Pastor's Sermon

Blessed by Grace

Baptism Sunday, May 4, 2008

A little boy named Clayton was having his 5 birthday and his parents asked him what kind of party he would like to have. He said he wanted everybody to be kings and queens. Everyone at the party had a wonderful time, they ate ice cream and cake, they had a procession up to the top of the block and back again, and then when it was all over, everyone knew it had been a royal and joyous day. That evening, as Clayton’s mom tucked him into bed, she asked him what he wished for when he blew out the candles on the birthday cake. I wished, he said, that everyone in the whole wide world could be a king and a queen. Not just on my birthday, but everyday.

Well, it seems to me that baptism shows us something very much like what happened one day at a place called Calvary. We who were nobodies became somebodies. Those who were nobody’s people became God’s people. The wretched of the earth became royalty. Today, I want to share with you my strong conviction that we do not emphasize nearly enough the act of baptism within the church. And so, I thought it ought to be, since we just baptized three little children this morning, that we talk about the meaning of baptism.

Baptism is at the heart of the Christian understanding of life and it needs to be constantly remembered. I think that with the exception of the Quakers and the Salvation Army, all churches agree that baptism marks the entry into an identity as a child of Christ. In baptism, then, we are crowned as the people of God.

Now, there are disagreements among Christians about the way we baptize, and when we baptize, but all of us agree that “Baptism is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace”. The church honors the act of physical washing as a sign of moral and spiritual cleansing. Although the scriptures give us few instructions, all agree that the sacrament of baptism is to be taken seriously. Baptism is a symbol of our passing from death to life through Jesus Christ. It is the sacrament of the church that marks the reclaiming of our identity. The fact that we have been named by God as his people within the church, that we nobodies have become somebodies, that we, who are previously no people have become God’s people.

There’s also a lot of confusion and misunderstanding surrounding the act of baptizing children, so we need to keep reminding ourselves of the primary meaning. There is always the question, “what good can a child receive from a rite whose meaning he or she is too young to understand?” Well, if you put it that way, the answer is none. None. Baptism is not like getting a vaccination; one jab and you’re safe for life. It’s not a new gift of the Christ to the child, but it is the reaffirmation of Christ’s everlasting gift to the church, of which the child is now becoming a member. Baptism is a proclamation to the church and through the church to the world, that all men, women and children move and have their being in God. This is not a privilege people acquire through baptism. The church baptizes because persons already have that privilege. Children are already the recipients of God’s grace, and the church baptizes them because they are. Through baptism, a Christian first and finally learns who he or she is. It’s the right of identity. Baptism asserts, rather than argues. It proclaims rather than explains. It commands rather than requests.

When you ask in desperation, who in God’s name am I? Baptism will have you feel the water dripping from you head and say to you, you are, in God’s name, royalty. You are God’s own, claimed and ordained for God’s serious and joyous service. Know also this – infant and child baptism is a great example of preceding grace. Don’t be misled by those who tell you that the baptism of an infant or child is only for the parents, it isn’t! It’s for the child, it’s for the parents, and it’s for you and me. Baptism is a great example of God given grace. If parents and the church fulfill their responsibility in relation to the child, baptism becomes a means of grace for the child when the child comes to that point where each can claim the faith into which he or she has been nurtured. So, what happens in infant baptism is not primarily an act of the parents, or of the child, but of the church and even more so of Christ in the church. It’s the stamp of God upon the forehead of the child, in the laying on of hands with water, and that declaration on the part of the church, the parents, and the family that the child is offered publicly to God, having been born to be born-again. The child is pronounced by rights a citizen of the kingdom of God. There is great faith in the promise made by parents, and godparents, and grandparents, and the assembled congregation that they will do whatever they can within their power to see that the child does not forfeit his birthright.

The sacrament of baptism is something that happens to the child and is done by the church of behalf of Christ. To enter into one’s inheritance at baptism, to be named by the church on behalf of God as God’s child, is not to receive only a small act of grace from the hand of the minister, but it is about the community of the church, affirming that the child has a share in our common destiny of the church who welcomes the child the kingdom of God. So in laying on of hands with water, the minister acts on behalf of the church for the love Jesus Christ. The church is not saying that anyone is not a child of God until he or she is baptized; we are saying that it is difficult for a person to know that he or she is a child of God until he or she is baptized. At baptism, the church says, publicly, this person is royalty, baptize her. This person is God’s child. This child enters into the Christian life by rebirth, by accepting God’s grace in her life.

As we baptized these children into the body of Christ this morning, each one of us should recall when we made our decision of faith, our commitment to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. That means, my friends, that you are never a spectator to baptism. Never. You assist in baptism, you participate in baptism. We all take up our baptism again, remembering who we are, named as God’s people.

When times get hard, whenever we feel depressed and undergoing strong attack from the evil of the world, we should do like Martin Luther did. When he sensed his courage and spiritual strength was failing, he would lay his hands on his head and say to himself, I am baptized. And so do we. Our identity through baptism became a means of grace. I close now with this. The sign of the cross upon a person’s forehead is like a brand to show ownership. By baptism, Christians are marked forever to show who chose them and who loves them, as we all are loved. These precious children today have claimed their birthright in the family of Webster Congregational Christian United Church of Christ.

Let us pray: Dear God, we ask you blessing upon us all as we remember our baptism and we claim our place in your kingdom. As these little ones continue on their Christian walk, we ask that you will guide them and keep them safely in your care. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Risen Savior we pray. Amen.