Hawley Family Ecumenical Council on Baptism

The First Sunday after Epiphany

The Baptism of Our Lord

January 12, 2014

Christian Hawley

Is 42:1-9
Ps 29
Acts 10:34-43
Mt 3:13-17

The great part of living in a blended family is that I get constant practice at working with other denominations in meaningful ways. My dad and his wife are nondenominational evangelicals, my stepsister and her husband are Southern Baptist youth ministers, my sister and her family along with my stepbrother and his wife are Methodists. My mom is a sacramental pilgrim bouncing between Methodist, Episcopal, and Roman Catholic churches, and my grandmother is so Roman Catholic that she still calls me to pray to St Anthony for her when she can find her car keys. As I was recently reminded, the holidays for me are like attending a conference on ecumenism.

Unlike most conferences though we actually have to make concrete decisions based on our varying backgrounds, and one of those decisions revolves around baptism. My sister is set to have her third child this June, a little girl this time, which means there will be another convening of the Hawley Family Ecumenical Council, to discuss exactly what baptism means and what Kelley should do with her child. Using today's readings from the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ, I'd like to outline for you how this council might go this year:

My dad and the delegates from the more reformed churches will start the discussion with the concept of believer's baptism. In a believer's baptism the candidate is thoroughly informed about what it means to be a Christian and then she is asked to careful consider her life. Upon acknowledging a sinful nature and the need for Christ, the candidate then, of her own free will, offers her life to Christ and is baptized for the forgiveness of their sins.

For the delegates from the evangelical churches, baptism is a singular event about a personal relationship with Christ and the forgiveness of sins. From today's readings the delegates would draw from the last line of our Acts passage, “Everyone who believes in Christ receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Therefore the recommendation from this part of the family would be for the child to be presented in the church akin to Hannah taking Samuel to the Temple, or Mary and Joseph presenting Jesus on the eighth day,¹ and later, when the child is old enough to make a commitment to a personal relationship with Christ, she can submit for baptism.

Once my dad sits back down on the love seat in my sister's living room, the sacramental delegates led by my grandmother, Nonni, will rise from the large couch and offer their understanding of baptism and their recommendation for the child. Nonni will agree that baptism is for the forgiveness of sins, but she will go on to say that baptism encompasses so much more too.

Drawing from our Matthew reading today, Nonni would point out that John the Baptist also thought baptism was only for the cleansing of sins, hence his protest with Jesus. If Jesus truly was the Son of God and the Messiah, then he was without sin, and therefore would not need to be baptized by John. And yet Jesus is adamant about being baptized. Nonni would interpret Jesus' actions as confirming that baptism was more than just the cleansing of sins, and she would go on to offer that baptism is also about being incorporated into a community.

Baptism from her understanding is a communal event between a child, a family, a church, the communion of saints, and the whole body of Christ.² It is a sacrament that initiates a person into the corporate mysteries of salvation, and is therefore beyond comprehension, for no one could ever be old enough to fully understand what they becoming a part of.

Therefore, it would be the recommendation of these family members to baptize the child as soon as possible and then seal her faith in the sacrament of confirmation when she was old enough to commit to the essentials of the faith.

Once Nonni sits down then all eyes will inevitably turn to me, the family priest sitting in the kitchen chair, and the lone representative from that unusual tradition that called itself the middle way. In the past, I have stood up and acknowledge the validity of all doctrines presented and I’d usually add some historical or scriptural piece of knowledge that showed respect for all of their interpretations. In the end though I would recommend the child be baptized and then confirmed thus embracing both the communal and the personal aspects of baptism. But my understanding of baptism has changed since Kelley's last child, so I think I'll recommend something different this year.

I agree that baptism is indeed an event that initiates a person into a community. I also believe it is an event where one freely commits herself to Christ in a personal relationship and her sins are washed clean, however I also think, after noticing some patterns in today's scriptures and talking with the lectionary ladies, that baptism is also about inaugurating a ministry. Baptism propels a person to take his or her faith out into the world. In Isaiah we hear that the spirit is poured out so that the righteous one might bring justice to the nations. In Acts we hear about Jesus' baptism as an event that announces God's giving of the Spirit and power to Jesus so that he could go out to do good and heal the oppressed. The Gospel of Mark doesn't even bother with an infant narrative it just begins with Jesus' baptism, further enforcing the idea that baptism is about equipping a person to go out and serve the Kingdom of God.

According to this understanding, baptism is not a singular event of commitment, nor is it even an event begun in a community promise and finished in personal commitment, it is a process that continually nourishes and equips a Christian throughout her life. Every time a Christian moves into a deeper understanding and relationship with God, she should revisit her baptism, and this is precisely why we have reception and reaffirmation services in our prayer book that take place simultaneously with baptism.³ If you turn to pg 420 of the BCP you’ll also see something called “A Form of Commitment to Christian Service” where a person reaffirms his/her baptismal vows and then makes a public commitment to a cause for the Body of Christ. Our baptism is not a one and done thing, it is a sacrament draws us continually closer to God and strengthens us to reach farther out into the word. For we Episcopalians the Baptismal Covenant is as close as we get to a statement of faith, and it is central to our spiritual formation.

So this year my recommendation to the Hawley Ecumenical Council will be for all parties involved in the baptism: parents, grandparent, and godparents to spend some time working on their own understanding and relationships with Christ. Maybe they could take an inquirers class at their own church, or commit to a new ministry, so that when they stand up there with this newest child, they can reaffirm their own vows and equip themselves to raise the child faithfully and to go out into the world to do good and to heal the oppressed.

I would make that same recommendation to all of us in the pews today. If you were baptized but never confirmed and you want to move deeper into your faith, talk to one of the clergy about going through the confirmation. If you're a high schooler, I'm putting a confirmation course together right now, so please let me know if you want to be included in our meetings.

If you are coming from another church or tradition where you were already baptized and confirmed, I encourage you to attend our Inquirer's class and perhaps consider being received into the Episcopal Church at a future baptism here at Ascension. I would also encourage the Inquirer's Class if you are going to be a godparent to any child.

And finally if you're looking to explore your faith in even deeper ways or considering taking your faith out into the world in a new and intentional way, I'd encourage you to speak to a clergy member about our upcoming Alpha course and see if a reaffirmation of baptismal vows or a service of Christian commitment might be right for you.

Baptism is a wonderful mystery that effects our entire lives, so let us continually take nourishment from these living waters of our Savior. And like Christ before us let us seek to fulfill all righteousness, to do good, and to heal the oppressed.

1 Curiously enough this idea is finding traction in the Episcopal Church with the revival of the catechumenate. I have a priest friend from the diocese of Chicago who chose to have his son made a catechumen until he was old enough to better understand baptism.

2 This community focus is why the Episcopal Church moved baptism into Sunday services with a Eucharist in the 1979 BCP.

3 BCP 310