Posted on: May 20th, 2011 Questioning our Worship (IX): “Baptism: why water, why babies?”
This is part 9 of a 10-part series.
When you hear the word “salvation,” what do you think of?
Many modern people, both in the church and out, imagine (in a way quite foreign to the thought world of the Bible) “salvation” to be some sort of mystical “zapping” of the soul such that, after the magic “zapping,” one now has an unbreakable and unquestionable connection to God.
On the contrary, however, when a first century Jewish person imagined “salvation,” he or she would have thought of images very earthy and mundane: lots of flowing wine, the fatted calf roasting on the altar, lots of children and grandchildren running around, good land to live on and to work, justice and mercy and material blessing for the poor and the outcast. One thinks of shalom, embodied life in the Kingdom of God.
It should therefore come as no surprise that, when it comes to “salvation” in the church of Jesus Christ (who, after all, was a first century Jew), such blessing comes to us through ordinary means: the vibrating vocal cords of a preacher, printed words on a page, bread and wine.
Baptism is a case in point. When God chose to create a rite to ingraft us into the community of God’s people, he chose water as a primary means to do so. Why?
There are too many reasons to list, but a perusal of the “Thanksgiving over the Water” in our baptismal rite (BCP 306) is a good place to start.
We thank you, Almighty God, for the gift of water.
Over it the Holy Spirit moved in the beginning of creation.
Through it you led the children of Israel out of their bondage
in Egypt into the land of promise. In it your Son Jesus
received the baptism of John and was anointed by the Holy
Spirit as the Messiah, the Christ, to lead us, through his death
and resurrection, from the bondage of sin into everlasting life.
Water is central to the creation story, the exodus story, the Jesus story … therefore it is central to our salvation story.
But now for a more taxing question: why do we baptize infants, in addition to adults?
In my Christian Formation class at Christ Church, we are discussing four arguments for infant baptism:
1. The argument from redemptive history: we perform this rite because an analogous rite was performed in the old covenant: circumcision.
2. The argument from ordinary means: if salvation is not a zapping in the heart, but rather comes to us through ordinary means, then this practice makes sense.
3. The argument from corporate solidarity: scripture teaches that salvation is primarily a “community thing,” and only secondarily and “individual thing,” so infant baptism should be seen in that framework, as a way of bringing a little one into the community of God’s people.
4. The argument from prevenient grace: if God chooses us before we choose him (as 1 John 4:19 seems to imply), then it makes sense that we have a ritual which gives expression to that fact, as infant baptism surely does.
For more, listen to Fr. Matt’s Christian Formation podcasts, accessible at www.christchurchtyler.org.
2 Responses to “Questioning our Worship (IX): “Baptism: why water, why babies?””
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Toby Says:
May 20th, 2011 at 9:05 pmNo,No,No,..we baptize our children with a promise. That WE will raise them in the Church’s teachings. WE will prepare them for Life with God. The Baptizing
does not save the infant. It creates a Bond in the Adult with God..to do our best to help the Child along the way. -
matt Says:
September 18th, 2011 at 10:45 pmToby
I agree that baptism is what you say it is.
I just think that it is also, in addition to all of that, much more!
Matt+