Faith
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Thinking the Faith, Praying the Faith, Living the Faith is written by the PC(USA) Office of Theology and Worship.
Thinking, praying, and living the faith is at the core of ministry in the Office of Theology and Worship. In the following videos, learn more about what thinking, praying, and living the faith means to the leadership of the Office of Theology and Worship. Discover why it matters and what difference it makes in our lives, work, and worship.
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Remember Your Baptism
"Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you." — (1 Peter 3:15)
On Trinity Sunday, the day of the church year on which I was baptized as an infant less than three weeks old, I remembered my baptism and was glad. I was baptized in my grandparents’ church. (Yes, I was one of those kids!) That year Trinity Sunday was also the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, which is a big day in my grandparents’ little town, a day when everyone came back home from all over the United States. So extended family filled the church on my baptismal day, I’m told. I don’t remember much about the actual event, of course. But I always remember my baptism because my union with Christ, which it signifies, has made all the difference in my life through the extended family of the church.
Luther considered baptism to be the greatest comfort we have on earth. “I am baptized,” he said, “and through my baptism God, who cannot lie, has bound himself in a covenant with me.” (“Holy and Blessed Sacrament of Baptism,” trans. Charles M. Jacobs and E. Theodore Bachmann, in Luther’s Works, vol. 35 [Philadelphia: Fortress, 1965], 36). Although American revivalistic religion has a tendency to emphasize our decision to come to Christ as being primary, Calvin was quite clear that baptism is primarily God’s work:
For inasmuch as [baptism] is given for the arousing, nourishing, and confirming of our faith, it is to be received as from the hand of the Author himself. We ought to deem it certain and proved that it is he who speaks to us through the sign; that it is he who purifies and washes away sins, and wipes out the remembrance of them; that it is he who make us sharers in his death, who deprives Satan of his rule, who weakens the power of our lust; indeed, that it is he who comes into a unity with us so that, having put on Christ, we may be acknowledged God’s children. These things, I say, he performs for our soul within as truly and surely as we see our body outwardly cleansed, submerged, and surrounded with water. For this analogy or similitude is the surest rule of the sacraments: that we should see spiritual things in physical, as if set before our very eyes. For the Lord was pleased to represent them by such figures—not because such graces are bound and enclosed in the sacrament so as to be conferred upon us by its power, but only because the Lord by this token attests his will toward us, namely, that he is pleased to lavish all these things upon us. And he does not feed our eyes with a mere appearance only, but leads us to the present reality and effectively performs what he symbolizes. (Calvin, Institutes, IV.15.14) .
As Luther argued, life in Christ “is a continual remembrance of this promise made to us in baptism” (“Babylonian Captivity,” Luther’s Works, vol. 36, 59). Baptism is “so great, gracious, and full of comfort, we should . . . ceaselessly, joyfully, and from the heart thank, praise, and honor God for it” (Luther, “Holy and Blessed Sacrament of Baptism,” Luther’s Works, vol. 35, 42).
So how do we celebrate that we are baptized? I don’t do anything that special, other than say thank you and think about the ways in which my life might very well have been different had God not bound Godself to me in the covenant of baptism. (It always blows my mind to think of the Lord as freely choosing to bind Godself to me!) On my baptismal anniversary I stop and think about how God has cared for me through various church folks, and I give thanks for divine faithfulness through my bigger extended family, the church. I shudder to think about where I'd be if it weren't for the church.
Other ways to remember our baptism abound. Some people bring out the candle they received at their baptism and light it for prayer or at dinnertime. Some churches don’t send people birthday cards; they send baptismal anniversary cards instead. Some confirmation classes have students find out when they were baptized and learn the stories around the event. (This means that our church members need to know when their baptismal day is, as do we.) Pastor Mary Jane Winter came up with an idea of having all who don't know the date of their baptism celebrating on Trinity Sunday since the one place where the Trinity is specified is when Jesus commands us to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (No, we're not going to discuss language and metaphysics here!)
How does your church commemorate people’s baptisms? If we do not celebrate our baptismal days, it may signify that we don’t think of baptism as being all that important.
Similarly, where and how do you make space for people to talk about the meaning of their baptism? Why not ask each ruling elder to sign up for Session devotional time during the meeting closest to their baptismal anniversary and give a testimony about what their baptism means to them? It is astounding what such a simple practice can do to transform the ethos of our churches.
As we remember our baptism, I am convinced, with Calvin, that the Lord will be “pleased to lavish” all the things signified by the sacraments upon us.
- Posted at 3:08 p.m.
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