At one time or another most of us have had the experience of getting lost while driving in an area that is foreign to the familiarity that home affords us. The consensus of travelers has given rise to the institution of signs and indicators that serve to point us toward our desired destination. In our uncertainties along the road these signs render distant travel more easily accessible. In the passage taken from John’s Gospel for today’s celebration of this child’s baptism we encounter a man of particular religious standing. This man, known as Nicodemus, was a member of a religious group known as the Pharisees, a group that was awaiting the coming of God’s kingdom. The Pharisees were known for their painstaking observance of the Law that had been given to them by Moses. It was their perception that the road that lead to God’s kingdom was filled with signs that had been outlined in the same Law of Moses.
As a faithful Pharisee, Nicodemus was a person who eagerly sought the coming of God’s kingdom and to ensure that he was ready he too traveled the road laid out by the signs and indicators that filled the pages of the Old Testament. In his eagerness, Nicodemus was able to perceive in the person of Jesus someone who had been stamped with the approval of God for as Nicodemus put it: “No one can perform such signs if God had not been with him.” Jesus, as John’s Gospel tells us, is uneasy about those who come to faith in him just on account of the signs that he performs. This contempt for faith that is based upon signs is a theme that runs throughout the whole of John’s Gospel. Toward the end of the Gospel we the readers come to understand what real faith consists of. For Jesus, true faith is based upon a sign but this sign is to be the instrument through which he saves the world, namely, the sign of the Cross.
The passage of John’s Gospel that lies before us therefore relates this encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus who on account of Jesus’ signs is drawn to expect the presence of the kingdom. To this Jesus responds that the deepest desires and yearnings of Nicodemus’ heart which correspond to the kingdom or reign of God is not to be found in outward signs as such but rather that the kingdom comes about through being reborn of ‘water and the Spirit’. For us gathered here we have the privilege of knowing that countless generations of believers have already confronted this text of scripture with the resulting awareness that what Jesus was saying in fact was that the kingdom of God can only come about through Baptism in which the person is cleansed of their sins and filled with the very life of God. This text of scripture is so fundamental to what we as a faith community will soon celebrate in just a few minutes. As followers of Jesus Christ, we like Nicodemus recognize our hunger for deeper meaning in life, meaning, which often times is overshadowed by the presence of sin and evil in our lives. We often times find ourselves helpless in achieving the desires of our hearts because of the influence of sin and sometimes because we get sidetracked by signs that while not always being bad in and of themselves tend to draw us in to the point that we cannot see beyond them to the deeper reality to which they point.
We are all on a journey, and like Nicodemus, it is good to be aware of the signs as we go along. As Jesus speaks to us today as he did 2000 years ago to Nicodemus, these signs are not to be the indicators of God’s kingdom. To put it simply, what Jesus is saying to us is that his kingdom is brought about not so much by signs as it is by a renewal of the very people that we are. We must be born again. We must be renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit who can cleanse us from the inclination to get caught up in the externals of life thereby robbing us of the fullness for which Christ came to earth.
The life that Jesus Christ came to earth to give is life that is preoccupied with relationships that are based in self-emptying love. This preoccupation with relationships has its source in the life of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is from this foundation that all other relationships find their driving force. It is this network of relationships that characterize the kingdom of God for which every human being has been created. The driving force that lies behind all human relationships is the Triune God and this driving force is his free gift to humanity. It is this gift that meets the deepest desires of the human person because at the core of what it means to be human is the concept of relationship. But just as easily as a person finds them self lost in a foreign town while traveling so too is the human person in the realm of healthy, life-giving, self-emptying relationships on account of sin which is a foreign reality to God’s original plan for the human person.
Having been led astray by the reality of sin, the human person can never achieve the end or ultimate fulfillment for which he or she was created. This concept is of the utmost importance in recognizing the indispensable gift of baptism. In bringing their child before the Church’s minister today for baptism these parents and god-parents are offering this child the most noble of gifts with which to begin the journey of life. What exactly is this gift? This gift is the washing away of sins by the power of the Holy Spirit so as to enable this child to begin the foundational relationship of all relationships that is once again a relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is from this relationship with God that every human person in general and this child of God in particular is able to set out on the journey of life with the hope of not being sidetracked by signs that in and of themselves cannot satisfy. This is why Jesus in John’s Gospel is clear in pointing out to Nicodemus that what really matters in terms of finding personal fulfillment is not something to be found outside of ones self but rather it is the gift of God that is communicated to the human person through the grace of baptism that really counts. The kingdom of God is about relationships, relationships that can only come about by the grace of baptism. Each time a person is baptized, the minister of baptism says the following words: I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. These words are essential to the sacrament of baptism and what they are saying in effect is that the person being baptized is entering into a wholly new way of life, namely, the life lived by the Holy Trinity.
As parents and god-parents and by extension the whole Christian community it will be the collective responsibility of our parish community to see to it that this child to be welcomed into the life of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is given the best possible support upon this journey of relationships. In a particular way, it will be the responsibility of you the parents and god-parents to see to it that this child is not led astray by the many signs that will flash before this child’s growing consciousness. It will be your responsibility to live as examples of the Gospel by devoting your energy to the primacy of relationships based on divine love as the real hallmark of what it means to be human. At each stage of the journey the whole Christian community is here to accompany you and this precious child and I as the Church’s minister also ensure you of my commitment through prayer and availability. Let us now proceed to the actual sacrament of baptism in order that this child may be reborn by water and the Spirit into the newness of God’s life and the life of this community.
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