We thought we were going to have a week to 48 hours of notice. Jan and I were actually talking about it on Tuesday morning. Then the phone call came that afternoon/evening. They were going to be here in the morning. Yikes! 110 gorgeous garnet and gold chairs needed to be off loaded from a semi truck trailer and somehow gotten into the building and it was probably too late to send out a request for people to show up – although now I regret thinking that. Thankfully, Blake was here that morning doing morning coffee, and we do have residents…
Blake and I unloaded the 110 chairs, joined in the middle by two of our residents – Hayden and Evan (Haiden is off at a conference). We unstacked them from the truck, inspected them, counted them, and then brought them into the building were they are currently stacked in the “ping pong area”. It’s a lot of chairs. Because we were caught unprepared, we also haven’t found a good home for our old chairs. Only 4 of the old wooden chairs have been reserved and thankfully a Hispanic start up congregation is taking the 24 blue chairs on Friday. If you want a wooden chair, please plan on taking it this Sunday, because we’re going to have to get rid of them. 
I think preachers become skilled at reading spiritual realities out of everyday events, events like having a bunch of chairs dumped on you. This upcoming Sunday is “Baptism of our Lord” Sunday. It’s a Sunday about change. Baptisms are about change. Even the pre-Christian Jewish “mikveh” baptism that John was administering was about change. Jewish people today will have a “mikveh” when they start going through chemo, or they will “mikveh” new eating utensils, and if you convert to either Christianity or Judaism, you get “mikveh’d” or as we put it – Baptized. And having 110 chairs dumped on you? Well, that’s a mikveh of it’s own sort.
The Greek word for Baptism, “baptidzomai,” implies being submerged. It’s the word used of a ship when it is sinking. It’s not just immersed, it’s submerged. It is waterlogged. It is overwhelmed. It is “oh-my-gracious-there-are-currently-200-plus-chairs-in-the-sanctuary-what-do-we-do”. Jesus’ Baptism was a change – He was starting His public ministry with that Baptism, a public ministry that would end with Him dying on a cross and rising again. I don’t know about you, but if I was facing that moment, it would feel pretty overwhelming, pretty submerging, pretty waterlogging.
But here is the thing, and here is my failure from yesterday: We aren’t Baptized alone. When we are Baptized, we join the Baptized, which means that we join all other people who have been overwhelmed into this Baptism with us, and that we join the Christ who was waterlogged in His Baptism so that we could join Him in ours. My failure yesterday was not calling on the Baptized. I could have, should have, sent out an email and text messages asking for help as soon as I found out. But I failed to do that, I failed to recognize the Body of Christ around me that I spend literally all of last year preaching about. I get an F. Thankfully, in God’s book, that F stands for “forgiven” and He provided me with Blake and Evan and Hayden despite myself.
Each of us will be overwhelmed sometime this week. When you do, think of your Baptism. Think of how your Baptism is an “overwhelming” event in your life. Baptism is Gospel, it is inclusive, it is forgiving, and it is saving – but it also is Law, it is challenging to be a part of the Body, it is challenging to be listed on Christ’s team in the midst of a sinful world. And just when that Law feels like it’s too much – remember that God sends His agents, His people, His church – to rescue even us, especially us, the overwhelmed.
***Seriously, if you want a chair, you should get it soon. Also, if you know a church or church plant that can use our wooden chairs. Let me know.