Baptism is one of the most powerful and mysterious practices of our church. This sacrament involves being washed by the water and anointed by the Holy Spirit. Personally I know that it must be of God if just reading theology books about it can make me feel the power of the spirit working through me.
I love seeing others be baptized and joining in the response to care for and nurture another of God’s beloved. It is a powerful time for me to baptize another and be blessed with being a part of God’s work in their lives. Baptism is such a beautiful and good thing for our congregation to experience together.
There are so many different facets of this sacrament. All of the gifts that come with baptism allow is to see god in a new light as well. One of the ways that I believe is a powerful way for the Holy Spirit to work though our congregation is to share our story with one another. So, I would love to hear what makes baptism special for you?
One Response
Well I’ll be the first to leave my story…it involves Courtney…who else!
We first encountered her when we took her into our home as a foster child in late November 1990 when she was just 10 months old. Before we had her a week, we knew that we wanted to adopt her if that option every became available. And, after much prayer and a lot of persistance, her birth mother finally made the difficult choice to give her up and we began the formal adoption process in June 1991, when she was 18 months old. Because she wasn’t “officially ours” we we unable to baptize her until the adoption became final. We had to wait for all the legal loopholes to be broached and the papers to be filed…an endless wait that dragged on until March 1992, when we finally got word that all was official and a court date before the judge was set. We also decided that the following Sunday, we would have her baptized.
Now by this time, Courtney had reached the “terrific” twos (I chose not to fall prey to the “terrible” twos!) She was curious about everything and anything. And we had determined that preparing her in advance of situations helped remove some of her unease. So the Sunday prior to her adoption (also the Sunday prior to her court date) we waited until the 11 service had ended and our pastor “walked” Courtney through what would happen the following Sunday, carefully showing her the baptismal font, the basin of water inside and demonstrating without the official water how he’d drip it on her head and how then she would be an official child of God. She was excited (I think mostly because she was going to get to wear a new “twirly” white hand-smocked dress that our church organist had lovingly fashioned for her…she was a fashionista even then!)
Well the adoption happened without a hitch and then the big Sunday arrived. It was time for us to come to the Altar with “herself in all her finery.” Pastor Don met us there and before he could draw his first breath, open his Book of Ritual and get started, before he could even take the top off the baptismal font, Miss Courtney, in her loudest voice, shouted repeatedly and in a very distressed voice, “WHERE’S THE WATER? WHERE’S THE WATER?”
Without missing a beat our minister said, “Now that’s what I like to hear…someone who’s really, really anxious to be a child of God!”
I wonder often how many of us have that spirit left in us…to be an excited, anticipatory child of God…open to all that lies ahead when we make a commitment that will inalterably change our lives forever…for eternity.
What a blessing we have been given in the sacrament of baptism.