“TAKE me to the water”
Sweetly dwell on this:
“Throughout divine sonship conferred by baptism, it can be said that the Father’s words during Jesus’s baptism, ‘This is my son, the Beloved, with whom I am well-pleased,’ apply to every person baptized into Christ.”
Baby Paul was baptized on Sunday. What a wonderful day it was. What else I’ve learned, and learned to love, about the sacrament of Baptism:
— We baptize children because of Mark 10:15-16. We can do nothing to earn our salvation. Infant baptism reminds us that God has given us the gifts of love and grace before we can even ask for them.
— Jesus was not baptized for his own purification, but as a sign of redemptive solidarity with sinners. Fully man!
— The congregation promises to guide and nurture the child by word and deed, with love and prayer, so that the child might come to know Jesus Christ. Just as Anna took the baby Jesus and showed this tiny Messiah to all who were in the temple (Luke 2:36-40), the congregation, as representative of the body of Christ/whole church, reaches toward your child and recites that your child is a child of God, a child of the covenant.
— “Baptism is 1) dying and rising with Jesus Christ; 2) pardon, cleansing, and renewal; 3) the gift of the Holy Spirit; 4) incorporation into the body of Christ; and 5) a sign of the realm of God.” - PCUSA Directory for Worship, W-3.0402
1) Water gives life and water kills. We cannot live without water. And yet few things are as terrifying as being at the mercy of fast-moving, deep water. In baptism we speak of dying and rising with Christ. This is visually demonstrated in baptism by immersion, when we simulate going into the watery grave with Christ and coming up to new life in Christ.
2) Cleansing. In baptism we see the cleansing, the cleaning power of water.
3) Being gifted with the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures (1 John 2:27 + Luke 3:15-22) speak of the Spirit’s presence as anointing. In some mysterious way, the act of baptism brings with it the anointing, the presence of the Holy Spirit. The practice of making the sign of the cross on a person’s forehead or similar acts demonstrates the anointing power of water.
4) Being incorporated into the body of Christ. Baptisms are not private, but take place in the Christian community. You cannot baptize yourself. The practice of welcoming the newly baptized into the community visually demonstrates this incorporation. Sometimes when a young child is baptized, the minister takes the child away from the parents/sponsors and walks through the congregation with the new member of the body. This shows that the primary relationship for this person is the body of Christ, not the blood relationships of family.
5) Seeing a sign of God’s realm. When Jesus came along, echoing the prophets, that the day of the Lord had come, it signaled that his followers were to live in a new way.
And that N-E-W WAY spoken by Joe Clifford in a sermon:
“Augustine said baptism is an outward sign of an inward grace. An outward sign of something that is already true. We are children of God before water is put on our heads. Only thing that differentiates those baptized to those not baptized is we have committed to live our lives in response to this deepest truth of who we are. We commit to raising our children through this truth. We commit to viewing our neighbors through this truth.”
Below are Baptism references in Scripture that I’ve loved reflecting upon:
Matthew 28:18-20 (commission- disciples of all nations)
Luke 3:15-22 (Baptism of Jesus- sandals/with Holy Spirit and fire/Holy Spirit descend bodily form as dove/well-pleased)
Acts 2:37-39 (cut/repent/baptized/receive Holy Spirit)
Romans 6:1-5 (by no means/buried with him by baptism into death/just as Christ raised by glory of Father we too walk in newness of life/united with him in death and a resurrection like his)
Galatians 3:23-29 (custody (law)/justified by faith with Jesus coming/clothed in Christ if baptized/one in Christ Jesus/heirs if Abraham’s offspring)
