#6 - What is Baptism? {Reflections}

What is up everybody?

My name is Ryan Braley and I am the pastor at Central.

And here we are in studio, we're going to record episode number six.

It's part two of our series on sacraments, this one's on baptism.

And just a reminder baptism is one of the two Lutheran sacraments and the other one is communion, and of course this one's baptism.

And what makes a sacrament a sacrament is the command and promise of Jesus himself.

And so Jesus gives us command, and then tied to it as his promise, and then also this earthly element.

So for baptism in the great commission, jesus tells the disciples hey, go into all the world, disciple all nations and baptize them, and then, with the Father, son and Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey all he's commanded.

And he promises that when, that when you know, in doing so there will be the forgiveness of sins.

Of course, john the baptizer, he preached a baptism of repentance and forgiveness.

Jesus also says in Mark 16 that whoever believes in his baptize will be saved.

Paul writes in Titus 3 that he has saved us not because of righteous things we've done, but because of his mercy, and he saved us through the washing and rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

This idea of baptism.

And so this is what baptism is, and it's also this earthly element just ordinary water, but when tied and infused with this command and promise, it becomes something unique and different.

Now, this idea of ritual baths was not just a Christian idea.

In fact, ritual baths were ubiquitous in the ancient world, across cultures and religions.

In fact, jesus grew up probably engaging in, certainly knowing of the Jewish mikvah, which is like this Jewish ritual bath for cleansing, for worship in the temple and so on.

But in a Christian sort of theology, the baptism is a symbol of many things.

One is a cleansing.

It certainly goes back to that idea of a ritual cleansing, but also just cleansing that we can begin again.

So, like you know, a lot of Lutheran theologians talk about it as like a great bath.

It's also a symbol and a sign of death and rebirth Death of the old, the old self, and rebirth.

So Paul writes in Romans 6 that all of us who were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death.

We're therefore buried with him in order that we can also then raise to new life with him, which is wonderful.

And then, of course, water across the globe is like a symbol for life Wherever there's water there's life.

Now, I grew up not in a Lutheran context, so I grew up with what we call believers baptism.

We didn't baptize infants.

Where I grew up we would wait until the kids were older and they made this sort of decision to be baptized and they would sort of use it as a public profession of their faith.

But when we moved to Minnesota we began to worship at Central and we began to think about what we wanted to do going forward, if we wanted to keep going on with sort of this adult believers baptism or engage in what the church at Central was doing, which was, of course, infant baptism.

So we began to research and study.

I love you know.

I wanted to kind of understand why we would do infant baptism and what it meant, and so, and as I did, I mean I just fell in love with this idea of infant baptism.

All baptized, anybody, at any age.

I don't really care.

But here's why I love.

I wanted to share with you guys why I love infant baptism.

So when you engage or watch an infant baptism, here are some things that are at play.

Lutherans emphatically declare that this act of baptism is is God's act, not not a human act.

So it's about grace and receiving, not about faith.

You're not doing anything, as an infant would tell you or not tell you.

They don't do anything, it's just an act done to us.

So we don't do it ourselves.

It's not a sign of my own response to God, but what God has done for me.

He saved me in and through Christ.

Now, in some circles faith is described as like a decision, like a my willful choice to follow Jesus.

But Lutherans understand that faith is kind of more mysterious and often less conscious than that.

Infants exemplify this in a beautiful way.

Like infants choose or decide very little.

They didn't choose to be born or decide they'd be born.

They don't choose to sort of bond with their mom or their, their dad.

They don't weigh all their options and determine to choose life and love the infants.

New life just sort of begins with the love and affection of other people.

Another thing I love about infant baptism is that it emphasizes the ongoing significance of baptism.

It's not a one time, singular event of conversion, but it's an ongoing cleansing and rebirth and regeneration.

To be enacted daily In fact be baptized daily is a common saying in the Lutheran church, and so repent and receive forgiveness and new life every single day.

So Luther writes that the Christian life is nothing else other than daily baptism, begun once and continuing ever after.

For we must keep at it, must keep at it without ceasing, always purging or letting die whatever pertains to the old Adam or the old Eve, so that whatever belongs to the new creature may come forth.

So we're always dying and rising, we're always being cleansed and washed.

There's not really an ascending into heaven, luther might say, but only death and resurrection.

The final thing that I love about infant baptism is just watch one when you bring an infant up to the front to be baptized.

They do nothing.

Many times will not so much nowadays, thankfully, but back in the day often that they would bring the child naked and they've done nothing but be a burden on their family.

They need, they take.

They haven't contributed, they haven't given their tithes or offerings, they've not volunteered for any committees or any boards.

They've not, you know, volunteered or served anybody.

They're just a general kind of burden on the whole community, which is awesome.

And because we baptize them anyway, we want to bless them, pray for them, anoint them and baptize them anyway, because it's a visceral picture of an absolute grace and gift and that discipleship begins right away at birth.

We love it.

So today, be baptized and live baptized.

Receive the love and grace and forgiveness of God today, because his mercies are new every morning.

All right peace.