13th Sunday of the Year, Cycle A
Today I want to talk about baptism
....Cuz, that's what Paul wanted to talk about today
Letter to the Romans
Amongst other things, baptism
Take out missalette, p. 25
1. Paul's words
2. Infant baptism
3. Cool reflection by a saint on his Baptism.
Want to look at first part of the reading
I always have this as the reading at a Baptism the church
Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death?We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death,
so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father,
we too might live in newness of life.
If, then, we have died with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him.
We’re like: “Paul, you’re such a downer!"
Baptism = Babies and new life and resurrection!
And yet Paul wants to talk about death, dying, burial
Feels odd
But Paul is saying what all Christians believed: that baptism was a going down into Jesus' death
And both Paul and the early Christians saw the water as a perfect image for this
We're all used to pouring at a Baptism
But as you know: Early Church submerged
Perfect image:
You go down into the water
And what's it like?
It’s cold, dark, you can't breathe
It's like you're in the tomb
You've died with Jesus
And then you come up...
<gasp>
And there's breath, and light, and warnth
It's like a mini resurrection
You've risen with Jesus
So baptism was this perfect image of dying and rising with the Messiah
And what Paul is saying, here and elsewhere...
Is that once we've died and risen with him, we are **in** him
We are in Jesus
We are in the Messiah, the Christ
And then everything else we say about us as Christians flows from there:
"God is our Father"
How?
Because we've been put in the Messiah
We are sons in THE Son
What he is to the Father, we are now too:
Sons and daughters of the Father
We say "we're brothers and sisters in Christ".
Why?
Because of Baptism
If you're in Jesus, God is you're Father...
And I'm in Jesus, God is my Father...
And she's in Jesus...
If we all have the same father, that makes us??
Brothers and sisters
We are one body of Christ?
Yes because in baptism we all died and rose INTO him
Everything we say flows from dying and rising with the Messiah.
Point 1: Paul
2) Why baptism infants?
Know there's debate: Catholic, orthodox, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodist baptize infants
Baptists, evangelical, fundamentalist: don’t
Reasonable argument:
Early church = mostly adults
Going down into the water: adult image
We all agree: Need to believe; Profess faith in Jesus
A baby getting baptized looks different
Not professing much
Why are we ok with godparents reciting creed; making promises?
Debate going on in the church for centuries since the Reformation, exactly 500 years ago
But why then do we baptize infants?
You know who I really like to steal from on this one?
The Lutherans
Missouri Synod: Their document on Baptism. FAQ
Incredibly clear and concise answer
Probably have to answer the question more often than us.
Catholics can get used to just doing what the church does
"We baptize infants, evangelicals don't. Ok."
But Lutherans have Baptist friends asking "Hey Lutheran folk, why do you..."
Had to be ready
"be prepared to give the reasons for the hope that lies within you"
Lines right up with Catholic thought:
Baptism, we believe, [is] the miraculous means of grace [...] through which God creates the gift of faith in a person's heart. Although we do not claim to understand how this happens or how it is possible, we believe—because of what the Bible says about Baptism—that when an infant is baptized God creates faith in the heart of that infant. This faith cannot yet, of course, be expressed or articulated, yet it is real and present all the same. The faith of the infant, like the faith of adults, also needs to be fed and nurtured by God's word.
All of a sudden makes sense
Debates about: having enough free will to choose God; or do we really have faith as infant...
No, you're reading it all wrong
Faith is a gift
At baptism God creates faith in the heart of the baptized... whether a child or an adult
And then grows, nourished...
...Taught and nourished...
Whether a child or adult.
Bp. Bruskewitz, for 20 years at Confirmation: “ The faith is more caught than taught"
We 100% agree
God creates the Faith—no matter what age we are...
and then it grows— no matter what age we are.
Point 2: infant Baptism
3) St. Louis IX
KIng Louis of France
St. Louis named after him
St. Louis IX
...has Single best reflection on just how big baptism is
We know it's important, but because we were baptized as children we kinda forget
"I've seen pictures, I was cute, my godparents were a lot younger."
We know it's important but we don't realize how humongous it was
Louis didn't have this problem
Would become king of France in the 1200s
Would have so much power as the king of the largest Catholic nation
Would have so much power as the king of the largest Catholic nation
So much dignity,
So much royal regal power
But he had perspective
Didn't grow up in Paris
Poissy
Years after he been crowned king, as an adult, he was asked why he loved the little chapel in the castle where he a grown-up, compared to Notre Dame in Paris, or the beautiful Cathedral at Rheims where all the kings of France had been crowned for 500+ years.
He answered:
In the castle chapel I received the sacrament of baptism, thereby becoming a child of God. In the Cathedral of Rheims, I received the royal crown, whereby I became King of France. I deem divine sonship a greater dignity than earthly kingship. The dignity of kingship I will lose at the time of my death, whereas, as a child of God, I will obtain eternal happiness.
That's an awesome insight.
That's why he's a saint
That's why he's a saint
He understood that, while he might not remember his baptism, and they didn't have photos in the 13th century…
He knew that on that day, in that moment, he became a child of God and he inherited eternal life
He knew that was a far greater things than anything else that had happened to him:
The roses thrown at his feet
The gold placed on his head
The roses thrown at his feet
The gold placed on his head
The bows and reverence from all of France
Was nothing compared to what he received...
As a tiny little infant, in that cruddy little chapel, in that drafty old castle, in Poissy.
He received everything he could ever want
We need to take that to heart
We need to take that to heart
We need to think that for ourselves:
"I might not know everything about my baptism,
but that was the moment
That was the KEY moment for my entire life and my eternity:
The moment I was baptized."
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