02-25-24

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
February 25, 2024
Today in our Traditional Worship Service, we have a baptism (it’s right at the beginning, so don’t miss it). I am a pastor who probably gets a little too goofy around the baptismal experience, yet there is something so beautiful and compelling about the ritual. I have been asked numerous times about the meaning of the ritual, and I have started to respond by saying, “Yes!” Scripture is filled with images about what people experienced in the waters of baptism, along with some of Paul’s theological explanations of the ritual. Those are all good and helpful, yet at the same time, I like to hear what others have to say, not just the time immediately around the baptism. I have heard profound words uttered months or even years after someone took the plunge. Sometimes a life experience a decade later becomes the lens through which baptism is understood differently or more deeply. Suddenly, the experience of being engulfed in the waters speaks to a person’s soul in a new way. If you plan to attend the Traditional Worship Service today and witness the baptism, know that even watching has the potential to evoke an idea or insight never previously imagined. 

Give me a spirit that is made more available to the movement of your Spirit, O Lord, and may the ritual of baptism become a window through which I am better able to glimpse you and your grace. Amen.