“I saw the spirit descend and remaining upon him” – so speaks John the baptizer to his circle of followers about his baptism of Jesus. It is from this circle of John’s followers that Jesus drew his first disciples.
In our reading from the Book of Acts this morning, we hear of an encounter between the apostle Paul and some Christians in Ephesus. Paul asks them if they received the Holy Spirit. They don’t know anything about the Holy Spirit, they had only received John’s baptism. How they had received John’s baptism in Ephesus, when John had already been killed and had done all his baptizing in the Jordan? Perhaps some of John’s disciples who did not become disciples of Jesus had carried on the type of baptism that John had practiced? That’s the most likely explanation I can think of.
Paul instructs them that John’s baptism was only a baptism of repentance, only to prepare for the one who was coming. Just as John himself said, “After me comes a man who ranks before me, for he was before me.” Interesting here these words of John. He saw deeply into the mystery of Jesus Christ – “he was before me,” yet John was born 6 months before Jesus! Surely John is pointing to an origin beyond human birth. John himself acknowledged that he baptized only with water. Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit!
This is what was missing in these Christians in Ephesus that Paul encountered. So Paul baptized them in the name of Jesus and the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied – which is what usually happened in those early days when people were baptized. And we must not confuse that with what Pentecostals claim today about speaking in tongues.
But here is today’s message. Baptism is incomplete without the Holy Spirit. Anyone can be baptized in water, in other religions also – but only the Holy Spirit makes a baptism truly a baptism into Christ, into the fullness of life that Jesus Christ brought into the world. This is why the Orthodox Church believes that the gift of the Holy Spirit should not be separated from baptism, but follows immediately after the baptism, even in the baptism of a baby. Our Orthodox practice is theologically and biblically correct; but it has its disadvantages, in that we have neglected to develop a rite of passage when a child or young person reaches the maturity to understand the faith into which he or she was baptised.
Have you ever noticed how the Holy Spirit is referred to in our Liturgy? This is a typical conclusion of a prayer addressed to God the Father: “Through the mercies of your only begotten Son with whom you are blessed, together with your all holy, good and life creating Spirit, now and forever…” Listen in the Liturgy for this and many similar prayers. Even when we give glory to Jesus, we say “together with your Father who is from everlasting and your all holy, good and life creating Spirit…” Life creating, life giving – ζωοποιόν. The Spirit gives life, creates life. When we kneel, we pray that God will send his Holy Spirit “upon us and upon the gifts here presented.” It’s not a magical transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, but a bestowal of life, the life of Christ onto the bread and wine! The Holy Spirit is always life-bestowing, life-creating.
And the fullest blessing in the Liturgy: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.” κοινωνία του αγίου Πνεύματος. This is the climax, this is the ultimate gift of the Holy Spirit, and why baptism is incomplete without the Holy Spirit. Fellowship, communion – first with God through Jesus Christ, but also with each other. We are not baptized to be isolated from other believers in Christ. We are baptised into fellowship. We receive the life of Christ with each other and through each other. No one is saved alone! The challenge to every Christian congregation is to experience the fellowship that is the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Mark, in his gospel account of the baptism of Jesus, wrote that “the heavens were torn apart” (σχιζομένους). The same verb is used in all three Synoptic Gospels (Mark 15:38; Matthew 27:51; Luke 23:45) at the crucifixion of Christ when the veil of the temple was torn in two (εσχίσθη εις δύο).
This use of the same verb, σχίζω/εσχίσθη, is used in all three synoptic Gospels was not accidental, it was intentional in my opinion. First the heavens were torn open to break down the wall between God and humans. That was the beginning of Christ’s mission. Then, at the end of his mission on earth, the curtain in the Temple was torn to symbolise the tearing down of all walls that exist and will be built to separate people from each other and from our God-ordained destiny. I do not understand how any Christian can support the existence or construction of ANY walls, whether physical or mental.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ – the beauty, the χάρις of what Christ did to save us;
The love of God the Father – that sent Christ into the world to bring grace instead of the law;
And the fellowship of the Holy Spirit – the communion with God and with each other that should fill and renew our lives.
That is the blessing, and I greet the new year with that blessing. May it guide us as a community and every one of us as disciples of Christ. Amen.
Ancient Answers 