Drowning in baptism

FOCUS READING

Matthew 3:16-17 (NRSV)

As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

DAILY BYTE

You’ve been reading this week about the exodus of the people of God through the waters of the Red Sea. You’ve been reading that it was strangely necessary for the Egyptians and their old way of enslaved life to drown.

And today, we see that drowning is, in fact, what baptism is all about. In our church, we have a very small baptismal font, so it’s difficult to get the full effect, but baptism is a symbolic drowning. We heard this week in Durban that a young person was literally washed out to sea during a baptism ceremony. This tragedy is unspeakable, and we pray for the family and the family of faith that have been struck with this grief. Bodily death is surely not what God intends from this practice. For thousands of years in the church, it has been a powerful and mysterious ritual, meant to bring life, not harm. It offers to many a tangible moment where all of our old ways of life are literally drowned out by God’s grace, and we are brought to life again so that we can journey forward.

When we baptize children, we recognize that God’s grace has been working in their lives, even though they are too young to have the language to articulate that gift. We recognize that they are imperfect but that even in their imperfection, God wants to draw them to God’s self and give them a new life in God’s family that is even better and more whole than their life, as an individual. Before they can even walk on two feet, they are offered the gift of walking with others who love them into a new kind of life.

And when grown people are baptized, they make the decision after a journey of praying and learning and reflecting that they are ready to say yes to the free life that God has for them. They’re ready to leave their old habits, patterns, and fears – all the things that have tied them down. They’ve recognized the grace that’s been working in their life and want to open themselves to a new life where they can walk even taller and shine even brighter with God’s free and beautiful life pouring out of theirs.

When people make this decision in The Methodist Church, one of the questions they get asked is, “Do you repent of your sins and renounce all evil?” This is a big question that deserves a lot of thought and prayer. We’ll look at this question in more detail tomorrow, but for now, think and pray for yourself – do you repent of your sins and renounce all evil today?