this," part of you feels that too. As a man at the counter resigns himself to spend more than he meant to, part of you throws caution to the wind. As silver bells ring and carols sing, it's Christmas time in the city and you can feel the power.
But you can't feel the power in Baptism. Least I can’t. I've looked for some visible reaction to the amazing power of Baptism from babies or adults I've baptized. Don’t see it. Babies may react to the water temperature but that's about it. Neither babies nor adults are measurably moved like those at an NFL game. And neither of them look any more peaceful or happy after Baptism as I've seen them in a Christmas mall. You just don't feel any power in Baptism, so you know what people have done? Jazzed up the ceremony. A professor of mine use to lament pastors who carried newly baptized babies around like a pot roast parading them up to the altar as if God was a baby-eating deity. But don't we jazz up the ceremony by giving the newly baptized a candle symbolic of the light of Christ that now burns in them due to Baptism?
Even in Luther's time things were done to "jazz" up the ceremony. Luther’s Baptismal Order of 1523 kept the Medieval ceremonies. The pastor blows 3 times under the child's eyes saying, "Depart thou unclean spirit and give room to the Holy Spirit." And he puts salt into the child's mouth saying, "Receive the salt of wisdom." Then the pastor takes spit from his own mouth and touches the right ear of the child saying, "Ephphatha, that is Be thou opened." Then he touches the nose and the left ear saying, "But thou, devil, flee; for God's judgment comes speedily." In addition, he anoints the child with oil on the breast, and between the shoulders before baptism, and on the crown of his head after. Baptism concludes by placing a white gown on the baptized and giving him a lit candle. Do you think if we did this we might not have the power failure that we do? I.e. a failure to see, find, use the power in Baptism. Would we be more aware of Baptism’s awesome power if we used those ceremonies?
Take the NFL. You know the power of the NFL is on the way early Sunday morning. ESPN is on the radio hyping the match-ups of the day. All 3 broadcast networks have TV shows before a game. The hosts are dressed to the nines in suits and ties befitting a powerful event. The music is particularly majestic, almost martial in sound. The same is true with the world's Christmas. You know where to find it. Just follow the lights, follow the music, follow Santa and his gang. Where these things are you’ll feel the power of the world's Christmas.
God too has signs indicating where His power is; the trouble is they are inconsistent with that power. Baptism forgives sins, rescues from death and the devil and gives eternal salvation, but the signs indicating such powerful works are happening are weak. Just a few simple words, "I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," and just plain-looking water. Such signs don't make you feel anything like the signs for the NFL or the world's Christmas do. No wonder the church has tried to jazz up the ceremony. But Lutherans only used that "jazzed" up ceremony for 3 years. In 1526, they adopted a simpler one because they found that all those added signs clouded what God was actually doing in Baptism. "Such practices were [according to Luther] 'not the sort of devices' that would make the devil skittish. Luther left only the…[signing of the cross], on the forehead and on the breast…, and clothing the child with the baptismal robe at the conclusion of the baptismal act" (Peters, Confes. & Abs, 196-7). God's way is to attach simple, weak signs to His powerful work.
For example, how was the Church to know the Christ had come? A virgin would conceive. Think how ambiguous a sign that is! It took an angel to convince Joseph it had happened. How much more wonderful were the signs accompanying Greek heroes. Pallas springs as a mighty, full grown man, whole and complete from the head of Zeus. And Hercules shows he is the son of Zeus by strangling the 2 snakes his step-mother Hera had sent into his cradle. Contrast this with the way God announced His Son was born. Sure, He sent angels to shepherds but he sent them in search of a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, like every other newborn, and lying in a feeding trough. Much more impressive to be looking for a baby holding 2 strangled snakes!
God uses lowly, simple signs for His powerful works. He tells His Church in Micah to look for the Christ to be born not in Jerusalem, but in Bethlehem, the city that is the least in Judah. And where does the OT say Christ will begin His ministry from? Judah where the real Jews were, where religious movements were expected to start? No, the prophet says Jesus will be from Nazareth, a second-rate city of Galilee. Such is the way of God. He conceals His most powerful works under the weakest of things. Forgiveness, rescue, and salvation are concealed under ordinary looking water used with less than 20 words from God. There is no way that reason could conclude that Baptism is a powerful thing. Baptism isn't like the NFL or Christmas; nobody feels the power.
Baptism is more like a 90’s Listerine ad, "You Got the Power." Listerine doesn't ask you to be drawn to it by a feeling. The mouthwash just assured you that if you have it you have the power. This is how it is with Baptism. It doesn't look powerful. It doesn't feel powerful. But it is. However, the power is only yours by faith. Without faith you suffer a power failure. Not that Baptism has no power, but without faith the power doesn't get to you. It's like Listerine. If you don't use it, it's still powerful, but none of it's power gets to you. But if you use Listerine, rest assured you’ve got the power. So it is with Baptism. If you have the Word and the Water you have Baptism, and your faith can rejoice in, wallow in, roll around in the fact that you have been given "a life-giving water, rich in grace, and a washing of the new birth in the Holy Spirit." Your faith can know that it has been given these things because Titus 3:5-8 promises that God "saved us." How? By making us do good deeds, by causing us to stop sinning, by getting us to come to church? No, "through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit."
As sure as you have Listerine you have everything in it; you have Baptism and you have God’s washing and renewal. It is not a matter of feeling the power. Whether or not you feel germs dying by Listerine, they are. Whether or not you feel you used a 21% alcohol solution you did. It's not a matter of feeling; it's a matter of having. So it is with Baptism. That’s why we spend our time not getting you to feel your Baptism, but getting you to remember it. But there’s a difference between Listerine and Baptism. Listerine runs out, and you need more. You only have so much in each bottle; once you've used it, it’s gone. Not so Baptism. Baptism is inexhaustible. This is an important point. A baptismal rite of some kind is common to all religions, but the idea of baptism as a single, never repeated act that brings a grace that is eternally valid is first found in Christianity. Did you get that? Ritual washings are very popular in religions. Hindus go yearly to the Ganges River for them. Jews have purification rites by water. But a one time act where forgiveness is applied forever is only found in Christianity.
Pagan religions don't even come close. In 160 A.D. the worshipers of Cybele and Mithra had the Taurobolium. They put a consecrated bull on top of a platform which had drain holes in it. The disciple stood in a hole beneath the bull. They killed the bull and blood came pouring down on the disciple. He got strength and purification from the bull. But the effect of this ceremony was said to last only 20 years. If the disciple died within that time, you could engrave on his tomb, "born again to eternal life."
Your Baptism lasts forever because it wasn't bull's blood that was poured over you. No, in Baptismal Water it’s the blood Jesus shed on the cross to pay for and cover up the sins of the world. You never need to be rebaptized because when God washed your sins away, He didn't wash just some but all, and not for a time but for all time. Whatsoever sin that pricks your conscience, you can see it washing away in the flood of your Baptism. It washes over you forever. When God rescued you from death and the devil, He didn't just do it for a day. Whenever you feel death hounding you or the devil stalking you, you can appeal to your Baptism remembering that in it you've been rescued. And when God gave you eternal salvation, it didn’t come with 20-year time limit. Your Baptism has no expiration date. It is always a life-giving water, rich in God’s grace for Jesus’ sake.
The power never fails in Baptism. True, we fail to use it. But the Good News is God never fails to have power there. Your Baptismal waters can lie unused for years, but the second you to flee to them, you find they are what God promises: forgiving, rescuing, and saving waters. Imagine sitting in my freezing house on Day 5 because I didn’t use the power that was only a light switch away. You Baptism is closer than that. Amen
Rev. Paul R. Harris
Trinity Lutheran Church, Austin, Texas
Advent Midweek III (20221214); Baptism III
