BAPTISM

Today is the first Sunday of Ordinary Time. We inaugurate Ordinary Time by celebrating the Baptism of Our Lord. Before beginning his public ministry, Jesus was baptized. Though he never sinned, Jesus wanted to identify himself with the sinners, because he came to die on behalf of the sinners. So, he wanted to identify with them, though he was not one of them.

In baptism, God adopts us in his son and shares with us everything that He owns. Imagine you adopt a baby, you would love and treat him the same way you would do with your blood/biological baby. You wouldn’t make any differentiation with both. God does the same way. He loves all of us in the same way he does his own son. It is hard to believe, but it is. What does Jn.3:16..say?

Baptism is the initiation sacrament without which you cannot receive any other sacrament or become heir to God’s heavenly treasures. Imagine you adopted a baby, brought up the baby but did not do the legal procedures required for adoption. What would happen if you die; can the baby get your inheritance? No. The baby has to prove that he was legally adopted and he is your son. The same is with the baptism. It is the adoption certificate. If you don’t have that adoption certificate you are not going to get what your so called dad owns. You cannot enter heaven. So, what will happen for all those not baptized..are they all going to hell? Well, God has given us this ordinary means of salvation. But he can save anybody without baptism. Because he is above the law He gave to us. But why would you want to go against the law and risk your salvation? God has told us that we need to believe and get baptized. Now, we are not sure about those who don’t get baptized. God may or may not save them. Now, if you had a chance to believe and get baptized, and you didn’t, why should save you through an extraordinary means? I don’t think there is a chance for them. If you don’t believe in God’s word why should He save you? If you never had a chance to know Jesus and to believe, it is not your fault. In such case, I believe God will come to your rescue. But not in the case, when you were told and when you knew and still you did not believe and get baptized.

Now, does just the baptism suffice without faith? It would be trying to cheat somebody by faking, and trying to get someone’s assets by tricks. So, faith, a little or more, is important for baptism. Now you would ask does a baby has faith. Well, the parents or god parents vouch for the baby. If a person is not in a state when he/she cannot profess faith, one is baptized in the faith of others, the faith of the Church.

The effect of Baptism is spiritual regeneration. Spiritual regeneration demands a renewed way of thinking and living.

Sarah Jo Sarchet is a Presbyterian pastor in Chicago. A 10 year-old boy in her congregation named Cameron, walked into her office and said he needed to talk to her. Fresh from soccer practice, and wearing his Cincinnati Reds baseball cap, he had a request for her. "I'd like to be baptized," he said. "We were learning about Jesus' baptism in Sunday School. The teacher asked the class who was baptized, and all the other kids raised their hands. I want to be baptized too."

Using her best pastoral care tone of voice, she said, "Cameron, do you really want to be baptized because everyone else is?" His freckles winked up at her and he replied, "No. I want to be baptized because it means I belong to God."

She was touched by his understanding. "Well, then," she said, "How about this Sunday?" His smile turned to concern and he asked, "Do I have to be baptized in front of all those people in the church? Can't I just have a friend baptize me in the river?" She asked where he came up with that idea. "Well, Jesus was baptized by his cousin John in a river, wasn't he?"

Caught off guard, she conceded, "You have a point. But, if a friend baptized you in the river, how would the church recognize it?" Realizing this was a teachable moment, she climbed up on her foot stool to reach for her Presbyterian Book of Order that was located on the highest shelf. But before she placed her hand on the book, he responded.

"I guess by my new way of living" he said.

She nearly fell off the foot stool and left the Book of Order on the shelf. Cameron's understanding was neither childish nor simple. It was profound. Baptism calls us to a new way of living.

Baptism is dying with Christ and rising with Christ.  It is a dying to oneself and living in and for Christ.

There is a story about St.Patrick’s baptism. He would wade out waist-deep into the water and call out for new Christians to come to him, one by one, to receive the sacrament.

Once he baptized a mountain chieftain. Saint Patrick was holding a staff in his hands as the new converts made their way into the water. Unfortunately, as he was lowering the chief down under the water three times, he also pressed his staff down into the river bottom.

Afterwards the people on the riverbank noticed their chief limp back to shore. Someone explained to Patrick that, as he pressed the wooden staff into the riverbed, he must have also bruised the foot of the chief. Patrick went to the chief at once and asked, "Why did you not cry out when I stuck you in the foot?"

Surprised the chief answered, "I remembered you telling us about the nails in the cross, and I thought my pain was part of my baptism."

How many of us would have been baptized if we knew pain was a part of the process. In the Bible repentance is not just remorse for the past, feeling sorry that you did something. In the Bible repentance is making a decision about the future, how you are going to live. It's the realization that God is giving you a new opportunity for life, and seizing that opportunity. Do I see it as an opportunity? Do I see Baptism as elevating me to the status of the child of God?