We were in Bristol last weekend visiting Kate's sister and her family, and they mentioned how we'd be going along to a different church in the morning because their friend Josh was getting baptised. And how in the past few months there'd been a few baptisms there, new Christians or guys on the leadership team who just hadn't gotten round to it for ages. [A little nudge for me there. It's only since I've been in Rugby that I've heard anyone say that I really ought to get baptised as an adult believer, and I really was going to pursue that. I even told an elder once, but he only saw the need for references, which threw me a bit.]
Saturday bedtime and I'm trying to get three little cousins settled. And my nephew chooses a Bible story. It's from the book of Acts, and it's about Philip. And the Ethiopian Official in the chariot. Who makes a decision to follow Jesus (once he finds out who he is) and then asks to get baptised. There and then. In the nearest available puddle. [The nudges are getting bigger now.]
So I fasted in the morning, went for a run around the nearby streets and parks, and kept listening. I'll take a towel and change of clothes in the car, just in case. That's where I get to in my head. Then I ask one of the leadership team while they're setting up, and then the senior pastor. And they chat to my brother-in-law, to Josh, to my wife, just checking things out. It's all a bit eye-wideningly sudden, but they're up for it. And I've stepped out this far, so...
I'd wanted to get someone to baptise me in Cardigan Bay a fortnight before, when I went in fully clothed just to show Kate that I was still up for daft things. But it didn't happen that way.
I loved having so many kids around, they were just hoping to get splashed I think. And seeing Alice and Chris too. I was at college with them a lifetime ago, and I'd bumped into them once in the past twenty years. But it was like God put them there to remind me why I needed to do this declaration thing as an adult, like my early teenage confirmation ceremony wouldn't quite wash because of all the rebellion that happened after that, when they were contemporaries.
So, big thanks to pastor Tim for being so flexible, and the folks from the Community Church at Southmead, and Josh for letting me crash his miniature pool party. And Barny, for choosing that bedtime story. But above all, to Jesus, for his example, the one I always want to follow.
"I'm baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. The real action comes next: The main character in this drama—compared to him I'm a mere stagehand—will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He's going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He'll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he'll put out with the trash to be burned."
Jesus then appeared, arriving at the Jordan River from Galilee. He wanted John to baptize him. John objected, "I'm the one who needs to be baptized, not you!"
But Jesus insisted. "Do it. God's work, putting things right all these centuries, is coming together right now in this baptism." So John did it.
The moment Jesus came up out of the baptismal waters, the skies opened up and he saw God's Spirit—it looked like a dove—descending and landing on him. And along with the Spirit, a voice: "This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life."
Matthew 3:11-17 [The Message]
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