TO YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN APRIL 9, 1972
“Acts 2:29-39 John M. Buchanan
BAPTISM

Thirty four years ago a young couple brought their infant son Into a
Presbyterian Church: they made some promises: the congregation In attendance
that day made some promises: the minister sprinkled some water from the font
on the Infant's head. And as |! thought about it last week | concluded that
among the three or four really important things that ever happened to me is
my baptism.

Martin Luther, when assailed by self-doubt and despair in the midst of the
Protestant Reformation, used to say to himself, or write on his ledger, "Baptizatus
sum." - “{ was baptized". When | first read that | thought if was a very nice
thing to say. But only recently have | come to understand what Luther meant.
Onty as | have lived long enough to grow out of that adolescent delusion of
independence and self-sufficiency: only as | have learned that we are all! who
we are as a result of a whole composit of relationships: that John Donne was
indeed correct when he suggested that not a one of us Is an island: that for
better or worse we are who we are because of relationships with significant
others; mainly parents, church, teachers and friends. | know today, in a way
| did not just a few years ago,that | am who | am in large measure because of
what my parents were in relationship with me, and that one of the more significant
things that young couple did was to carry me into the Broad Avenue Presbyterian
Church for the Sacrament of Baptism.

All of us who are members of the church of Jesus Christ have that in common.
We may be dittérent in every other way possible: chronologically, politically,
racially, socially, economical ly. But all of us - at one time or another -
either in our parents arms or under our own power - were present when the words
were said: "| Baptize thee in the name of the father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit. Amen." |

Gaptisn is the one common denominator in Christendom. I+ is the one sure

foundation of authentic ecumenicity. Even in those periods when Roman Catholic -

responded and wore baptized.

Paul refers to baptism.in his letters and himself baptized whole families.
In the New Testament there is a clear theological link between the death and
resurrection. Jesus Christ and the conversion experience of a new Christian.

In Baptism the old man dies - in total immersion symbolized very vividly in the
descent into the water - and rises again, a new man, into new life,cleansed,
forgiven, with the power of the risen Christ upon him. Baptism was the mark and
seal of a Christian and the rite of admission to the church. It still Js.

And yet, there are great difference between the early situation and our own.
Peter, Paul and the other first Christian missionaries proclaimed a new Gospel
in a pagan world. No one had. grown up under The influence of Christianity: no
one was born and reared in the Christian home: there were none. Every decision
to become a Christian was dramatic and traumatic. On the other hand, we live In
a nominally Christian culture where everyone regards himself as a Christian even
if he is not, and where the evangelists' first task is to make a man feel like
a pagan even though he may not be one. We Jive, that is to say, at the business
end of 2,000 years of Christian history and influence: many of us have come from
homes consciously Christian: and for us there is a difference in the meaning
of Baptism from the man.who for the first time in his life heard fhe Gospel of
Jesus Christ.

Emil: Brunner, discussing the sacrament, once wrote, ‘Few of the readers of
this bookae not baptized, but there are not very many who know what it means
to be baptized.’ That is true, and part of the reason - at Icast - is that
generation after generation of well meaning Christians have refused to acknowjedge
that our situation is different from the situation that prevails in the New
Testament: that we are here - in the twentieth century and not in First Century
Corinth: that Baptism if it is to make any sense whatever - must be understood
in light of the existing church and the existence of homes that are consciously
Christian.

The debate usually focuses on the issue of whether baptism should be

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Now, the second part of that in Presbyterianism is confirmation, when a
child - now much older, confirms the vows and commitments made on his behalf
in infancy. That is to say the work of baptism is completed year later when the
child himself stands before the congregation and says in effect: “I now affirm
for myself my faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord."

Tho meaning of Baptism, | believe, is best understood in terms of the three
promises that are made or affirmed on the ectaasion of the sacrament. First,
the promise of God which we hear and celebrate: the promise which Peter said
is to you and to your children: namely, that God loves, forgives and accepts
you: that in Jesus Christ he has acted to give you new life: that God's grace
is available to you in the common life even thous you have done nothing to
deserve it. We affirm all of that ip a profound and beautiful way in the sacra-
ment of Baptism. For the infant knows nothing but his immediate physical need:
we have not yet had the opportunity to eubogorize his moral character as good or
bad: he is not yet conscious of God - of anything, in fact, but his need for
food and warmth and love. And we are saying that God's promise includes him.
God loves him as his own: he is safe and secure. That is first, and in that |
find most of what is good and joyful and wor celebrating about the Gospel of

Jesus Christ.

The second promise is made by the parents. “Do you intend your child to
be his disciple: to obey his word and show his love?" | have always felt that
this promise means, minimally, that the child will be in church: that he will
be here through the years in‘church school and worship: that he will learn quite

early that this building and the people here are an important part of his life.
But beyond that the promises we make at Baptism affirm our importance as parents
in the total developement of our children. The psychologists have taught us

the tremendous importance of the formative years. Erik Erikson suggests that a
healthy individual needs to learn “basic trust" and the ones who teach it; or
fail to teach it, are the parents, usually before the child is three or four.

We know that a child learns to love and accept himself because he senses his

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parents who bring their children to baptism are, in a real sense, entrusting
a share of their child's welfare to the love of a particular congregation. We
ought to bear that responsibility seriously. We ought to learn to look at each
other's children in this new light. Our promise Oughtto have meaning whenever
we are asked to teach a class: or whenever we happen upon one of our children
racing through the sanctuary dropping cookie crumbs, or whenever we sense That
oneof our young persons is In special need. For a new rebationship has been
established and affirmed and sealed between them and us today - a relationship
that can mean a great deal, or very little, depending upon how seriously we
mean the promise we made.

Every Baptism is a reminder of our own. It is a reminder that we are who
we are - not in solitary isolation - but in relationship with others. We have
come to learn that there is a life-giving power in relationships. Elisabeth
Kubler Ross in a recent seminar on “Death and the Dying Patient" told of a very
sophisticated European Hospital that specialized in care for the terminally ill.
She had been retained as a consultant, and she discovered that the infants and
the very old were isolated in this institution: that nobody wanted to be around
them much: nobody knew what to do when they were around them. that the staff
was unhappy and that the feel of the institution in those departments was
very grim. She made a very simple but profound suggestion: “Get the babies and
the Grannies together" - In the same room if possible: let the grannies feed
and love the babies when they could. Let the babies feed the grannies with their
special love.’ And a miracle happened: a miracle that always happens when people
are enabled to love each other.

The Grandmas had meaning added to their final days and were transformed:
the babies responded and were transformed. Human contact: relationship: changed
everything and even though babies and grannies were still terminally ill, life
began to make a little more sense, and even to be worth living.

The Sacrament of Baptism affirms that same truth. None of us can be a

Christian alone. None of us is an only child of God, apart from our brothers