The Baptism of the Lord

 

You would think that this Feast Day would be straightforward.  Jesus goes to the Jordan.  John baptizes him (with or without a lot of dialog, depending on which gospel account you are reading), the heavens open, the Holy Spirit descends in (some sort of) bodily form and a voice speaks.  It is the inauguration of Jesus’ public ministry.  Celebrate!  Give thanks!  End of story.

And yet, almost from the very beginning there were teachers who were proclaiming Christian baptism in the exact same terms as the baptism offered by John.  Their call was to John’s baptism, not that of Jesus and the church.  There are people within the larger church who do this same thing today.  They use John language to talk about what they call Christian baptism. 

But what was John’s proclamation?  “Repent!  Renounce your sins!  Make way for the coming of the Lord.  Prepare yourselves for the Messiah, the Christ, the one who will save you from your sins.”  Let’s be clear: “get ready” is not the same thing as “Have faith.”  There are those who claim that their belief system can trace its lineage all the way back to John the Baptist.  They say that with pride.  I don’t get it.  What has John done for them lately?  John’s baptism?  You can have it I say.  John didn’t save You.  You are not John’s disciple.  Nowhere in scripture do you hear a call to proclaim, “John the Baptist is Lord!”  Why then would you want to embrace John’s baptism?

It is true that the larger church has muddled the significance of this Sacrament through the years.  To this day there is no uniformity of opinion as to what the Rite means.  Some communions see baptism as a literal washing away of the stain of sin.  Others see it as an act of professing faith in making ready to join the church universal or a particular congregation.  This is what is meant by “believer’s baptism.”  Some congregations won't even recognize  the baptism performed by other congregations within their fellowship.  The idea is, "If we haven't baptized you, then no one has baptized you!"  

The United Methodist Church (and others) define baptism as an initiation into the Body of Christ and a claiming of the individual into the family of God.  Again, like many other groups the United Methodist Church practices the baptism of infants, with parents or sponsors taking the vows on behalf of the candidate until such time as the individual can affirm those promises for themselves.

I have a book in my library with the provocative title Baptism: The Water that Divides by Donald Bridge.  The work itself is a bit murky, but what a great title!  That which designs to unite believers is in fact one of the great points of contention within the church.  For something that Christ commanded, and that the church has normatively required from its beginnings, there is no consensus among the major faith groups as to what this means at all. 

I won’t enter the discussion about the amount of water that constitutes baptism.  I leave that issue grieving that people will split families and even congregations over what amounts to a measuring cup.

So, owning that this action of the church has no foreseeable resolution, I simply commend the day as an extraordinary one in the life and ministry of The Lord Jesus. It is worthy of our notice and our commemoration.  There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. –Ephesians 4:4-6

Lord, haste the day…

The Means of Grace: Baptism

 I want to say a word about Baptism. We connect Baptism and Communion in our minds because they are both sort of a subset of the Means of Grace. We call this category The Sacraments. These two things, Baptism and The Lord's Supper, are closely connected because of their sacramental nature. As important as all these other things are, the front line is held by Communion and Holy Baptism.

 The Wesleyan approach to Baptism is that it is undeniably a Means of Grace. Without question, the Baptism of Christian believers is instituted by Jesus. Its rank among the means of Grace is unquestioned.

 But I’m not going to spend much time on it for two reasons.

 First, it is my understanding of Baptism that everything else we do as believers is in the context of our baptism. Baptism is our initiation into the church so that we may avail ourselves of all the rest of these means of grace. Prayer, Fasting, Searching the Scriptures, Christian Conference, Communion, and all the Prudential Means of Grace (I’ll say more about this soon) are ours because we have been Baptized.

 Secondly, while all the rest of the Means of Grace are ongoing in terms of our actions, Baptism is a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. While the result, the grace, of our Baptism stays with us the rest of our lives, we don't get baptized again and again in the same way that we are called to pray without ceasing. As a matter of fact, our church expressly states that re-baptism is not our practice.

 The United Methodist Church practices three modes of Baptism: immersion, affusion (or pouring), and aspersion (or sprinkling).  Some communions practice total immersion exclusively.  This is the practice of completely submerging the candidate in water.  We don’t see examples of affusion very often in our area of the country.  But the practice is to have an adult bend over the baptismal font, or for the presider to hold a child or infant over the font and then pour water in such a way that it flows across the head of the candidate and drops into the font.  Aspersion – sprinkling in the common vocabulary – has the presider put a small amount of water on the head of the candidate.

 The United Methodist Church holds that all of these methods are valid.  Local tradition plays a large part in making the decision of how to administer the waters of Baptism.

 The United Methodist Church baptizes infants and young children as a practice of grace.  Responsible adults receive Baptism upon their profession of faith.

 As an aside, The United Methodist Church does not “christen.”  I have yet to see a bottle of Champaign smashed upon someone.  We christen boats.  We baptize people.  The christening of children is an act of dedication in denominations that do not baptize infants.  It is a way of recognizing the birth of a child but acknowledges their belief that only those who have professed faith are legitimate candidates for baptism.

 We DO have a service for baptismal renewal, and it is a wonderful observance.  But, part of the rubrics (instructions) for that ritual state, “water may be administered in a way that cannot be interpreted as baptism.”  Again, re-baptism (as if there was such a thing) is not our practice.

 So, moving forward, “Remember your baptism, and be thankful.”