Preparing for the Wonder and Joy of Baptism with Jesus' Church During Advent
I love the sacraments, both baptism and the Eucharist. They reveal so many things, including that God is holy and wholly invested in not only the spiritual aspects of our lives, but also the physical practices that mysteriously embody and showcase how He is redeeming us through Jesus and will one day completely restore His creation.
Christianity is not some spiritualized religion that abandons the material aspect of humanity. It is earthy and physical as well as spiritual. ... Jesus appointed baptism in the name of the trinity (Matthew 28:19-20) to portray cleansing from sin and union with him in his death and resurrection. Furthermore, the Supper he introduced was to be the point at which his people were to be nourished by his body and blood to eternal life (John 6:47-58; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17). He appeals not only to our ears, through the words he utters, but also to our eyes, by the sacramental signs. ... The tree of life gives everlasting life. The rainbow denotes the triumph of grace over judgment and appears in certain conditions when it rains, the deluge counterbalanced by the sunshine. The Passover indicates Yahweh passing over and sparing his people from judgment, and guiding them to their inheritance. Washing with water in baptism portrays cleansing from the greater filth of sin. Bread and wine in the Lord's Supper demonstrate Christ feeding and nourishing us to eternal life. ... And a major point in a sacrament is not what we do but what God does. These are not seen mainly as human actions, as rites which we perform. Over and above this, these are signs for God and demonstrate what he does.
"Our World Belongs to God" statements 37 and 38 also beautifully describe the gracious gift of the sacraments:
37. God meets us in the sacraments, communicating grace to us by means of water, bread, and wine. In baptism, whether of the newly born or newly converted, God reminds and assures us of our union with Christ in covenant love, the washing away of our sin, and the gift of the Holy Spirit—expecting our love and trust in return.
38. In the Lord’s Supper, Christ offers His own crucified body and shed blood to His people, assuring them a share in His death and resurrection. By the Holy Spirit, He feeds us with His resurrection life and binds us to each other as we share one loaf and cup. We receive this food gladly, believing, as we eat, that Jesus is our life-giving food and drink and that He will come again to call us to the wedding feast of the Lamb.
And next Saturday, December 2, when we begin the season of Advent and marvel at how God became flesh and walked among us in Jesus, we are going to celebrate what God has done and is doing with us through the baptisms of multiple people in the community of Emmaus City Church.
Why?
Because baptism is an invitation and initiation into God's family. We baptize to obey Jesus in forming and discipling a new family in relation to His family – the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
Baptism is recognition of:
God’s promises for us and our children (Acts 2:38-39);
one of His divinely ordained means of grace (1 Peter 3:18-22);
a public and lifelong promise of submission to the once crucified and now resurrected King Jesus (Acts 16:25-34); and
an anticipation of His return when He comes to make all things new (Matthew 28:18-20).
When we step into our baptismal liturgies, for children of a Christian parent and for adults who are following Jesus for the first time, we get the joy of stepping into awe again, and we wonder at how God is marvelously bringing people of all cultures and ethnicities together and creating a new humanity in Christ Jesus with children, women, and men from every tribe, tongue, and nation.
God has chosen through baptism to create a people who are His Kingdom representatives to the kingdoms of the world. This is why Paul writes about how those who are one in Christ through baptism are now no longer Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free. Baptism sets apart a dynamic community of people of all ages that challenges and critiques the social hierarchies of this world. Baptism makes Jesus' Church a family of Kingdom servants and ambassadors where the age, ethnic, and class distinctions of ancient Rome; or historic India or China; or the modern U.S. no less; no longer matter.
At baptism, we’re not just saying "I do" to Jesus, we’re saying "I do" to everyone else there. Once we’re baptized with a local church, Jesus' statement becomes our own: "Who are my mother and my brothers? Those who do the will of God the Father." As James K.A. Smith says, "baptism smashes open our families of birth and opens us up to the disruptive friendships that are the mark of the Kingdom of God." Children, women, and men from all kinds of backgrounds get to display His Good News together as His baptized family of Kingdom servants and ambassadors who are becoming disciples who make disciples.
In the preaching of His Word, stepping into baptism with Him and His Church, and coming to the meal together, the verbal and visible declaration and demonstration of the Gospel is accomplished by the ministry of the Spirit pointing to Jesus. As Gordon T. Smith says in his book, Evangelical, Sacramental and Pentecostal:
In the preaching of His Word, stepping into baptism with Him and His Church, and coming to the meal together, the verbal and visible declaration and demonstration of the Gospel is accomplished by the ministry of the Spirit pointing to Jesus. As Gordon T. Smith says in his book, Evangelical, Sacramental and Pentecostal:
Our ultimate longing is not to know the Word, but the One who is revealed to us through the Word, the risen Lord. Then also, at baptism and the meal, these sacraments are not an end in themselves, but a means by which we enter into fellowship with the risen and ascended Christ, who is the Baptizer and the Host of the meal. And our experience of the Spirit is not, ultimately, about an encounter with the Spirit alone. Rather the Spirit is the one by whom and through whom we live in dynamic union with Christ Jesus. The church is a community that lives with the same immediacy of the Spirit as that witnessed to in the experience of Jesus and the early Church; the Church is a community of the Word, devoted to the apostolic teaching; and the Church is a community of the Table, the gathering of the baptized, who, when they gather, "break bread" together.
Christ is all,
Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan
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