St Peter's Episcopal Church

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Baptism

Baptism see is not solely an event but is an abiding context in which we live out our lives in Christ. As we grow and journey in our life as a Christian we grow into our baptismal identity. Our baptismal experience leads us through darkness and into light. When we experience grief and loss, our belief in the communion of saints glues our life together as we heal. When we have offended or injured someone the baptismal call to practice repentance and to forgive brings us comfort and assists us in repairing relationships. When we witness indifference and injustice in the world it is our baptismal response of love and kindness that makes an impact on others. Our baptismal identity shapes and forms our spiritual practices in our everyday lives.
The sacrament of Baptism has many dimensions: Turning away from sin, forgiveness of sins, confessing our faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. The Trinitarian understanding of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as well as living in a community of faith are all parts of the baptismal context.
Baptism is the beginning of our Christian life but how much do we know of the Biblical foundation of baptism? Imagine yourself as a member of a large crowd gathered on the banks of the Jordan River. Just to the front of you is a strange man wearing only the skin of a camel, shouting out and calling you and the crowd to repent your sins. The sign of repentance is baptism; you see people being washed in the flowing waters of the river as they confess their transgressions. John suddenly proclaims that another baptizer is coming who would baptize in a different way: “I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (MK 1:8).
Nothing in the Old Testament corresponds to John’s baptismal rite. You however, do remember there was a purification ceremony used in which the Gentiles converted and entered the Jewish community. Was John indicating that Israel ethical life had slid so much that the people of Israel where no different than their Gentile neighbors? Then suddenly you also remember that the ancient Jewish baptism was symbolized by two colored strands of yarn. One strand represents ritual purity and the other the hope you hold out for God to establish his rule of justice and peace over the world. You realize that your hope is founded in the belief that God had this hope by leading his people out of Egypt through the Jordan River to the land of Canaan. Your present hope is that the days of poverty and alienation will soon end for everyone. This hope was grounded in the belief that a new Exodus, a new Passover, a new journey beyond the wilderness, through the deep waters of a new Jordan will begin again and end in the Promised Land. The vibrations of the thought, home at last, thunders and rolls through your heart. The thought God will DELIVER ME AND GATHER HIS PEOPLE from bondage fills your heart. You wait in expectation for the Messiah to appear to bring you and his people to the Promised Land. God’s kingdom is at hand!
Now please return to the present. Take a moment and be silent. Clear your mind. Back now? Good. How did the development of the Christian rite of baptism occur? The cross of Christ replaces the story of the Exodus. Baptism became a kind of death. In Luke's Gospel, Jesus himself spoke of his death in terms of baptism. In the early church, baptism was understood as a sharing of this baptism-death: baptism was nothing less than a dying with Jesus. Through that death, members of the church were brought to a new life, empowered by the Spirit which God had promised.
Second, the cleansing from ritual impurity became washing for the forgiveness of sins. To enter the new life in Christ requires not ceremonial purity but ethical righteousness. We, through the waters of baptism, die to the old way of life and enter a new life.
In the original sense the Christian Baptism still participates in God’s promise of deliverance and hope. We have preserved the form of the ancient rite as well—washing with water—but we have bestowed a new meaning. We are participating in the Mystery of Christ, the death and resurrection of Christ to include the forgiveness of sins and membership in the people of God.
In conclusion, our baptism signifies our seeking and obtaining a new birth; a new birth in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This new birth makes us again what God intended us to be in the beginning, a living real image and child of God. Baptism reminds us that we are never alone. We always have a family, the body of Christ, the church. All are Welcome!

Father Craig+

Rectory