I don’t agree with Baptist that insist that only adults should be baptized, I am too much of a follower of John Wesley to drop that great acknowledgement of the fact that God loves us before we are capable of loving God. Wesley called that fact “prevenient Grace.” That is the correct answer to why some of us go ahead and baptize children. Having said that I hasten to add that parents and congregations assume an incredible task as they bring a child to the baptismal waters. Pastors need to be more earnest in educating parents to what they are doing. This is no simple ceremony, it is a sharing in the sacrificial life of Christ, it is a commitment to join God in a constant opposition to forces that separate us from one another. It is, in short, a baptism of fire.
Annie Dillard said: “On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.” (Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stonene to Talk. Harper and Row, 1982)
I am not suggesting that we ask ushers to start passing life preservers and crash helmets, but I am calling on all of us to understand and own our baptismal vows, to prepare ourselves to live out our baptism of fire.
You notice that Dillard mentioned the Catacombs suggesting that those Christians did understand the nature of our Empire challenging faith. Catacomb Christians did understand that very well because they knew they were outside looking in, or better yet, they were in but not of, the Empire. Membership in the new movement implied opposition to the ruling powers and Baptism came at the end of a long training which included learning secret prayers like the Lord’s Prayer and finally participating in the ritual of initiation, Baptism, a secret rite that connected them with martyrs and prepared them for opposition and potential martyrdom.
Contemporar Christians need to become virtual Catacomb Christians, remember the true history of baptism, own it and act upon it.
Ignacio Castuera
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree with the fact that we, as Christians, need to be more mindful of baptism and the vow that we are taking by being baptized. After all, baptism is a public ritual that tells everyone that you have decided to follow Jesus, you choose to die with Him on the cross, and be raised to new life. I disagree, however, about baptizing Children (or more specifically infants). I grew up a Roman Catholic and was baptized long before I had any mental capacity to remember the event or to choose to live a life based on that committment. Sometime before I would have been confirmed, I left the Roman Catholic church and began my own search for God, which led me to a protestant church and eventually to a decision to follow Jesus. At this time, I choose (rather than my parents) to be baptized again. I wanted my friends and family know that I was committed to following Jesus. As a result of my baptism, my Mom gave her life to Jesus. I am blessed that my example moved her to make the same decision. My belief is that one should not be baptized until they are aware of the weight of their decision and are committed to seeing it through. My children (ages 8, 6, 5) have asked Jesus into their hearts. I have not allowed them to be baptized yet because I want to wait until they can fully understand what they are doing and what it means to be baptized. Once they have that understanding and are ready to make that committment and vow before God, I will allow it. I want it to be their decision. In the meantime, I will continue to teach them about God, show them Jesus by how we live, and hopefully raise them in a God honoring way...so that when the time comes for them to make their own committment, they will have a firm foundation to stand on.
ReplyDelete