First Presbyterian Church of Alabaster (Cumberland)
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
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Open Door Articles January "Baptism " january 9 2006
Open Door Articles January "Baptism " january 9 2006 | "Baptism " january 9 2006 |
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| Tuesday, 24 January 2006 | |
This coming Sunday is the Baptism of our Lord in the church year. We
will observe a Renewal of Baptism as part of our worship service on
Sunday. The service will include a liturgy of renewal, a coming forward
to be marked with cross, and the baptismal font will be filled with
water so that as the worshipers pass by they can dip their hand into
the water and remember their baptism.  In preparation for the service I was reading some literature on baptism and came across these words I share with you. Author Friedrich Rest writes, “ In baptism the Christian is born. The old self is buried and the new self emerges. Whether in the case of infants or adults, baptism signifies this more as a promise than as an actually fulfilled fact. The direction is indicated rather than the arrival. ” I find these words to be helpful in our understanding of what God accomplishes at our baptism. We are by no means a finished product when the water pours over our heads, but we are claimed and established as God’s own and set on a path that will lead to the discovery of the person, and people, whom God created us to be. We are new creatures when we emerge from God’s baptismal waters. God has washed from us the rule of sin’s dominion. We are free forever to worship and serve and follow after God. In baptism God desire to pursue us and make us God’s own, to name us and call us Beloved is made known. In his book Remember Who You Are, William Willimon writes, “ Baptism insures that our whole life, from birth to death, start to finish, will be under the promise and sign of the cross. Baptism is a sign and means of God’s ceaseless striving for us, the ceaseless urging of God’s grace. God reaches for us first when we are baptized as babies, and God continues to reach for us throughout life. ” This Sunday we will celebrate and remember God’s promise to us. We will hold that promise, clutch it close to us and embrace God’s faithfulness to us as we are marked with the cross and made wet with the waters. In that, I suspect we will be reminded of who we really are. More important, however, than being reminded of who we are is the knowledge of whose we are. We belong to God. Nothing more important could ever be said about us. And Sunday, more than anything else, that knowledge is what we will celebrate. Grace and peace, Pastor Mark |
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 24 January 2006 ) |