“Baptism
... now saves you; not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to
God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has
gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and
powers made subject to Him” (1 Peter 3:21-22).
Baptism
is much more than a simple rite of passage each Christian and each Christian’s
child must go through. It is, as St. Peter points out, an “appeal”.
In the United Methodist tradition, it is the sign of the Covenant the Lord has
made with Jew and Gentile alike through Christ Jesus. It is not the end
of the spiritual journey, however; it is the very beginning of a life only the
Lord can know and reveal.
More
than this is the promise each sponsor and each parent – and the Church - makes
to the Lord our God; that this child will be brought up in a righteous
household and will be taught about the Lord through worship and Christian
education. The Church makes a vow to support the parents, and the parents
make a vow to the Lord that this child will not be withheld from the teachings
of the Church (“Let the children come to Me and do not prevent them, for
the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these”) Matthew
19:14. It is a great and wondrous thing but it is also a mystery that
through a bit of water (don’t get lost in method and means!) and a solemn
prayer, this child will be received into the Covenant by this profound act of
faith.
The
psalmist writes, “I will pay You my vows, those my lips have uttered”
(66:13, 14). These are the vows we make to the Lord; and because
the Lord cherishes each child as much as He cherishes anyone (perhaps even
more!), these vows we make must not be made in haste. That is, the
baptism of a child or a new believer must not be done with no more thought than
as just a “thing we do”. Indeed it is written in the Scriptures: “It
is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it” (Ecclesiastes
5:5).
The
Sacraments of the Church (those points at which we believe Heaven intersects
with earth) must never be taken for granted as just “things we do”. They
mean everything – or they mean nothing at all.
Blessings,
Michael
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