#37 Drowning

Alena Joy Hofman was baptized yesterday. Baptizing Lanie was probably my favorite moment of my pastoral ministry so far. I love the imagery of baptism, especially infant baptism. God acts to claim us as His own, even though we are totally helpless. As our liturgy says, "For you, child, Jesus came into the world. For you He died and conquered death. All this He did for you, little one, though you know nothing of it yet." In baptism we celebrate that God acts first to deliver us and then calls us to follow Him, to truly live into our identity as His children.

Baptism also reminds of our union with Christ. In Romans 6, Paul writes, "Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." Baptism is a sign and seal of our dying and rising with Christ. It's as if our old selves are drowned in the waters of baptism, as Jesus raises our new selves to life. As the hymn "Sing! A New Creation" puts it:

Sing! A new creation calls us;
God's Son, firstborn from the dead,
makes the drowning which befalls us
into cleansing birth instead.

In order to make this imagery and symbolism of dying and rising more visible (since God gives us the sacraments to make His good news clearer to us), Tess and I chose to have Lanie baptized by immersion. It was a beautiful, meaningful moment. See for yourselves: 

God holds out His promises in His grace. We have responded with a promise to raise Lanie as a child of God. Now we pray that God's Spirit will stir in her and lead her to claim His promises and receive His grace in faith.

Grace and peace,
BMH