"God's Gonna Trouble the Water"    San Williams

Acts 8:14-17

Worship began this morning with the well-known spiritual titled “Wade in the Water.”   While “Wade in the Water” remains a popular spiritual, most of us are unaware that this spiritual-- first sung in cotton fields--is thought to be one of the coded slave songs.  The very title of “Wade in the Water” was heard as advice to the runaways on how to avoid being tracked by bloodhounds.  The reference to “the Jordan stream” suggested the Promised Land, in this case a code name for Canada where slavery did not exist.  “It chills my body, but not my soul” acknowledged that the journey to freedom would present physical challenges but that their soul would remain strong.  So when the slaves sang “God’s gonna trouble the water” they were expressing their faith that God’s Spirit was with them, stirring up hope and leading them to a new life. 

Well, this morning is called the Baptism of the Lord Sunday.  Today we’re especially mindful that we gather for worship around the waters of baptism. In a few minutes, we will remember our baptisms and celebrate the sacrament of baptism for two new members of our congregation.   Granted, the act of baptism itself seems pretty tame—a few words spoken and a little water poured.   We could shrug it off as a routine ritual of the church except for one thing:  God has promise to stir the waters of baptism with the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Or as the old spiritual has it:  “God’s gonna trouble the water.” 

In essence that’s what happened to the Samaritan believers we read about in our scripture lesson from Acts.  The good news of the Kingdom of God had begun to spread just as Jesus had told the disciples it would—from Jerusalem to Samaria and to the ends of the earth.  Accordingly, Philip had been in Samaria preaching the gospel and with significant results.  Many believed, both men and women, and were baptized.  So far so good.  But somehow the life of Christ initiated in baptism was incomplete in these Samaritans.  The Samaritans, we’re told, had been baptized in the name of Jesus, but they had not yet received the Spirit of Jesus. Some say that this episode represents a matter of early church order and discipline.  According to this interpretation, for the baptism of the Samaritans to be official it required the laying on of hands by the approved leaders from headquarters, namely Peter and John. Church politics may have been involved, but something more important was also at issue.

Recall how the Samaritans had a long history of animosity with their Jewish neighbors.  Samaritans were often treated as second-class citizens, despised and discriminated against.  So deep was this animosity that when a Jew passed through Samaritan territory he of she would shake the dust off his shoes before setting foot back on Jewish soil. Such discrimination, animosity and divisions between people are precisely what the Holy Spirit works to overcome.  Perhaps it took the apostles from Jerusalem, these former enemies of the Samaritans, to lay hands on them before they could truly receive the Holy Spirit.  When Holy Spirit troubles the water of our baptism, it unifies, breaks down barriers, crosses boundaries and brings together people who had been former enemies.  The Samaritans knew the name of Jesus, but apparently the reconciling Spirit of Jesus had not yet been manifest in their lives. It took Peter and John welcome these Samaritans into a church where there are no insiders and outsiders, Jews or Samaritans, first class Christians and second class Christians, but only one people who are unified and made new by the gift of God’s Spirit.

 Now in the case of the Samaritans, the Holy Spirit came after they were baptized.  Some Christians have taken this particular incident and considered it to be the norm.  That is, this episode in Acts gave them the basis for a two-stage doctrine of baptism—first water baptism and then later a second baptism of the Holy Spirit, sometimes called “a second blessing.”  But actually no single pattern for how the Holy Spirit comes is found in Acts.  The Spirit blows where it will, as Jesus said.  At Pentecost the Holy Spirit came without baptism or laying on of hands.  In Paul’s case, his baptism followed the gift of the Holy Spirit.  When Jesus was baptized by John, the Holy Spirit came during the water baptism.   In our own Reformed tradition of baptism, we acknowledge that baptism is about both water and Spirit, but we’ve resisted the temptation to suggest that the relationship of the Holy Spirit to baptism adheres to a rigid formula or sequence.  God is gonna trouble the water, but we can’t easily predict just when or how.  

In any case, these doctrinal distinctions and definitions are not really the issue for the church today.  No, the issue for us is how we live out our baptism through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Sad to say, the church has a long history of trying to calm the very waters that God’s Spirit seeks to stir up.  We have our ways of taking the risk, the danger, the transforming power out of baptism and thus turn it into a sedate, nonthreatening rite of passage.  Parents sometimes unwittingly tame the waters of baptism by presenting their children for the sacrament but then don’t follow through by raising their children in the worship and fellowship of the church or teaching them how to follow the way of Jesus.  Or imagine how tepid the waters of baptism appear when Christians declare in worship “In Jesus Christ we are forgiven, healed and made whole, “ who then fail to practice forgiving others.  Or think how bland and impotent baptism will seem in a congregation who consistently turns a cold shoulder to strangers, or who make little effort to include others in our family of faith, or who “pass the peace of Christ” on Sunday morning, but don’t live as peacemakers during the week. It’s easy for Christians today to be like those Samaritan believers and practice a baptism that, for all practical purposes, is in name only.  Nominal Christianity makes a mockery of Christian baptism.

Well, good news. The same spirit that gave new life to unlikely Samaritans is also alive among us here and now. When people enter our sanctuary, they can sense whether of not the Spirit is present and at work.  For some people evidence of the Spirit is measured by ecstatic experiences, emotional outbursts and perhaps speaking in tongues.  But most people are looking beyond such outward signs for deeper and more abiding expressions of God’s presence.  In a world so uncertain, so filled with fears, animosity and outright violence, people wonder where to find a community of peace, where might the love and compassion of Christ be seen in action, where is a congregation where baptism is taken seriously, and where the baptized are growing into the image and likeness of Christ?  The good news is that here in this place we are not content only to proclaim the name of Christ. No, we’re seeking to empowered by the Spirit of Christ. only then can be witnesses to the reality of God’s Kingdom in the world today.

 Friends, as we celebrate the sacrament of baptism this morning, we’ll use ordinary stuff—read a scripture, says some words, recite a creed, offer a prayer, scoop up a handful of water—but be warned there’s more going on than meets the eye.   The Spirit is moving over the water troubling our complacency, stirring us into service, uniting us to Christ’s ministry of love, peace, and justice.  So come to the waters of baptism in fear and trembling, in hope and joy, in love and laughter because…God’s gonna trouble the water.