| We are sharing the sacrament of
baptism at both of our services of worship today. All who are members
of the church are baptized and most here have participated in several
baptisms promising to guide and nurture by word and deed and love
and prayer those who are baptized encouraging them to know and
follow Christ.
We should not assume the reasons for baptism are obvious. While
we practice both infant and believer baptism in our denomination
it is felt by most scholars that only believer baptism was practiced
in the early Church. In those situations where the one being
baptized is old enough to make their own decision it signals
an awareness they have not been living as God desires for them
and they have made a personal decision to begin living their
life in a new way aided by the Holy Spirit and the fellowship
of the Church. In the case of infant baptism the parents are
stating they believe in Jesus Christ and want for their child
what God has promised to all who accept Christ as their Lord
and Savior.
When we baptize children who are so beautiful and innocent we
may wonder why they would need a new life. In a different way
entirely this new life has also become somewhat questionable
for adults today who seemingly are already living such a wonderful
life. We need to understand the new life promised by God is meant
to be a life that is forgiven of having been separated from God
and is now directed toward God. In the case of infants, our prayer
is that they will choose to give their life to Christ when they
are old enough to make that decision for themselves.
The question arises as to why anyone would choose to follow
Christ and be baptized. Jesus makes it abundantly clear there
will be a price to pay for following Him and that being His disciple
may well cause splits to occur within families. Many of the earliest
disciples were persecuted and many did have problems with their
families because others in the family wished to remain Jewish
or else follow one of many pagan religions that existed at that
time.
Today religion may cause some strife within a family. This usually
occurs where mother and father are not both involved in living
their faith. It often is challenged by youth exerting their independence.
Ironically, this often happens just after they go through confirmation.
It often depends upon what friends are doing as well as what
faith their parents practice.
During my recent trip to Montana I witnessed two very different
congregations. The first is the most rapidly growing church in
the community. It has a climbing wall, a go-cart track and an
Olympic-size swimming pool. Its leadership has determined these
things are necessary to attract people to Jesus if indeed that
is the ultimate attraction.
The other church is the one I served for 17 years prior to coming
here. It is split in half. Disputes over the acceptance of homosexuals
and differences in the theology of those either following or
rejecting the teachings of the Jesus Seminar have caused 300
people to leave. There is anger and hurt in those who are left
and they cannot meet their budget.
School is still out as to whether or not the first congregation
is offering real or cheap grace as Bonhoeffer called it. In the
case of the second congregation there is no doubt that sin has
created a real stranglehold on the people who somehow have forgotten
the commandment of loving God and each other.
It is this sin that Paul writes about in Romans 6. If we are
going to live a new life in Christ we need to turn from sin.
Sin, however, is so attractive and seductive. On my trip I spent
four days at a private spiritual retreat center reading the Gospels
and studying and practicing something called the prayer of the
heart.
This practice is to help keep one focused upon God. This is
imperative if we are to truly lead a Christian life. I read the
following description of how sin can enter our life if we are
not consciously fighting against it. This description comes from
Writing from the Philokalia on Prayer of
the Heart (trans. GEH
Palmer, p. 338).
A thought or desire enters our mind or heart. This is called
impact. It is not a sin to have this happen. We can dismiss it
or we can give it our attention. If we decide to join together
with this thought or desire it is called coupling and is the
beginning of our moving away from God. It grows deeper once we
consent to it which is called merging together. We have decided
to merge our will with that of the enemy of God. Once this happens
we experience captivity to the thought or desire which grows
into a passion which we then act upon. This can happen quickly
or over a long period of time.
The idea of being baptized is to invite God's Spirit into
our life to help us avoid being so captured by these negative,
illegal or evil thoughts. The best way to do so is to do all
we can to be impacted or contacted by the good things God offers
us. We need to join together with God through reading and thinking
about Scripture, by having a life of prayer and by doing good
works for others. We need to merge together with the Holy Spirit
so that we become servants of the One we claim as Teacher, Lord
and Savior. In doing so, we develop a passion for God and the
Kingdom of God.
Harvey Cox wrote in the September 12, 2001 issue of The
Christian Century, "We are engaged in a mystery that traces back
to the classical Greek recognition of the inescapably tragic
dimension in life and to the universal human intuition that,
although we know ourselves to be free in some sense, we also
wrestle constantly with forces within us and around us that make
living a moral life hazardous and enigmatic."
This struggle is over for those who have given into the ways
of the world. It is a battle for those who declare they want
to follow Christ and receive a new life. It cannot be fought
alone but of necessity involves receiving God's Spirit
at baptism and following that Spirit in reading Scripture, having
a life of prayer, participating in Christian fellowship and living
a life of service for others.
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