Lent 2

Lent 2 2026 Sermon Pr. Lyndon Sayers

John 3:1-17

Recently I heard the story of a healthy middle-aged man get a dirty cut while working and he got tetanus. Tetanus is something most of us are inoculated against as children and perhaps we receive a booster shot as teenagers. Not all of us continue receiving booster shots every ten years as recommended by public health. I stopped by my pharmacist who has become an extension of my medical team, not having a family doctor. He explained to me that tetanus is a naturally occurring bacteria in the soil. The bacteria is more prevalent in temperate regions including Vancouver Island where the soil doesn’t freeze, killing the bacteria. As a result we are at an increased risk of contracting tetanus through a dirty cut. It’s not just about rusty nails as some of us were taught as kids. Any abrasion of the skin can come into contact with this bacteria in the soil. My pharmacist who has found his calling as a kind of public health leader, explained to me that once the tetanus bacteria infects a person, they won’t feel anything for a few days. It’s until three or four days after the bacteria has exponentially multiplied that the bacteria releases a toxin en masse that can kill a person without immediate medical attention. It starts making the body as rigid as a board over time. And even with medical attention there can be after-effects that linger due to damage done to the body by the bacteria. This was about as good a sales pitch for a tetanus booster as you could imagine. The pharmacist had time to administer the shot right there, so I stepped a few feet into the side room and received a Tdap booster which inoculates against tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (whooping cough). The latter two especially important for international travel and in some Northern Indigenous communities where the water isn’t always clean, it’s own injustice that such conditions persist in Indigenous communities.

Baptism offers a different kind of immunization. Baptism inoculates against sin, the structural injustice we find ourselves in, living in the world. We look around the world right now, including this new war against Iran, and intuitively we know it’s all just too much. Even our bodies know it’s too much. We find ourselves more tired and weary from a series of events we often feel powerless to stop. Often therapists offer advice to focus on what is within our own control. There is where focusing on gratitude, giving thanks for friendships and community is key. Just as give thanks for being in community. Baptism is part of that spiritual gratitude. Through baptism we are covered by the unconditional love of God. That love is beyond our control in a good way. In that baptism covers us with the free give of God’s love. The ritual act of washing in the water, being covered by the Word of God, offers this kind of refuge in love. 

Baptism doesn’t prevent us from physical sickness. We still need to get our immunizations and we give thanks for the advances of medical science. However baptism and invitation to community in Christ grounds us in a spiritual immunization. Baptism protects us from the nihilism of authoritarians. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. And as a church community we are among the few communities left outside of school, sports, and the arts, that are rooted in love and acceptance. Communities are becoming increasingly fragmented. And as people become busy we retreat increasingly into transactional relationships, which aren’t bad. And I have seen exceptions. For example the local run clinic I have participated in previously includes people building real friendships of mutual care. I suspect some of you have found this singing in a choir, being part of a team, and so on. However what happens when you get injured and can no longer run? And when your schedule no longer permits joining a given activity? Typically we fall out of community if we lack the common bond that holds a group together. As the body of Christ that common bond is baptism, which no one can take away. It remains true that building community is an ongoing activity. But the undergirding of love remains true despite the imperfection of individuals. Rather than engaged in endless striving, we fall back in the grace of Christ. Jesus is the backstop who catches us.

Nicodemus in the gospel reading reminds us about that curiosity we have about baptism. The incredulity of being born a second time, from above. He represents the childlike wonder about inclusion in the love of Christ. The gospel reading helps us those of us already baptized recover that wonder, especially if it was long ago. To remember that either as infants or adults we were baptized, born from above, in Christ. This is good news in a world gone upside down. It is good news that Christ’s love grounds us right now. No conditionals apply to baptism: “If only we get our life in order, then we’ll find love. If only we discover success then we’ll feel loved and whole. If only we are recognized as being famous for something then we’ll feel wanted and needed.” In baptism Christ recognizes us fully as his the way we are. And we desperately need the gift of grace in a world full of conditionals.

Now it’s your turn to consider the gospel reading and theme of baptism. Sundays in Lent we take five minutes to consider the question printed at the top of your folder: “What are ways baptism grounds our daily lives?” I’ll give you five minutes to talk in small groups with those seated around you.

[Take three comments.]

Brief story of the unexpected. The other day I was walking through the forest and I was wrapping up a man approached me. He asked what I do and I mentioned I am a pastor. He then told me that Martin Luther King Jr. is smiling down upon me from heaven. He also shared materials about the benefits of using flax as a building material. And how we’re all interconnected in one big open network up in the sky. On the one hand it was a bit wild. On the other hand is was an unexpected blessing like Nicodemus received, marvelling how all these things are possible. Through God we know all things are possible, trusting in the love rooted in baptism in Jesus. Amen.