We’re in the third Sunday of our
sermon series, “Why Do We Do That?”, looking at some of the things we do in
church, both as Christians and as United Methodists, and trying to answer the
question of why we do it. Today, as you’ve probably guessed, we’re
looking at baptism.
You’re probably all seen a baptism.
Some of you have seen a lot of them. And it’s always kind of a cool
thing. It’s a cool thing for you to watch, and it’s a cool thing for me
to do. I really enjoy doing baptisms. But why do we do it?
What does baptism really mean?
Well, just as we said last week
about communion, one of the reasons we do it is because Jesus told us to.
As you heard in our reading from Matthew, Jesus said, “Therefore go and
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” And of course, as you also heard, Jesus
gave us an example because he, himself, was baptized by John.
There are people who believe that
baptism is a salvation issue, that if we have not been baptized we will not be
able to get to heaven. As United Methodists, we don’t believe that.
We believe baptism is important, and I’ll get to that in a minute, but we
don’t believe that our salvation depends on it.
Our evidence for that comes from the
story of Jesus’ crucifixion as told in the gospel of Luke. Some of you
remember the story. Jesus is being crucified between two criminals.
One of them is mocking Jesus, but the other says to him, “Jesus, remember
me when you come into your kingdom.” And Jesus answers, “Truly I tell
you, today you will be with me in paradise.” That man was never baptized,
but Jesus said he would be with Jesus in paradise. So baptism cannot, in
and of itself, be a requirement for salvation.
As you’ve heard me say many times,
we are saved by God’s love and mercy and grace, and we are saved through our
faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior. We can have that faith, and we can
get the benefit of God’s love and grace and mercy, without being baptized.
And on the other hand, we can have been baptized and not have faith in
Jesus Christ as our Savior. So baptism is not the deciding factor in our
salvation. Faith is.
Still, as United Methodists, we
believe that baptism is important. Remember how, last time, we said
communion is one of God’s means of grace? It’s the same with baptism.
We believe that baptism is one of the ways in which God’s grace comes
into our hearts and into our lives. And as we also said last time, we are
all constantly in need of God’s grace.
So does that mean we should be
baptized repeatedly, just like we take communion repeatedly? No. In
fact, the rules of the United Methodist church, and of most Christian churches,
say that we’re not allowed to be baptized more than once. Now, there are
some denominations who would say that the baptism only counts if you’re
baptized by their denomination, and so in that case one might, in a sense, be
baptized a second time. But in the United Methodist church, we say that
if you’ve been baptized into any Christian church, we will accept it, and there
is no need for you to be baptized again. If you’ve been baptized in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, that’s good enough
for us. After all, that’s all Jesus required. Who are we to require
more?
As I said, we’re really not allowed to baptized again, although we
can do a service which is a remembrance of your baptism. But why is that?
Why should we not be baptized repeatedly? The reason is that, while
we believe baptism is one of God’s means of grace, we also believe it is more
than that. Baptism is the enactment and fulfillment of a promise from
God. When we are baptized, God makes a promise that we will be given
God’s grace. And God will always be faithful to God’s promises. We
can renounce our acceptance of that promise, we can refuse to accept God’s
grace, but God’s will always be faithful to God’s promise to offer it.
What that means is that there is no need for us to be baptized a
second time. God has already made the promise of grace to us. In
fact, if we were to baptize someone a second time, it would show a lack of
faith on our part. It would show that we don’t truly believe that God
will be faithful to God’s promises. If we’ve been baptized once, then we
have God’s promise of grace. That’s all we need.
As most of you probably know, the United Methodist Church believes
in baptizing infants. Some denominations don’t. Some denominations
believe in waiting until a person is old enough to make a decision for
themselves regarding whether they want to be baptized, often at age thirteen or
so. United Methodists are certainly willing to baptize teenagers.
We’re willing to baptize people of any age who have yet been baptized.
And that, of course, includes infants.
Why do we do that? It has to do with our understanding of
what happens at baptism. We believe that baptism signifies entrance into
the group of Christian believers, that it’s a symbol of repentance and cleansing
from sin, and that it represents a new birth in Jesus Christ--what some people
refer to as being “born again”.
That’s why baptism is one of my favorite things to do as a pastor.
Not because of anything I do. Just as I said with communion,
nothing happens because I put some water on someone and say a few words.
What happens, happens because of what God does, not because of what I do.
But the reason I love it so much is because of what I just said--it
signifies entrance into the group of Christian believers. And that’s a
wonderful thing to be a part of. It’s something to celebrate.
We can enter into the group of Christian believers at any age.
But in the case of an infant or a child, that infant or child needs to be
raised in a Christian context, so they can come to accept the faith and confirm
the promises their parents make for them during the baptism ceremony.
That means a few things.
One, it means it’s important that the parents understand and keep
the promises they make at an infant baptism. At an infant baptism,
parents promise to nurture the child in a Christian context and to guide the
child in such a way that he or she will come to accept Christ. They also
promise to provide a Christian example to the child by the way they live their
lives. If those promises are not kept, it’s much less likely that the
child will come to accept Jesus Christ as their savior and confirm those
promises.
Two, it means that the entire church has a role in baptism.
That’s why we do baptism during a worship service, rather than at a
private ceremony. Now, there have been occasions when, for various
reasons, we do baptize outside of a regular worship service, but even so, we
have people there to represent the congregation, because the congregation also
promises to provide a Christian example for the child and do what it can to
guide the child in such a way as to come to accept Christ.
And three, this is why we have confirmation class, which we’ll be
starting in a few weeks. In that class, kids are taught about the
Christian faith. They learn about God, about themselves, and about the
sacrifice Jesus made for us. And at the end of the class, they make a
choice whether they will confirm the promises that were made on their behalf at
their baptism. They make a public statement regarding whether they will
accept Jesus Christ as their savior. If so, they are confirmed and can
become members of the church.
There’s one other matter I want to talk about. Normally, we
baptize people by sprinkling. In other words, we put some water into the
baptismal font, I dip my hand into it and place a little of that water on the
child, or the adult. Some of you have probably seen, especially in the
case of adult or youth baptism, where a person is fully immersed in water.
And there’s also a method of baptism called pouring, where water is
poured over the head of someone.
Which method do we use in the United Methodist church? All
of them. The most common method is sprinkling, but it’s not required.
It’s just the way the tradition developed in this area. We’re
allowed to do baptism by immersion or by pouring, and I would be willing to do
it that way if that’s way someone wanted. It’s entirely the choice of the
person being baptized, or of their parents in the case of infant baptism.
Baptism is a wonderful thing. Our salvation does not depend
on it, but it is a way in which God’s grace comes into our hearts and into our
lives. It is a way in which we enter into the group of Christian
believers. It is a way in which God’s promise of grace is made to us.
And we know God will keep God’s promises. That’s why a baptism is
always something to celebrate.
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