Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

By President Philip Amerson

From the Introduction of Baptismal Covenant IV.

"Brothers and Sisters in Christ: Through the Sacrament of Baptism we are initiated into Christ's holy Church. We are incorporated into God's mighty acts of salvation and given new birth through water and the Spirit. All this is God's gift., offered to us without price."

Jesus' Baptism by John as displayed in the Chapel of the Unnamed Faithful at Garrett-Evangelical.  Photo by Al Caldwell.

Not many years ago a young father asked if I would baptize his pre-teen children -- a boy and girl. After talking with the children and learning of their faith I was pleased to do this. The father, a chemist, was a wonderful, intelligent man who had lost his wife to cancer a few months earlier. As we spoke of his wife and children, he shared an intriguing comment, "I was baptized as a child and it really never meant a great deal to me. As an adult, faith meant little. I had all of the answers without turning to God. Then my wife died and I discovered more questions than could ever be answered." Then, his intriguing comment: "I want these children to be baptized because I have so many questions, not because I have all the answers!"

In some traditions, baptism can only come after one has studied the creeds and given the "approved" answers. Is it appropriate to baptize one with questions? The creeds of the church are helpful, even vital for growth in faith; however, they are not sufficient. Baptism is not a mark of certainty but of trust. In Christ, we bring our questions, our doubts, and we discover, amazingly, an acceptance.

Luke gives the minimalist telling of the baptism of Jesus. Strange that the historian would not give the "who" and "where" of the story. Luke mentions the baptism in a dependent clause in which Jesus is a part of the crowd being baptized. The Greek word used is "Baptizo", (bap-tid'-zo), meaning to make whelmed (i.e. fully wet). Upon Baptism a voice from heaven is heard, "You are my son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased." Those who are baptized in Christ join the community of the beloved. It is not so much that we "move closer to God" as it is to discover that God has moved and continues to move closer to humanity.

The great theologian Rabbi Abraham Heschel would often tease his students with a riddle: When had God broken the commandment against creating an image of God? The answer was when God had created human beings in his own image. "He believed that everyone should be a reminder of God... that is what he was" (NEW YORK TIMES, 1/10/98, A8).

Return