More Monday Morning Pastor

Some weekends give me more pause than others - this weekend is a case in point. First, it was pretty cool to see 16 people baptized over the weekend. I find baptisms really connect with people, more than I ever remember. They connect with me. They are a public affirmation of faith that at the same time reaffirm the faith of those who witness them.

And while I should be nothing but grateful for them (and I really am), the moment presented some questions for me. Some had pretty obvious answers. One of the candidates remarked that though his life was not that bad, it was important to be faithful to baptism. These words could have easily been mine at 18. But I have since come to realize…wait, no, it is that bad!!  We are utterly desperate creatures, far more sinful that we will ever realize, but yes, far more loved than we will ever know.

But it was something else that was working in me. Most of the baptisms involved teenagers. I could relate. I was baptized at this point in my life, and I could see myself in their stories. Hugs, smiles, shouts, applause - even occasional hoots went up as each person was baptized. A pizza party followed. And I am for all of these things. We need more celebration in the church. And what better thing to celebrate than a future generation standing up to say Christ has made a difference, and I want the world to know that. We should shout! Churches have often in the past been too stiff. I don’t remember the party atmosphere when I was baptized. The church took the moment with far more solemnity. I was baptized in the day clapping would have been viewed with suspicion; it would have been someone either unfamiliar with church etiquette or a visitor from a charismatic church. Shouts and hoots would have put the ushers on red alert.

But I am also aware that baptism is a central act, a crucial moment in the care of souls, a very intense communal moment when one is baptized into both Christ and His church, declaring one’s commitment to his/her community of faith, and a profound reverence needs to hence accompany the moment. And I am wondering if we have lost a sense of this. Robert Webber describes baptisms in the early church as passage rites. No one was baptized until he/she went through the rigors of spiritual formation. Candidates for baptism were prayed over in worship, and after a period of discipleship (which included prayers, fasts, all night vigils), they would come back on a designated Saturday night to prepare during the evening for the next day’s baptismal service (ideally Easter or Pentecost). They would fast for a day or two, read Scripture throughout the night, renounce the evil one and commit to following Jesus to the death, and in the morning, be immersed and anointed with oil. There was a profound sense of a death to self that comes with receiving Christ, the water in baptism symbolizing their watery grave. More weeks of discipleship followed.

Is there something of this missing today that needs to be recovered?  Are baptisms less about rites of passage and more about finally getting around to the moment?  Just wondering…

I may still be reacting to a baptism I participated in a couple of years ago, when I asked a woman why she wanted to be baptized, and she said she wanted to be with her friends who attended the church. These words would seem rather thin to an earlier age when candidates declared that baptism represented nothing less than their obedience to Christ, their commitment to radical discipleship, and a public opportunity to declare in holy fear: “I renounce Satan and his works and his pomp and his worship and his angels and his inventions and all things that are under him, and I associate myself to Christ, baptized into the only true God Almighty.”  A fear that transcends the fear of simply getting up in public needs to find its way back into this act, that sobers us all, that then is mixed with profound joy and celebration.

Comments

[Jon Hay]

Thanks for the thoughts, great points. I too love to celebrate baptisms but often feel that they are not treated with the respect that is deserved by the commitment that is being made.

[Roman Gorny]

Baptism by threefold full immersion—that's the standard in the Orthodox Church—followed by anointing with chrism each bodily part with the phrase "The Seal of the Gift of the Holy Spirit" and the congregation crying out after each body part is anointed, "The Seal!" This is very awesome, as is the entire baptismal service, starting at the west door of the church, where the one being baptised is exorcised and turns to the West and spits at the devil! Afterwards, turning east and processing up to the font usually in the front of the church. Problem is, that with adult baptisms we have to use a big awkward tub. Orthodox churches should be built with walk-down-into baptismal pools (and some indeed are), or better yet, the baptismal pool should be in a separate structure outside in the plaza at the West entrance of the church. Bringing back the actual catechumenate as the training before baptism would be good too. As the Orthodox churches start baptising more adults, we will resemble more and more the Baptists, except for the solemnity and powerful prayers and anointings which we have preserved from the early Church.