About two hundred miles from here in southwest Missouri, the Turnback River flows north ten more miles into Stockton Lake. Before the highway bridge was built in the 1950s, farmers forded the river with their cars and pickup trucks at a shallow spot. This is also the spot where the Pentecostal preachers from Antioch church to the north and Shiloh church to the south brought their adult converts to be baptized. The word “baptize” simply means to be immersed so the Baptists, Pentecostals and other denominations take this term literally in what they call “full immersion baptism.”

One cold Sunday morning in January, my brother, his Jewish friend Fred and I were staying at our family cabin on the river. Ice had formed on the edges of the river. We looked down the hill at the river to see a small congregation gathered there. The preacher stood out in the river wearing hip waders. Smart man. One by one each convert waded out wearing tennis shoes and a swimming suit. The preacher said a few words and then pushing on top of the person’s head more or less shoved them into the water three times into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each new Christian then ran to shore greeted by parishioners with towels and an overcoat.

Surveying this barbaric practice of dunking people three times into 40 degree water, Fred remarked that he did not realize how hardy Christians were. “You have to be tough to want to do that kind of thing” he said.

The people came to the river seeking baptism much the way we gather here for baptism today. They were also seeking answers to life’s questions: What will happen when I die? Is there life after death? Will God really forgive me for everything I have done? How does that happen? Why did God allow so much killing in the Bible, were not Pharaoh’s army, the people living in Canaan and the Philistines worthy of God’s love too? Today we will baptize four people into Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. We do not baptize people into a church full of answers. Instead we baptize them into the questions.

In our Gospel from John today, Jesus very clearly says “Whatever you ask IN my name will be done for you.” Does that make the God of all creation into some kind of cosmic Santa Claus granting our wishes on demand? We are baptized into the name of the father, son and Holy Spirit. We are immersed, plunged and made part of the holy trinity. We are may even be pushed from the top of our heads NOT into certainty and answers but into a deeper mystery. We are baptized into the questions of life and we are called by our baptism to live into those questions.

Baptism does not guarantee a pain free world. God does not give us cheap grace. God DOES guarantee that through the Holy Spirit, God will be with us in our moments of greatest joy and deepest despair. God; love incarnate is with us even when we are most likely to reject the whole thing.

We are called by our baptism to live in Christ. Baptism should make a difference in our life. Ask yourself, what can I do with my life that honors the commitments I have made in my baptism? How do you make a difference in the world because you are baptized?

But today on the birthday of Grace Church we are given the most astonishing teaching in the entire bible. Jesus tells us “You will do GREATER things than me.”

Was Jesus pushing the point with hyperbole? Probably. Did he mean greater as in a greater number or quantity of deeds? Probably. Did he also mean greater as in even greater spiritual deeds than he performed himself? Probably.

So here’s the catch: “You” is plural. So if you are thinking that Jesus means you as individuals will perform miracles healing the sick, feeding the hungry and raising the dead you are off the hook. We are baptized into a COMMUNITY of faith and it is the COMMUNITY that will do greater things. Baptism or being a Christian is less about you as an individual than about US as a community. While you may be baptized here at Grace, if life takes you elsewhere, you should be part of some Christian community.

WE as Grace Church, as a community of believers will do greater things than Jesus. That is what the Gospel promises us today. That is our birthday present to Grace Church and to this wider community of Muskogee. That is the Good News for Grace Church. We CAN do greater things together.