Baptism Is About Community

The Rev. Laurel Hart, Deacon (retired)

The Feast Day of the Baptism of Our Lord

Scripture: Matthew 3:13-17

Today is Feast Day in the Church. As I stated earlier it's the Remembrance Day of the Baptism of our Lord. In our diocese, and across the country, there are no doubt many people being baptized today: babies, teens, and adults. I'd venture a guess that could be happening in other church denominations too.

Many of us have been present for numerous Baptisms. I have a vague of memory of my Baptism – I know it was important to my parents that their children be baptized so it happened for my brother and me on the same day in the non-denominational church that our family was attending at that time. I was about 6 years old, and Russ was 2 years old, and I remember standing in front of a font in the “big” church but other than that I don't remember anything else about that event.

Do you remember your own baptism or that of your children or grandchildren? Was an heirloom christening gown worn by the baby? Or did the toddler cry out when washed by the water? Remember the baby parade up and down the aisle after it was christened - everyone loved to see the newly baptized child. I remember watching my grade school aged granddaughters, Kaitlyn and Stephanie Driver as they were Baptized by then Rector, Fr. Rick Bullock, in this sanctuary many years ago. Sweet memories of a special family time.

In the portion of our Book of Common Prayer near the back under the heading of An Outline of the Faith – is a section called the catechism (it’s on pages 845 through 862 - should you want to check it out) there is a section listing the sacraments of the church. Baptism is listed as the first sacrament. This is where it all begins. We are taught that Baptism is the sacrament by which God adopts us as his children and makes us member of Christ’s body and inheritors of the kingdom of God.

That’s all. That’s it. That is truly the most important statement.

The catechism says nothing about saving us from any fires of hell or making our life easier and us getting rich. We are taught that the outward visible sign is the water and the person is baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It continues with another statement instructing us that we are given inward and spiritual grace in Baptism, in union with Christ in his death and resurrection, that we are born into God's family and the church and our sins are forgiven.

Seems like those last four words bear repeating “our sins are forgiven.” Just in case you're wondering, I double checked the catechism wording several times, it doesn't say how many times our sins can be forgiven. That's a relief to me because I know if there had been a limit I could have used it up a long time ago.

Oh sorry, I forgot to mention the only requirement, we must renounce Satan. Please don’t think I’m taking that lightly. Satan is lurking at hand in many forms as we all know.

We are also instructed that in the Episcopal Church infants are baptized so they can share in the citizenship of the community as early as possible in their young lives. But of course, as infants it is the responsibility of the adults around them - and that means the entire community - not just their parents to teach them to know and love Christ.

And I ask you? Isn’t it truly about community? Because that is what St. Luke is, a community of Christians, young, middle aged, old, worshiping together, supporting each other through a very confusing time, and doing our best to follow the teachings of Jesus to love our neighbors.

A baptism truly can happen any day any place. It doesn't have to be an event during church service. The only ingredients are water, one baptized person who is willing to baptize another person seeking salvation and to Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Here at St. Luke the Physician, baptisms typical take place on one of the Feast Days like today or Easter Vigil, Pentecost, All Saints Day, thought they can happen on any Sunday. Please talk to Rev. Sara if you have questions about Baptism.