Baptism
12/01/25 02:23
In liturgical churches today is the celebration of the Baptism of Jesus. Jesus’ baptism is celebrated on the first Sunday after Epiphany as part of the tradition of telling the story of his life from birth to death in the weeks between Christmas and Easter. The readings for the Sunday fit nicely into the three-year pattern of the Revised Common Lectionary because Matthew, Mark, and Luke all have brief reports of the baptism. Although the Gospel of John has a reference to John baptizing Jesus and John declares, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him,” it does not have a direct report of the actual baptism.
The reports are brief - just three verses in Mark and only five in Matthew and Luke. the three synoptic Gospels all report the descent of the Holy Spirit and a voice from heaven declaring “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” Matthew reports that John initially hesitated, saying that he needed to be baptized by Jesus and not the other way around, but that interchange is not reported by Mark or Luke.
Throughout history, there have been some rather intense arguments about the meaning and practice of baptism. It is an important sacrament in most Christian congregations and has been so since very early in the history of the church. The Acts of the Apostles reports baptism of entire families including people of all ages. Before long baptism had become a symbol in the Roman church with traditions for blessing small amounts of water and baptizing by pouring or sprinkling water. During the Protestant Reformation, parts of the church split away over the issue of the appropriate age for baptism. Some argued that infants should not be baptized, but rather only those who were able to profess their faith and request their own baptism. The practice, called believers’ baptism, also involved, in some cases, the repeat of the sacrament for those who had been baptized as infants. This repetition, labeled “anabaptism,” was criticized by some church leaders who said that since baptism was of the Holy Spirit and not of human action, no human can declare one baptism invalid and there is never a need to repeat. Other arguments occurred over who was properly qualified to conduct a baptism, with some claiming that the worthiness of the officiant was a factor in the validity of the baptism.
We studied all of this history and the various arguments as students in seminary prior to our ordination. Because I was baptized in a Congregational Church as an infant and the Congregational Church was united with the Christian Church my religious heritage contains both infant and believers’ baptism traditions. Before I was ordained, I committed myself to a couple of positions in regards to baptism which I have maintained to this day. First, I committed to offering and recognizing all forms of baptism: infant, believer, sprinkling, pouring, immersion. Depending on the circumstances, I have participated in baptisms of all of those types. Secondly, I have a fairly high sacramental theology, which includes the conviction that the sacraments of baptism and communion are of the Holy Spirit and not of human origin. Therefore, I do not believe that my ordination gives me the authority to refuse those sacraments to any person. When baptism or communion is requested, I have sought to always say, “Yes!” and perform the sacrament to the best of my ability.
I prefer to officiate at baptisms in the context of regular worship of the church with the entire congregation participating in the vows of support, but there have been times when I was called to conduct a baptism with only a very small gathering of witnesses. When our children came into our lives we chose to have them baptized in the congregations we were serving, inviting other pastors to officiate so that we could join in the vows as parents. Susan and I have officiated at the baptism of all of our grandchildren when they were young.
I have officiated at baptisms in hospitals and private homes, in lakes and rivers and public parks. In partnership with the pastor of our sister congregation in Costa Rica, I waded into a public swimming pool for the baptisms of a dozen youth. For thirty years I kept an ink footprint of a tiny baby born prematurely who weighed less than four pounds at birth. I baptized the infant in an isolettte in a neonatal intensive care unit with distilled water provided by the hospital. Later I sprinkled the child as a baptism reminder in a public worship service. Despite the odds, the child survived and grew into adulthood. I have baptized infants whose lives were measured in hours and days rather than years. I officiated at the baptism by immersion of a man old enough to retire, borrowing the tank of a neighboring Baptist congregation for the sacrament in front of a circle of his friends. I’ve poured vials of water lovingly brought home from pilgrimages to the Holy Land that included sampling the water of the Jordan, where Jesus was baptized. I’ve added water from the spring on a family farm to the local water for the baptism of a child more than a thousand miles away from tat farm. Once I accidentally spilled the water for baptism reminder at the doorway of a chapel in a monastery. A nun who was probably 50 years older than I at the time helped me clean up, took the container into a bathroom and returned with it filled. As she hung it in its place she put her finger to her lips and said, “The priests don’t know it, but all water is holy.” There are adults nearing 50 years now at whose baptism as infants I officiated.
Despite the advice of a mentor and trusted colleague, although I recorded each baptism in the official records of the congregations I have served, I did not keep a personal record of those baptisms. It would take quite a bit of research to make a list. Two of those congregations have now closed and I am uncertain where their records have been kept. I feel no need for a personal list. Each baptism was important. No one was more important than any other. The water has always been holy before I prayed the prayer of consecration and the Holy Spirit has always been present.
The reports are brief - just three verses in Mark and only five in Matthew and Luke. the three synoptic Gospels all report the descent of the Holy Spirit and a voice from heaven declaring “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” Matthew reports that John initially hesitated, saying that he needed to be baptized by Jesus and not the other way around, but that interchange is not reported by Mark or Luke.
Throughout history, there have been some rather intense arguments about the meaning and practice of baptism. It is an important sacrament in most Christian congregations and has been so since very early in the history of the church. The Acts of the Apostles reports baptism of entire families including people of all ages. Before long baptism had become a symbol in the Roman church with traditions for blessing small amounts of water and baptizing by pouring or sprinkling water. During the Protestant Reformation, parts of the church split away over the issue of the appropriate age for baptism. Some argued that infants should not be baptized, but rather only those who were able to profess their faith and request their own baptism. The practice, called believers’ baptism, also involved, in some cases, the repeat of the sacrament for those who had been baptized as infants. This repetition, labeled “anabaptism,” was criticized by some church leaders who said that since baptism was of the Holy Spirit and not of human action, no human can declare one baptism invalid and there is never a need to repeat. Other arguments occurred over who was properly qualified to conduct a baptism, with some claiming that the worthiness of the officiant was a factor in the validity of the baptism.
We studied all of this history and the various arguments as students in seminary prior to our ordination. Because I was baptized in a Congregational Church as an infant and the Congregational Church was united with the Christian Church my religious heritage contains both infant and believers’ baptism traditions. Before I was ordained, I committed myself to a couple of positions in regards to baptism which I have maintained to this day. First, I committed to offering and recognizing all forms of baptism: infant, believer, sprinkling, pouring, immersion. Depending on the circumstances, I have participated in baptisms of all of those types. Secondly, I have a fairly high sacramental theology, which includes the conviction that the sacraments of baptism and communion are of the Holy Spirit and not of human origin. Therefore, I do not believe that my ordination gives me the authority to refuse those sacraments to any person. When baptism or communion is requested, I have sought to always say, “Yes!” and perform the sacrament to the best of my ability.
I prefer to officiate at baptisms in the context of regular worship of the church with the entire congregation participating in the vows of support, but there have been times when I was called to conduct a baptism with only a very small gathering of witnesses. When our children came into our lives we chose to have them baptized in the congregations we were serving, inviting other pastors to officiate so that we could join in the vows as parents. Susan and I have officiated at the baptism of all of our grandchildren when they were young.
I have officiated at baptisms in hospitals and private homes, in lakes and rivers and public parks. In partnership with the pastor of our sister congregation in Costa Rica, I waded into a public swimming pool for the baptisms of a dozen youth. For thirty years I kept an ink footprint of a tiny baby born prematurely who weighed less than four pounds at birth. I baptized the infant in an isolettte in a neonatal intensive care unit with distilled water provided by the hospital. Later I sprinkled the child as a baptism reminder in a public worship service. Despite the odds, the child survived and grew into adulthood. I have baptized infants whose lives were measured in hours and days rather than years. I officiated at the baptism by immersion of a man old enough to retire, borrowing the tank of a neighboring Baptist congregation for the sacrament in front of a circle of his friends. I’ve poured vials of water lovingly brought home from pilgrimages to the Holy Land that included sampling the water of the Jordan, where Jesus was baptized. I’ve added water from the spring on a family farm to the local water for the baptism of a child more than a thousand miles away from tat farm. Once I accidentally spilled the water for baptism reminder at the doorway of a chapel in a monastery. A nun who was probably 50 years older than I at the time helped me clean up, took the container into a bathroom and returned with it filled. As she hung it in its place she put her finger to her lips and said, “The priests don’t know it, but all water is holy.” There are adults nearing 50 years now at whose baptism as infants I officiated.
Despite the advice of a mentor and trusted colleague, although I recorded each baptism in the official records of the congregations I have served, I did not keep a personal record of those baptisms. It would take quite a bit of research to make a list. Two of those congregations have now closed and I am uncertain where their records have been kept. I feel no need for a personal list. Each baptism was important. No one was more important than any other. The water has always been holy before I prayed the prayer of consecration and the Holy Spirit has always been present.
