Birthing themes continue in the scriptures for Baptism Sunday, the first Sunday after Epiphany. From Genesis to Mark to Acts, water is the watery womb of God’s life-giving ruach (spirit). Psalm 29 evokes God’s thundering voice, which thunders out creation, but in Genesis God’s Spirit broods over the face of the deep like a great mother bird hatching her egg. On this Baptism Sunday we follow Jesus into the watery womb as we re-member our baptism. Jesus comes up out of the water to encounter the spirit calling him Beloved. We in the church try to live into that great baptismal formula of Paul’s, which states that there is neither Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free but all are one in Christ Jesus.

The faith journeys of many LGBT people include learning to trust that same voice that Jesus heard at his baptism, “You are my Beloved in whom I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11). We learn to trust the voice of God that is indeed within us, instead of the negative voices that want to say we are an abomination, not worthy of ordination, excluded from the sacraments. As we learn to trust the voice of God calling us the Beloved, we also stand firm in our baptism – a baptism that makes us part of the body of Christ, a baptism that no one can take away from us. We learn to embrace our baptism more fully as we embrace who God has birthed us to be as God’s LGBT children.

	What forces make it difficult for us to hear that God names us as Beloved ones?

The scene in Acts 19:1-7 recounts a controversial baptism. Paul encounters disciples who have been baptized – yet somehow without receiving the Holy Spirit. Mykal likewise testifies to his own baptism as a female-male transgender person. No doubt controversy would attend his baptism in many contexts. Here is Mykal’s testimony:

"And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day" (Genesis 1:5). This is exactly how the day of my baptism felt! It was, without doubt, the most remarkable moment of my life, precisely because it removed a veil of uncertainty and darkness from my heart, mind and spirit to reveal to the community and to myself God's deepest knowing of and love for me. And being baptized as ‘Mykal’ held particular significance because it represented God's hand in my transition and transformation. I recall looking up to the heavens, thanking God for my trans-identity and all the ways God has laid a path of support before me and feeling a distinct coolness come over me, as though the living water of the Holy Spirit had been poured over my whole being.”

	Do you have a baptism story to share with your community of faith?

Mark 1:4-11 recounts the wonders of Jesus’ own baptism. As Jesus rises from and parts the waters of the Jordan, as the Spirit descends, and as the heavenly voice calls, a great portent occurs: Jesus sees the heavens literally tear apart. The Greek verb here, schizo, occurs only one other time in Mark. At the moment of Jesus’ death, the curtain of the temple rips in two from top to bottom (15:38). Thus, the beginning and ending of Jesus’ ministry rip apart the boundaries that divide the realm of God from the realm of mortals. Not only does baptism mark a new beginning for Jesus, his baptism opens a new world for all persons. Creation, water, baptism, birthing – new life. Baptism marks us as God’s people, born of water and born of Spirit.