Howdy You know there are certain words in the
church that carry weight before we even expand
upon them Baptism is one of those words and a
few times every year We got to talk about it
For some people it immediately brings up questions
and for others it brings up disagreements And
for others it brings up memories of pressure
or feeling like they had to defend something
that mattered to them. So before we go any further,
I want to be clear about today's posture. This
is not a sermon designed to rush you in your
path or in your journey with Christ, not to corner
you, not to force your decisions. It's not a
sermon to reopen old debates and draw battle
lines and it's meant Rather to slow us down to
take a breath and Remember where baptism comes
from and why the church spoke about it the way
it did for so very long If you feel a little
uneasy already That doesn't mean something is
wrong though Sometimes it simply means that we're
approaching something that really matters See
years ago when I would teach sixth grade math
there were moments that I could see the trouble
coming Before the lesson even started and I made
sure I put the box of tissues over on the counter
Algebra was one of those moments and when I say
algebra I don't mean that in eighth or ninth
grade you might have taken algebra I mean that
in sixth grade curriculum is the beginning of
algebra see the numbers Numbers were fine, okay?
The numbers that students were comfortable with
were fine, but all of a sudden, there were a
bunch of letters mixed in there. It's like, did
they just have a typo? And everything felt unstable.
And before we ever wrote an equation on the board,
I always knew there was this one, one young girl,
ooh, the tears were going to be flowing for sure.
It was rough. So, oh, was that with you? Oh,
that must have been you in my class. Wow, you're
so young. There you go. I love it. But before
we ever did so, I would sit down in front of
them, and I would say, you're not going to like
this. I'm warning you now. You're going to feel
frustrated. You're probably going to get annoyed
with me. And they'd be like, we're always annoyed
at you. And yes, that's wonderful. But that's
okay. If we want to get where we're going though,
We have to walk through this together. And it
was hard. But they at least knew that I was being
honest. I wasn't asking them to pretend that
it was easy. I was asking them to trust that
the discomfort was part of the learning, not
a sign of failure. And that's what today is like.
Some of what we're talking about may stretch
the way that we've thought about baptism a little
bit. It may challenge your assumptions and it
may raise questions. And that doesn't mean that
we're doing anything wrong or that anything up
to this point has been wrong, but rather it means
that we're being honest enough to learn together.
So let me say very clearly what today is not.
I am not up here trying to convince anyone to
change their mind about when a baptism should
occur. infant, adult, faith, whatever it may
be. This is not about trying to rank one person's
practice above or below another. It's not about
questioning whether your baptism counted. We're
not asking anyone to undo what God has done in
their life. But rather, what we're going to do
is explain why baptism began where it did, what
it meant in its original context, how Scripture
speaks about it, and why the church treated it
so solidly. rather than as something subjective
or only symbolic. If we understand what baptism
is, the debates, they kind of lose some of their
steam because the gift of what it is becomes
clearer and easier to accept. But it asks the
question, what really is a sacrament? At its
heart, a sacrament is simple. It's God attaching
his promise to something ordinary. Water. Bread.
wine, words spoken out loud. A sacrament is not
magic. It is not a spell. It is not a totem.
The early church never taught that the object
itself has power on its own. But a sacrament
is also not just symbolism of its own, where
the meaning depends entirely on how much we understand
or how much we feel at the moment. A helpful
way might be to try to use an example. Now, you
see me up here, and I've got this gold chunk
on my right hand. Want to guess what this is?
Absolutely. It's my Aggie ring. Now, the thing
is, is that I wear this thing, and it's just
kind of a chunk of gold, and you're kind of like,
man, it's getting a little bit gaudy over there
with a giant piece of gold on your hand, pastor.
Well, maybe so. But the thing is, is that this
ring is an emblem of something bigger. Not only
time -connected being at a college, but also
being a part of the values, the emphases, what
it was that we cared about, what it was we respected.
And so when I wear this, it's not just, well,
does it go well with my outfit? I mean, it goes
close enough. But it's about who I am in a way
that I can feel and that I can touch and I can
hold But how many of you do the same thing with
your wedding ring? How often is it that the ring
it's not the marriage itself is but it's also
not just jewelry You don't wake up necessarily
every day and say, you know, I don't know if
this matches my outfit today. I think maybe I'm
going to pick a different one today, or maybe
I'm just not going to wear it. I don't know.
It just looks a little gaudy today. No. It has
weight to it. It has a promise bound to it. I
just did a wedding yesterday, and we do this
whole thing that speaks about the ring being
the promise. We don't stare at it and hope that
it's gonna glow during the hard times But we
also don't discard it and get a new one Every
time we feel like the marriage may be strained
We return to what is embodied from the beginning
when the question is asked of the ending See
sacraments work like that God binds his word
his promises to physical things because we are
physical people. We need physical things to have
to hold, to touch, to see. He gives us something
we can return to when the feelings waver and
when the certainty fades. What often surprises
people is that sacraments were actually not controversial
for most of Christian history. Not really. The
major debates in the early church were not about
whether baptism did something sacramentally.
but about how people should live after receiving
it. The fear was not that baptism was empty,
but rather that baptism was so serious that maybe
it should be postponed until someone was truly
ready for the new life that came because of it.
Only much later did concern about misusing it
to avoid the need for true faith turn into suspicion
about whether God was actually acting in it.
And when that happened, baptism was generally
reduced to a symbol of faith rather than a gift
of God's grace. And understanding the timeline
helps us realize that the discomfort that many
people feel today is not ancient. It's actually
relatively recent over the last few centuries.
To understand it even better though we should
remember that baptism did not begin as a Christian
invention It grew out of Jewish life It wasn't
that John the Baptist one day says hey I'm gonna
go to the Jordan River and just start pouring
people water on people in Judaism water was already
a language that God's people understood ritual
washings they marked a transition if You were
outside of the community for any reason They
restored people to community life when they were
on the outside looking in. They prepared people
when they were about to enter a holy space, not
because your hands were dirty, but because we
need to be prepared for what is holy. And when
the Gentiles converted to Judaism, being washed
in water became part of it. It marked a change
of identity. It was a crossing from one way of
life into another. And when families converted,
The children were included. Covenant life was
not individual. Belonging came before explanation.
You were a part before you even understood it
fully. And this background matters because it
shows baptism was already understood as something
that God used to place people into His promises.
Not merely something people did to make a statement.
But even more than this, John the Baptist is
so disruptive because he's not just baptizing
Gentiles. That's what is so strange about him
is that he's baptizing Jews, the people who already
believe that they belong because they were part
of the bloodline, because they were circumcised
into it. John says to them in Matthew 3 .9, do
not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham
as our father. In other words, ancestry, whoever
your parents were, that's not just some guarantee.
The covenant identity is not something to be
taken for granted. John takes a boundary crossing
act and applies it to all of Israel itself. No
wonder many of them were offended. Baptism...
It was not to be reduced to just the personal
testimony that served only for people who didn't
get circumcised at an early age. It was a call
to repentance that placed everyone under God's
judgment and promise. But then Jesus steps into
the water. And Jesus does not need repentance.
It was no wonder John was so confused. He was
trying to put people in the water who knew that
they needed to repent and change, and now the
one that he's supposed to point toward wants
him to be back. How does this make any sense?
He does not need cleansing, but he enters anyway,
identifying himself with the sinners that we
are and receiving the Spirit publicly. And from
this moment on, Baptism is no longer about repentance
as John proclaimed it. It is about uniting with
Christ. The New Testament speaks about baptism
bringing salvation with striking confidence.
Yes, New Testament speaks about baptism bringing
salvation. Lutherans and Catholics and all the
others did not make it up. In 1 Peter 3, 21,
Peter says, baptism which corresponds to this
now saves you. Not as a removal of dirt from
the body, but as an appeal to God for our conscience
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. True,
Peter immediately guards against the misunderstanding
of it. But this is not magic, water. But he does
not retreat from saying, to a world and a new
church that needs to understand it, baptized
saves because it connects us to Christ's resurrection.
And Paul speaks similarly. In Romans 6, 3 -4
he says, Do you not know that all of us who have
been baptized into Christ were baptized into
His death? We were buried therefore with Him
by baptism and death in order that just as Christ
was raised from the dead, By the glory of the
Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
And in Colossians 2, 11 -12, Paul shows baptism
to be the new circumcision, saying, in Christ
also you were circumcised with a circumcision
made without hands, by putting off the body of
the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having
been buried with Him in baptism. in which you
were also raised with Him through faith in the
powerful working of God who raised them from
the dead. Circumcision was given to infants not
because they understood it, but because God promised
to call people to be His own through it. Which
is why infant baptism was ever even a thing in
the first place. It wasn't an abuse. Paul does
not minimize baptism. He places it firmly inside
God's covenantal way of working. But couldn't
someone be baptized as an infant and then reject
it later? Yes. But the same was always true of
circumcision too. Even as Paul wrote in Romans
2, what is the value of circumcision? What if
some who were circumcised were unfaithful? Does
their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness
of God by no means? God is still working. in
someone's life from the beginning of their baptismal
life through the Spirit and through the community,
which is one of the main reasons why the church
is not recommended to baptize infants when their
families will not raise them to know Christ.
If you think you can take a baby and add a little
water and baptize them real quick and be okay,
no. No. That is not how it is meant to work.
no matter how sneaky you think you may be. Even
beyond the apostles, though, sacramentally is
also how they taught the early church to understand
baptism. Ignatius of Antioch, connected to the
apostles, spoke of baptism as participation in
Christ. Justin Martyr described it as new birth.
Irenaeus spoke explicitly of Christ saving infants,
children, and adults alike through it. Even Tertullian,
who did urge delaying baptism, and is so often
used to argue for baptism being only after faith.
He still saw baptism as a sacrament. He urged
delaying baptism because he believed it was so
powerful and binding. His concern was not that
baptism had no authority, but rather the opposite.
He had the fear that people would treat lightly
the grace received through it. Augustine later
insisted that baptism's effectiveness rests on
God's faithfulness, not our human readiness.
And it's only with Zwingli and the Anabaptists
in the last few centuries that we begin to see
baptism described as symbolic. You go 1 ,500
years with everybody being sure what it is and
then change things up for a few centuries and
now we have to explain ourselves. Across centuries,
the message has been consistent. Baptism is God's
act in our lives, received over a lifetime. The
debate was never whether baptism worked to connect
us with Christ's death and resurrection in a
saving way. It's in Scripture. The debate was
always how to live after grace had been given.
And this is why I worry so much Whenever I see
young people go off in directions of churches
who want to take all the things of the church
and turn it into just symbols or ideas or something
fun to do because it's a strange new Sunday.
This is why the church does not rebaptize people
every time they fail or doubt their faith or
wonder if they gave their heart to Jesus enough
beforehand. I told you all about the time when
I was there at the camp and the boys who decided
to go around with super soakers that had mayonnaise
and vinegar and squirted them all over the place
were convinced that apparently they weren't really
Christian enough and most of them had to go get
rebaptized. There's so many examples where people
might question, is this person really a Christian?
Do they need to be? Brought back to baptism,
the 80 -year -old man who's full of bitterness
because his Christian life did not go the way
he had hoped it would. The 45 -year -old man
who cares more for trying to strike it rich in
the stock market than listening to his wife and
loses his family's savings in a heartbeat. The
76 -year -old man who confesses to an eight -year
affair after writing for decades about the Christian
life to encourage millions while ignoring his
own failings. The 30 -year -old man whose online
addiction causes emotional and physical distance
from the woman he loves, the college student
with the addiction to alcohol while ignoring
all of the warnings he'd had throughout his life,
the high school student who is Christian on Sundays
but bullies his classmates for years, never realizing
the ones who didn't recover from their abuse.
the child who one day connects the dots and realizes
that disobeying his parents is actually the same
as sin. What has gone wrong here is not baptism.
What has gone wrong is sanctification, formation,
repentance, humility. Re -baptizing a person
would imply that the grace failed to arrive the
first time, instead of naming that grace had
been resisted, forgotten, and ignored. The problem
is not that grace doesn't work. The problem is
that grace can be resisted even as we are called
in community to encourage each other to cling
more tightly to Christ each and every day. Rebaptism
is just an excuse, a shortcut, an attempted reset
button that avoids what we really need to do.
The harder work of repair, confession, restitution
and reconciliation. The church has always been
suspect of things that are meant to be shortcuts.
Whatever piece a person may be facing, baptism
is not something that we somehow control and
use to make ourselves better. Baptism is where
God meets us again and again as we dip our fingers
in the waters to remember what called us out
of the darkness in the first place. This is why
the church has trusted it so long. We see everything
today asks the question, what kind of God would
choose to work this way? What kind of God would
bind His promise to water? Act before we understand.
Remain faithful even when we struggle to live
up to what we've received. And then Isaiah says,
Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in
whom my soul delights. He will not cry aloud
or lift up his voice or make it heard in the
street. a bruised reed He will not break, and
a fatally burning wick He will not quench. This
is not a God who waits for us to be strong before
He is willing to act in our lives. This is not
a God who demands clarity in our hearts and minds
before giving grace. This is not a God who crushes
people for not having it all figured out. This
is a God who acts gently, persistently, faithfully.
who brings us to that place of faith. This is
not a passive God. He will faithfully bring forth
justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged
till He has established justice in the earth.
God does not affirm us in confusion. He leads
us out of it. He does not leave us where we are
and hope that we're ready and willing to repent
and be done. He claims us and then reshapes us.
This is baptism. God does not wait for us to
become strong reeds. He binds Himself to us when
we are bruised. He does not wait for our flame
to burn steadily. He protects us while we flicker.
And He does not abandon His work even when we
resist, doubt, or fail. Baptism is not God standing
at a distance, hoping we get it right. It is
God coming to us, taking us by the hand, and
saying, you are mine, and I am not done with
you yet. People, God is not done with you yet.
That is why baptism challenges us without destroying
us. And that is why we confront sin without erasing
the hope. Because even as the servant who steps
into the Jordan receives a spirit and then walks
patiently with people who are still learning,
we may be unsettled, but God is still at work.
So today, even if you're a bruised reed, with
God you will not break. And even if your wick
is burning dimly, with Christ you will not be
quenched. So the promise spoken over you in water
is the promise that he will not let you go because
you are God's beloved child with whom he is well
pleased. Thanks be to God.