Baptism: Hope that does not disappoint Romans 5: 1-8

Romans 5:1-8

"Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us."

Why do we practice baptism as a sacrament in the church?

I offered some thoughts on this in the email this week. My best assessment of human family is this: most of us try really hard, much of the time, to share love with one another. Of course, any number of fault lines emerge over the years, which can create deep and lasting scars in family dynamics. To be family is to risk failing at love. Baptism offers a redeeming perspective on family in two ways:

1. To be baptized into the Christian faith is to inherent a "chosen family," guided by the faith, hope, and love Jesus embodies for us. That means we've got siblings in faith that don't share our blood, but DO share our joys and concerns as only chosen family can.

2. When our "chosen family" at church fails in love, which we inevitably do at times, baptism offers us the kind of hope that does not disappoint: to be affirmed as a child of the living God is to be in relationship with the only true source of unconditional love in this world.

And that, my friends, is what we all remember as we celebrate baptism this week!

I was reminded of the significance baptism holds for each of us uniquely, as I stood with Enid Hyde’s daughter Helen in our sanctuary this week. I listened as she recalled the memory of her own baptism. She described the dress she wore, how she tried her best to be well-behaved. And she paused for a bit, then wondered aloud why she was old enough to remember it- before getting baptized. I too recalled the memory of my own baptism. 10 years old, waiting in line with other kids and adults to be dunked in the tank built into the structure of our sanctuary.

I grew up with a believer’s baptism theology, and today I celebrate an “at any age” baptism theology. Why? In short, because it’s always Christ’s story we celebrate in baptism, alongside our own. And Christ’s story is powerful enough to be relevant for babies, children, youth, adults, everyone.

In the immersion baptism world, the expression of submerging under water symbolizes dying with Christ, so that we might be raised with Christ- as expressed when a person re-emerges at the surface of the waters. Now if you’re really into it, you get submerged three times- in the name of the Father (dunk), and the Son (dunk again), and the Holy Spirit (three times the charm). I love this idea of symbolizing God’s grace with water, and I’ve come to understand that symbolic promise is less about the “how,” and more about the “why.” At the core of Jesus’ story is a deep expression of empathy. The dying and rising to be unified with all of us humans. As all sacraments go, the “why” is in a way unique to our individual walk with God. But could it be, that in order for baptism to truly shape us as a faith community, we need it as a reminder of Christ’s compassion.

 Henri J.M. Nouwen, 20th century
"Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless."

And so my current practice of baptism usually involves the sign of the cross three times on the forehead, as you witnessed with baby Otto. I love immersion too- if you’d like to be baptized that way, we’ll head out to the river for yours! See, no one expression of God’s grace is better than another, so long as it connects us with a community willing to walk with Jesus toward becoming a more selfless, compassionate “chosen family” for one another.

For me, that’s absolutely the “why” of baptism: it’s an act of gathering in community to affirm God’s selfless love on behalf of each of us. Today we affirmed that Otto is indeed God’s beloved child, and as Christ’s body, we make particularly commitments. To show Otto, by teaching and modeling, a kind of Christ-like love. We don’t have to be martyrs like Jesus (that’s why Jesus did what he did), but we do make a commitment to one another that affirms this about the Christian life: “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

So we walk a particular way of faith alongside Otto, encouraging him to persevere in difficult times, celebrating alongside him in joyful times, and committing to hope, because God’s hope does not disappoint.

Even as we celebrate Otto today, we also re-affirm our own baptism, because the story of belonging to God never gets old. I need reminders of my own belovedness, like, 4 times a day. It’s the best fuel I can find to keep running the race for God’s kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Justice, peace, unity, solidarity, and compassion. When someone suffers, we suffer. None of that is possible unless I place my life and worth and belonging into the hands of God, rather than a particular ideology. That’s the power of baptismal waters. So when you’re feeling unloved, discouraged, unworthy, maybe even abandoned by your own family, find a bit of water, place it on your forehand, and remind yourself what God longs for us to truly know: “You are a blessing.”