Trust

Baptism: We Cannot Drown, Nou Beni, Didier William

Acts 19:1-7

While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the inland regions and came to Ephesus, where he found some disciples. He said to them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?’ They replied, ‘No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.’ Then he said, ‘Into what then were you baptized?’ They answered, ‘Into John’s baptism.’ Paul said, ‘John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus.’ On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied— altogether there were about twelve of them.

To best understand this passage, we have to have a little extra context about what comes before it—we have to understand who Apollos is and his significance. Apollos was an early Christian, and he was a great speaker, very charismatic, he did a lot of good in spreading the good news—but unfortunately, at the beginning of his ministry, his information was a little off.

If we go back to chapter 18, it’s written that Apollos was preaching in the synagogue—that he was bold and eloquent… but that he only knew of the baptism of John, and did not know the full story of Jesus’ baptism and that of the Holy Spirit. So when a couple, Priscilla and Aquila heard him preaching, and after he was done, they corrected him—Apollos was gracious and understood, and went on from the synagogue that day evangelizing—he's now a saint in some sects, and he was deeply important in the early days and the spreading of Christianity.  

But in our scripture today, we find ourselves reading about the unintentional damage that was done because of Apollos’ preaching. Paul comes upon some new believers who say they know nothing of any Holy Spirit, and that they were only baptized in the way of John the Baptist. So we can assume they were evangelized to by Apollos before Priscilla and Aquilla corrected him, and so, like Priscilla and Aquilla, Paul corrects these new disciples, and they receive the peace and revelation of the Holy Spirit. It’s a simple but telling illustration of how easily things could get twisted and messed up in these early days of Christianity when people were still trying to figure things out—and it shows how delicate it all was, how missing something that seems so small can make you miss the whole point of this new faith. If we’re only being baptized with the concept of repentance in mind, it just means we’re turning away from evil— which is necessary, it's great. But then what are we turning to? What is the point of baptism if we’re not joining with others in this experience of the Holy Spirit? What’s the point of baptism if Jesus doesn’t have anything to do with it?

Lucky for us, Apollos and the new disciples Paul stumbled upon were able to listen to and take in the corrections they were given. They didn’t get defensive, they didn’t try to double-down—they listened to the experts and changed their story. And they therefore received the peace of the Holy Spirit.

If only people today could be so humble and open-minded… In reading this short and simple story, I couldn’t help but think of the massive amounts of misinformation and disinformation we have to combat on a daily basis. 2024 is an election year, and I think we’re all bracing for the barrage of hyperbole and mud-slinging that’s coming our way. With science-fiction-made-fact advances in things like AI, we’re more on-guard than ever, I think, about what’s real and what’s not. I wonder what would happen if we were able to trust one another like Apollos trusted Priscilla and Aquilla, like those new disciples trusted Paul. What would happen if we really listened to and trusted those who have our best interests in heart and mind? It goes the other way too, though—what would happen if we were a little more kind to those who seem to have the wrong information? What if we were able to engage with them in ways that really met them where they were, discovered why they’re so invested in something as dangerous as, for instance, the lies that led to the violent and shameful January 6th insurrection, the anniversary of which just passed yesterday—the anniversary which now will seem to forever overshadow the Christian holiday of Epiphany—the day when Jesus was first shown in human form to the magi, the Gentiles, and the knowledge of his presence was then spread throughout the region and soon throughout the world. It’s such a shame that now the date January 6th has such an ugly connotation—a day about truth and peace, now known as a day about lies and violence.

There’s a psychological phenomenon called “belief perseverance” in which people “maintain their belief in a certain proposition, despite being presented with a case of disconfirming evidence.” This goes even further in the case of the “backfire effect,” which is when people not only disregard evidence contrary to their belief, but it actually strengthens their resolve, makes them even more immovable and even zealous in their beliefs, to the point of just assuming everything that goes against what they believe is wrong in and of itself. For example, in 2017 when Facebook attempted to correct and combat rampant disinformation by putting red flags next to articles they were questionable, academic research actually showed that it had the opposite affect—people who already believed those incorrect statements and articles were more inclined to believe them. [i]  

There are plenty of theories as to why this happens, and theories on how to solve this deeply serious problem—but getting deep into that is more of a topic for my husband’s internet ethics class at Dartmouth… but it seems to me, at least, that some big parts of the issue are things we’ve talked about a lot—a lack of connection, loneliness and rage, and echo chambers. I wonder if a reason the backfire affect is such a problem right now is because of the way we go about correcting and critiquing people. In a book review from the New York Times called “The Problem of Misinformation in an Era without Trust,” Jennifer Szalai, quoting Dannagal Goldthwaite Young writes, “the impulse to berate and mock people who believe conspiratorial falsehoods will typically backfire: ‘The roots of wrongness often reside in confusion, powerlessness and a need for social connection.’” So when we hear someone make a mistake, say something that we know is wrong, because of how divided things seem, because of how precarious things are, I think often, as fallible humans, our impulse is to get angry and pounce—to try to humiliate the person into submission. But if their “wrongness” does indeed stem from a feeling of powerlessness and a need for social connection, trying to make them feel even worse than they already do isn’t going to do anything positive. It will only drive people deeper into their fears, deeper into distrust. [ii]

To read you a little from what comes before today’s passage

[Apollos] spoke with burning enthusiasm and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue; but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained the Way of God to him more accurately. And when he wished to cross over to Achaia, the believers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him.

Imagine how embarrassing this could have been for Apollos— here he is, boldly preaching in the synagogue, preaching the half-correct statements with his whole chest— I’m imagining Priscilla and Aquilla standing there cringing, maybe even panicking a little, hearing this bold speech, knowing the info is wrong—but they don’t publicly humiliate or shame him; they didn’t go and gossip about him and tell people to ignore him. They discreetly pull him aside and correct him. And when he understood and asked to go continue spreading the word, they encouraged him, and encouraged other to welcome him into the fold. Because what good would shunning him do? What good would making fun of him do? That would’ve just pushed him away, one less Jesus-follower. But they knew that he wasn’t coming from a place of harm; he wasn’t maliciously trying to spread disinformation, he just didn’t have all the facts. So Priscilla and Aquilla gently told him what was what, and clearly Apollos was able to listen. And despite his mistake, was welcomed into the faith.

Paul uses the same strategy with these new disciples he runs into. It seems like he suspects, considering they were in Apollos’ region that they might have gotten this half-correct information, so he checks—did you all get that Holy Spirit memo? When they have no idea what he’s talking about, he tells them that John’s baptism is the first step, but the baptism of Jesus and the Holy Spirit is the real deal—and then he baptizes them. It’s actually the only instance of re-baptism in the new testament, which, as a small aside, is in line with our theology in the UCC—when you join a UCC congregation, we don’t require you to be re-baptized if you’ve already been, because we know you’ve already been baptized in the name of the Creator, the Christ, and the Holy Spirit—because God is so much bigger than any one denomination or religion, we don’t have a monopoly on baptism. But in these early days, they were still trying to get it right, and these new disciples weren’t quite there yet.

So when these new Jesus followers are able to really hear what Paul tells them, they receive the Holy Spirit, and the peace and revelation that comes with it. This passage is almost like a mini-Pentecost, when the masses receive the Holy Spirit and begin speaking in tongues—but remember, speaking in tongues in these instances isn’t just speaking some kind of divine gibberish—it mean that people were speaking in all different foreign languages and they were miraculously able to understand each other—so it really was all about a deep connections and understanding. That’s the peace that comes with the Holy Spirit.

If only it were so easy today to combat mis and disinformation—to simply have a gentle and civil conversation with a peer and be met with the peace of the Holy Spirit. Sadly, things have taken a real turn in this era of a constant news, in this era of doing your own research, in this era of deception and distrust. Now you may have noticed in this sermon I’ve been using two different terms— disinformation and misinformation—these words aren’t interchangeable. Misinformation is not malicious. Misinformation is when people get the wrong info and genuinely believe it’s correct and believe they’re doing the right thing by spreading that info; disinformation on the other hand is malicious—it’s a concerted and organized effort to sow discord and chaos by spreading lies. I’m differentiating these two things because I think it’s important to realize that in our passage today, Apollos and the disciples Paul finds are victims of misinformation, rather than culprits of disinformation, which, I think, is why they’re able to be corrected and change their ways.

And so I think as we go out in our divided would today, we should be aware of this distinction—because there are indeed people with whom we won’t be able to connect, people who are actively trying to make things worse, whether it’s for the sins of white supremacy, homophobia or transphobia, any kind of irrationally deep hatred or fear of change— but there are also those who are otherwise good people who have fallen victim to convincing lies from charismatic leaders and personalities. And those are the people with whom we can try to connect. Those are the people who have perhaps fallen victim to those lies because of isolation—because they just need some kind of social connection, some form of connection and hope.  

And so I wonder if we can go from today thinking about how we can emulate both those like Priscilla, Aquilla, and Paul, as well as Apollos and the re-baptized disciples—the former in discerning those who have been misled by misinformation and being gentle with them, and welcoming of them; and the latter by being humble and admitting when we haven’t gotten it quite right and accepting new, enlightening information. Because when we can get back to actually connecting with one another like this, maybe we can get rid of that backfire affect. Maybe we can begin to really hear and understand one another and change for the better. And maybe then we can bring about that earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

[i] https://social-epistemology.com/2023/07/13/echo-chambers-and-social-media-on-the-possibility-of-a-tax-incentive-solution-megan-fritts/

[ii] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/31/books/review/elon-musk-trust-misinformation-disinformation.html