Life Shaped by the Spirit

SCRIPTURE TEXT:  Isaiah 42:1-9; Rev. Monte Marshall, Senior Pastor

I was seven months old when it happened.  It was a Sunday morning at First Methodist Church in Beeville, TX.  I was dressed in a white gown and held in my mother’s arms.  The preacher said, “Come” so my parents rose to their feet and took me forward to the place where the water was.  I was baptized that day—Sunday, March 29, 1953. 

The baptism began with my name being spoken.  The preacher then said, “I baptize you” as the water came upon my life:  The water that claimed me as beloved by God; the water that marked me as a member of the covenant community; the water that consecrated me for the service of God and others; the water that signified God’s Spirit present and active in my life, flowing from the deepest parts of me to influence and shape every part of me.

With the preacher’s wet hand upon my head, a prayer was prayed over me that went something like this: “The Holy Spirit work within you, that being born through water and Spirit, you may be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.  Amen.”

Now did I understand any of this as it was happening to me?  No!  I was only seven months old.  But that’s okay.  Over these last 64 years, I’ve discovered that understanding the meaning and significance of baptism is a life-long pursuit.  It’s a journey of learning how to walk through life wet.  In fact, it’s a daily adventure to live a life shaped by the Spirit.

Now I’ll be honest with you, it took me awhile to understand that being born through water and the Spirit in baptism involves acting for justice.  And frankly, it shouldn’t have taken me so long because the scriptures are filled with passages like this morning’s text from Isaiah 42 that make it clear:  A life shaped by the Spirit is a life lived in the tenacious pursuit of justice.

Speaking of this morning’s text, Isaiah dares to speak for God: “’Here is my Servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one, in whom I delight!  I have endowed you with my Spirit that you may bring true justice to the nations.’”  In the verses that follow, the word “justice” appears twice more to emphasize the theme. 

Yahweh’s Servant is called to “bring forth true justice,” not by coercion or force of arms, but gently so as not to “break a bruised reed, or quench a wavering flame.”  Yahweh’s Servant is “to serve the “cause of right” which is justice.  The whole point of Yahweh’s guidance, Yahweh’s care, Yahweh’s call, Yahweh’s covenant, is justice!  Yahweh’s Servant—understood as a person or a people—is to be “a light to the nations,” proclaiming and practicing justice.  Justice is indeed how Yahweh’s “delight” finds concrete expression in human history.

It is no accident that the gospel writers of the New Testament used these prophetic themes to interpret the life and ministry of Jesus.  Even the stories of Jesus’ baptism echo these themes.  Matthew’s gospel, for example, has “the Spirit of God descending as a dove,” and “a voice from the heavens” saying, “’This is my Own, my Beloved, on whom my favor rests.”  Jesus’ life, shaped by water and the Spirit, proclaimed justice in both word and deed.  And that same Spirit lives on in us!

So what does justice look like?  In biblical terms, justice is about reordering our relationships and our social policies to give the poor, the weak, the vulnerable, the oppressed, the excluded, the disenfranchised, the strangers in our midst, the rights to which they are entitled within the reign of God.  As Walter Brueggemann puts it, justice means sorting out what belongs to whom, and returning it to them.[1]  Justice means supplying resources for the poor, food for the hungry, housing for the homeless, clothing for the naked, freedom for the oppressed, protection for the vulnerable, and a safe place in community for the excluded. 

And when justice comes, it’s like light shining in the darkness; it’s like sight coming to the blind; it’s like captives being set free from prison.  And who is behind it all: “I am Yahweh!  This is my Name!”

So yes, it took me awhile to grasp all of this—to understand that being born through water and the Spirit in baptism involves acting for justice.  But I’m not the only one. 

It took Jim Wallis awhile to make this discovery.  Wallis is now a noted author, pastor and teacher whose writings have had a profound influence on my life.  He was born in 1948, in Detroit, Michigan.  He grew up in Redford Township, a white-middle class suburb of Detroit. He was baptized and raised in a conservative evangelical Plymouth Brethren congregation.[2]

Wallis writes of his “conversion” at the age of six:  It happened, he said, after he was “scared to death by a Sunday night evangelist who told us kids that the Lord would come take our parents to heaven, away from us, and that I would be sent to a terrible place alone.  That prospect caused me to repent of the sin and degradation of my first six years, and I was ‘saved.’” 

But then, Wallis grew up.  As a teenager, he started paying attention to what his black friends and co-workers in inner-city Detroit were telling him about the brutal realities of racism in his hometown.  This is how he describes the experience: “The contradictions between the simple and self-justifying world view of my childhood in the church and a growing awareness of the world and its atrocities caused havoc through my teen-age years.  The cracks became cleavages as the harsh facts of racism painfully penetrated my consciousness in my youth in Detroit.  I felt shocked, betrayed, angry, and painfully implicated in the brutal realities of white racism.  My first idealistic impulses drove me to take my concerns to the church with the hope that it would respond.  But its defensive reaction and opposition only spawned greater awareness and more action which spawned more reaction…it’s a familiar story.  The church people didn’t care to do anything but justify themselves and the country they loved, the country that seemed uglier and uglier to me.  As time went on, my family and friends became afraid and confused by my growing alienation from the church.  

“Feeling lost at that point, I left church, family, friends and joined the other side.  I found my home among those who were also alienated and were seeking to bring about fundamental social change while searching out countercultural alternatives for their lives.

“After a number of years, the weakness and frustrations of the movement, the course of events, and deep personal and intellectual searching led me to study, more reflection, and back to the New Testament.”[3]  He then realized that “Throughout my student years I could never quite shed myself of Jesus…He called me back, or maybe he called me for the first time…I had come full circle.”[4]  

It was a struggle, but Jim Wallis finally discovered for himself the profound connection between baptism and justice.  And he is still learning to walk through life wet.  His tireless commitment to justice, however, is a sure sign that the Spirit is giving form and shape to his life.  

So how is it with us?  It’s an important question to consider because this is the day for baptismal renewal.  This is the day to come again to the water.  This is the day to remember our baptisms and give thanks.  This is the day for us to say “yes” again to walking through life wet, as a people born through water and the Spirit, to serve God through the tenacious pursuit of justice.

So behold the water!  (Proceed to Service of Baptismal Renewal)