“Having Only Been…”
In our readings for today, Luke writes of Jesus’ baptism. He also writes about baptism taking place in the very early church. Jesus’ baptism serves as a model for all who later are baptized in his name. There is water; there is prayer; there is the presence of the Holy Spirit (God’s spirit); and there is God’s claim on the one baptized (as God’s own). And, there is the community of faith to which the one baptized is now a part.
Baptism is part of what Jesus’ disciples were suppose to do when, before his ascension, he told the eleven to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
It appears Phillip did just that, and did it very well. Fleeing Jerusalem, he went to Samaria and started a revival of sorts, doing the same sort of thing Jesus had done, preaching the good news of God’s kingdom and performing miracles of healing. His mission to Samaria was so successful that the church back home took notice.
The apostles in Jerusalem, hearing about Phillip’s revival in Samaria, felt a responsibility for some oversight in the matter even though they hadn’t initiated it, and so they sent Peter and John to Samaria to check things out. When they got there, Peter and John probably talked not only to Phillip but also to all the new believers. They found out the new “saints” all believed in Jesus as the promised Messiah - there was no question about that. But they also learned that Phillip had baptized them only in Jesus’ name.
The church in Samaria had not received the Holy Spirit, as had the church in Jerusalem. Their baptism, having only been in Jesus’ name was not enough and somehow lacking. Things were not quite right. More was needed. So Peter and John fixed everything and through the laying on of their hands and their prayers, the Holy Spirit came upon the church in Samaria.
Which raises the question, did Peter, John and the other apostles in Jerusalem believe baptism required a certain recipe be followed? Is Luke suggesting that the Spirit needs to be conveyed by the right people in a certain way? Philip was not good enough? Is that what we believe, that certain things are necessary and have to happen in order to become a ‘real’ Christian?
Luke says these new Christians in Samaria, “having only” been baptized in the name of Jesus, lacked something needed to be “real Christians.” They hadn’t received the Holy Spirit until Peter and John placed their hands on them and prayed. In Paul's writings, baptism and the receiving of the Spirit go hand-in-hand. And yet in Luke's stories of the early church we find them separated sometimes with baptism first and sometimes with baptism after. So, what’s going on? What are we to believe?
Does the Holy Spirit come upon us before, during or after our baptism? Is it only after a “laying on of hands” and prayer or can it happen unexpectedly and without prompting? Because of the importance of the Holy Spirit to the living out of our faith, we want to think it matters. When does the Holy Spirit come to us and do we really have anything to do with it?
William Loader, a professor at Murdock University in Perth Australia, writes, “For the early Christians three things happened very close together: coming to faith, being baptized, and receiving the Holy Spirit and so, all three were seen as aspects of one total event, even though the sequence may have varied.” Faith was primary, usually followed by Baptism. Receiving the Spirit could happen before, during, or after baptism. The sequence did not really matter. The three were so closely connected that Paul often used one of the three to stand for the whole event (such as our being baptized into Christ - Rom 6:3), which was his shorthand for the whole event.
Today, some fellow Christians suggest there are two steps to becoming a believer: first, conversion (with baptism in water) and then second blessing or being baptized in the Spirit. That belief, however, runs counter to our relational understanding of faith according to which we enter a relationship with God and, through the work of the Holy Spirit, engage daily in the process of deepening it.
For many Christians (modern, ancient, and all the generations in-between) baptism takes place before a conscious faith ever develops and celebrates the movement of the Holy Spirit in their life. There is nothing automatic or magical about it. Most often I think we are even aware of it. Loader says Baptism is actually celebrating the baptized child “being placed in the stream (community) in which the Spirit flows and that this happens, and will continue to happen, as long as they participate in that stream.” Why then would some say their baptism is somehow less than real “having only been…?” I thank God, that in my twenties, I was placed in that very stream among children, much wiser than I.
The Rev. Kate Huey writes, “Today, in churches around the world, people are still being baptized, still thirsting for God's grace, still waiting to be included, still longing for the chance to start their life over.” She says, “Baptism is a blessing that doesn’t make us or our lives sacred but recognizes that we are filled with grace… when a voice from heaven says, "You are my Child, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."
So what would Jesus’ reaction to Phillip’s baptism of the Samarians have been? Would he have thought something more was needed for a baptism in his name to be …a baptism in his name? What was his expectation of this baptism he instructed his disciples to do - or that of his own baptism? Was he surprised to find a dove diving at him as he stood in the Jordan River, shaking water from his eyes? And concerning water, would he have been any less beloved if those few drops of water were all there were? What is necessary for God to do something so great …other than being God? The good news for those who would follow Christ is that it is never a matter of Phillip, or me, or anyone else for that matter, having only been… it’s only a matter of God being God. And that I can live with!
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