WELCOME HOME
At its heart, baptism is a homecoming of sorts… a beautiful and bold welcome into something new. With the extraordinary promise of God mixed with ordinary, everyday water, through the Sacrament of Baptism we are welcomed into the story of God’s love for all people, into God’s family (the church), and into the kingdom of God.
BAPTISM IS FOR EVERYONE!
While we often celebrate the baptism of children in worship services on the second weekend of the month, in truth anybody can be baptized. This is a gift from God that we are excited to share with newborns, elders, and all ages in between. In some Christian traditions, baptism is reserved for older folks who may have made a decision to follow Jesus.
In our tradition, we baptize babies and children for a variety of reasons – including the core principle that God’s loving grace is unearned. Babies exemplify this in that there is nothing they can do but rest in the arms of those who love them. It is a practice that traces its roots back to the earliest of churches where entire households were baptized and reflects both Jesus’ command to baptize all people and his belief that children are models of faith who should be both welcomed and blessed.
Baptism isn’t just for little kids either. Older children, youth, and adults who are new to the Christian faith or who haven’t been baptized before are invited to do so at any time.
What about folks baptized in other Christian traditions or churches? We hold that the promises of baptism hold true forever – there isn’t a need to be ‘re-baptized.’ Instead, we encourage people to remember their baptisms on a regular basis. This is something we do together in worship when we pray a prayer of ‘Thanksgiving for Baptism.’ It is also something that you could do on your own or among your family members by tracing the sign of the cross on your foreheads, lighting the candles we pass out when people are baptized, or even simply saying ‘Thank You’ to God every time you wash your face with water.
HOW CAN WATER DO SUCH GREAT THINGS?
This is a question Martin Luther addressed in his Small Catechism, a teaching tool designed for everyday people. In Luther’s words, “Clearly the water does not do it, but the word of God, which is with and alongside the water, and faith, which trusts this word of God in the water. For without the word of God the water is plain water and not a baptism, but with the word of God it is a baptism, that is a grace-filled water of life and a ‘bath of the new birth in the Holy Spirit,’ as St. Paul says to Titus in chapter 3...”
Going further, as Luther describes it, “(baptism) signifies that the old person in us with all sins and evil desires is to be drowned and die through daily sorrow for sin and through repentance, and on the other hand that daily a new person is to come forth and rise up to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.”
Baptism is about life, death, and the promise of new life in Christ. Or, as the Apostle Paul says in Romans 6, “We have been buried with Christ by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”
BAPTISM IS A LIFELONG ACT OF COMMUNITY
While the person being baptized is an individual – lovingly and uniquely created in the very image of God – the Sacrament of Baptism is best understood as an act of community. More than a solitary rite of passage, baptism involves promises made by parents, sponsors, and the entire congregation. This is especially true of infants and is also true for older youth and adults as well.
Whatever the age of the newly baptized, parents and/or sponsors ensure that they do not walk alone and are entrusted with some substantial responsibilities of their own:
to live with the newly baptized among God’s faithful people, bring them to the Word of God and the holy supper, teach them the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments, place in their hands the holy scriptures, and nurture them in faith and prayer, so that they may learn to trust God, proclaim Christ through word and deed, care for others and the world God made, and work for justice and peace.
As hefty as that list may be, the good news is that they do not do it alone either. In fact, the whole church vows to accompany parents, sponsors, and the newly baptized and to support them and pray for their new life in Christ.
Over time, as the newly baptized grow in faith and in life experience, they slowly begin to take on the promises made on their behalf. Eventually, through the Rite of Confirmation, many young people and adults choose to affirm God’s promise and blessings by saying “Yes!” to the gift of baptism with their own voice and in their own words.
UPCOMING BAPTSM CLASSES
Find information on our upcoming baptism classes here.