Repaint! Thinner!

Text: Mark 1:4-11

Focus: The Change that comes from Baptism

Function: To help people celebrate new life

Form: Expository

Intro:

Repaint! Thinner! Joke: Two men contracted to paint a small community church. Being very frugal (cheap), they pinched and scraped to spend the absolute minimum on materials. Then, when they were only partway through the job, they determined that they did not, after all, have enough paint to complete the job. Not wishing to spend any more money if they didn't absolutely have to, they decided they would just dilute the water-based paint they were using so that it would last longer. They did this a couple more times before they finished, which caused striping on the church as the paint got lighter each time it was thinned. The painters had just about gotten to the top of the steeple, when, all of a sudden, the sky darkened, and the rain started to pour down. As the paint streamed down the sides of the church, a voice boomed from the heavens: "Repaint, you thinners! Repaint, and thin no more!"

I got that joke at a web site called: Really bad jokes. It is indeed a groaner.

But it all begs the question that centers around this new to the Jewish people idea of baptism.

John the Baptist told the people, “turn away from your sins and be baptized.”

I attended one of the worship services at Common Spirit a month or so ago.

It was a celebration service of the baptism of two of their young women.

They told us of how they noticed change in their lives since they were baptized.

Then we all sat around and shared stories as we felt led, around our own baptism.

Mine, apparently, was not unique, but it was different than some.

I was blessed that it was my father, like probably many here, who performed the ordinance of baptism.

And I remember the experience that I felt coming out of the water. It looked to me like I could see angels flying around the sanctuary. I don't know what it was for sure, but there were these bright flashes of light that I seemed to see out of the corner of my eye.

They asked me to testify. And I remember telling the people celebrating with me that “it was like a ton of happiness fell on me.”

Sometimes I am reluctant to share that story because what happened to me does not happen very often.

For some, they know that they have what they have experienced as “Spirit baptism” and feel as if they have no need of the physical symbol. They even believe that it might cheapen.

A dear sister in the Lord of mine speaks of how much it was a conscious decision to put on the mantle of peace, justice and to never ever return evil for evil. And that choice has cost her.

And at the same time, she also was overwhelmed by a supernatural experience.

It happens for some, but it isn't the norm.

So what is the norm?

Let us look at the text. When John calls people, he has two phrases that he uses:

“Turn away from your sins...”

“...Be baptized.”

Starting with the first, turn away from your sins:

We have codified that phrase “turn away from your sins” into Christian lingo that may or may not mean anything.

We use the code word: repent.

Hence, the joke.

Repentance literally means turn around into a different direction.

This experience of baptism is about faith. Faith is about trusting Jesus, and not ourselves.

And so, the idea of repentance is very popular among the religious.

Because if Jesus is giving us the gift of eternal life, then there is nothing we can do to earn it.

But we really don't want something for nothing.

We really do feel like we need to earn it.

And so, with the idea of faith, we have something to do, some sort of work to do, in our faith.

And then we have to be very, very careful. Because, if it is now up to us with something to do, and the implication is something to do to earn it, it is no longer this gift of God.

Twice, Jesus used the word repent. In the sermon on the Mount, He said, “repent for the Kingdom of God is near.”

And we sort of covered that already, in one of my sermons, but I forget these things myself.

He is telling them, in context, to change their thinking about what God's kingdom really is.

He is telling them to change their thinking and to stop looking for a political, man-made Kingdom and to think in terms of the wishes and power if heaven.

The second time, He speaks about the unfortunate position of some criminals who endured torture for their crimes by the Romans.

And in context, He is speaking about doing evil.

Wicked acts that harm others.

My boilerplate definition of sin is this: “Anything that keeps us from loving each other, or loving God.”

When we think of sin, we must think of evil.

But if we think of sin in such a way that all we do is prove to God that we have repented, then we do not trust.

God knows our hearts.

God knows that we are not perfect.

God came to save us because we cannot be perfect.

Speaking of repentance was not Jesus' forte.

Throughout the gospels Jesus, again and again, speaks of believing. He speaks of trust.

He speaks of faith. He speaks of coming to Him for rest, restoration and healing.

And that is the good news of the Kingdom of heaven.

Focusing on the phrase of repentance, without focusing on faith does a disservice to the concept of grace in the fact that God is the power within us to set us free.

The second phrase of John is “be baptized.”

This is an entirely new practice to the Jewish people.

Imagine a prophet coming on to the scene today who speaks a convincing and powerful message.

And he institutes some new religious practice.

We might think he is crazy, or mixed up.

But although it is a new practice, it is not a new teaching.

Ezekiel speaks of it in Chapter 36:vs 25-27: ²⁵I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. ²⁶A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.

God speaks of an heart change that is made possible by the work of God's Spirit inside of us.

We listen, God moves.

And baptism became a symbol of this cleansing, this washing, this removal.

At the Oakland COB in Greenville OH, as well as many other COB churches, there is the painting of a stream around the baptism pool. It symbolizes that the sins which have been washed away flow on down the river, or the drain.

It symbolizes what the Holy Spirit does when God changes our hearts.

My experience was one in which I felt the change happening.

I have shared the story of how when I was a young man, for a few years I turned my back on my faith.

I followed my own desires. I was going to get rich. I was in business and doing pretty well.

But at the same time, I hardened my heart toward others in order to live a selfish life.

And a form of prejudice came into my heart.

I didn't choose to be prejudice, I didn't have it before, though.

I think it was simply a spiritual manifestation of the evil that I was allowing.

And when I came back to God, as quickly as that prejudice had come, it left.

I remember, because I met a person of that genetic group in my church, and was immediately filled with a sense of compassion and love for that person.

I recognized it as the work of the Holy Spirit, softening my heart of stone and giving me a heart of flesh.

Baptism is the symbol of our willingness to let God transform us into citizens of God's kingdom, the Kingdom of peace and justice.

It is a dedication to a simple life that lives for the welfare of others as much as its own welfare.

It seeks blessing to the land, the people in the land and the entire world.

It moves us to great things.

And it moves us to great sacrifice.

Romans 6:3-4 says that those of us who have been baptized into Christ have been buried with him, to come alive to a new life lived for Christ.

That is how Brethren men, who refused to take up arms in War could give their lives to be emaciated in clinical trials, some of whom died, in order to help the allies liberate Nazi death camps.

They gave their lives for just cause.

And they did it because they died to selfish living and came alive to love everyone else as much as they love themselves.

So let me go back to the joke at the beginning.

Jesus condemned religious folks who used their religion to puff themselves up.

I realize that it is human nature, it is God given nature, to justify ourselves.

How can we love others as much as we love ourselves if we do not love ourselves.

God wants to heal us Spirit, Soul, Mind and body.

And His healing includes healthy self-worth.

But there were those whose hypocrisy was evident to Christ Jesus and He accused them of being: “whitewashed tombs.”

A thin coat of paint is placed on it to mask the death that is inside.

So, in an healthy way, every now and then I ask myself: Am I changes, or just repainted?