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Promises, Promises - Baptism Promises (36)
Immediately following the worship service and just before I was quickly on my way to the 2nd Church of my 4-point Charge that Sunday morning, she said, “Well, pastor… you’re just going to have to baptize him quickly, I guess—I don’t think I can stand it much longer and he’s not even close to his ‘terrible two’s’ yet!” She was talking, of course, about her almost 18 month old baby who had turned out to be quite a handful that Sunday morning in a worship service at the rural Methodist church in Pettis County, Missouri. She was embarrassed and needed some help that was for sure. As a single mother, she was quickly seeing that she just couldn’t do it on her own and had wondered if this “baptism thing” might help “calm him down some,” as she put it. Kind of like giving him a shot or a vaccination, I guess. So, anything could help, right? “Couldn’t we just go ahead and schedule his baptism next Sunday?” she asked.
What she would find out later was that little congregation stood ready to make some very bold promises to her little boy and to her as his mother. And, what she would also find out was that some pretty bold promises were about to be required of her as well! All of these promises were predicated on an even bolder promise made over 2000 years ago and written about by Luke in the Book of Acts. “For the promise [of salvation] is for you and your children.” (Acts 2:38-39) You know about these promises too, First Church, and there have been countless time when you have recited some words written on the pages of your hymnal or from a bulletin/written on a screen as dozens and dozens of your own little toddlers nearing their “terrible two’s” have come for baptism. Or, as is the case when an adult or young adult kneels at the altar and offers his/her heart to God for the first time and receiving the waters of baptism, there too, you make some very potent promises.
Here at this 2nd Sunday of this still-like New Year and this very first Sunday of this new Preaching Series, I want to remind all of us what we’re actually saying and what’s actually required of us when we make such bold promises like we do at baptism.
Our understanding of Christian theology teaches us that “persons of any age are suitable candidates for baptism because Christ’s body, the Church is a great family that includes persons of all ages. On the day the Church was born [in Jerusalem] Peter preached: ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children.’” [I] So, taking Jesus at his word that “Let the little children come to me, do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs,” (Mark 10:14b) we invite children of all ages to be brought for baptism. No, they are not of the age where they are physically and cognitively able to answer for themselves—so the parents or the sponsors must fulfill that roll and listen to what is asked of them. It’s right there in your UMHynmal as a part of our baptism liturgy: (page 34) These 3 questions are asked by the pastor on behalf of the entire Church: 1. Do you renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world, and repent of your sin? These are very very strong words. Since the earliest times, the vows of Christian baptism have consisted first of the renunciation of all that is evil. 2. Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves? To renounce such evil and to actively engage in resisting it is something that the historic Church has expected the parent/sponsor of a baptized to be modeling in his or her life. Otherwise, how else are our baptized children to learn that prejudice, bigotry, hatred, and racism are evil in the sight of God? How else, unless we parents teach them are our children to learn that greed and malice; murder and bearing false witness against a neighbor is against the will of God and unacceptable behavior for a baptized child of God? It’s an almost unbelievably impossible thing to ask of anybody, least of all a parent or sponsor. That’s why that third question is also asked; 3. Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior, put your whole trust in his grace and promise to serve him as your Lord in union with the Church which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations, and races? In order to be able to answer “I do” to those first two questions, we must acknowledge that we do so only by and through the grace of Jesus Christ as our Savior, and it is only by God’s grace that we dare make such a profession and promise. For you know exactly what will happen as clearly as I do. There will come a day when you will fall short as a parent. Your own child will witness you not resisting evil and oppression; will witness you not putting up much of a fight at all in renouncing the spiritual forces of wickedness and they in their innocence and boldness will ask you about it. “Mommy why did you say that about that black man?” “Daddy, why did you tell that lie?” And at those times, all we can do is fall into the forgiving arms of Jesus and ask his forgiveness as well as the forgiveness of the little ones who are watching us.
But it doesn’t end there! Hear the next question. Listen to the job description of what is required of those presenting children or anybody else who cannot answer for himself: “Will you nurture these children in Christ’s holy Church, that by your teaching and example they may be guided to accept God’s grace for themselves, to profess their faith openly, and to lead a Christian life?” What do you think it means to “nurture” a child in the Christian faith? Ask any youth director or children’s minister you’ve known from Bill Fuller and Kaye Hoover to Clay Bumpers; from Justin Warren or Donna Hankins-Hull to Austin Hubbard who leaves tomorrow for SMU’S Youth Director Institute, and they’ll tell you that nurture means being present in the lives of young people. Alyse Eady, 1st Runner-Up Miss America and Miss Arkansas, 2011 spoke recently at the Downtown Rotary Club. She spoke clearly and articulately about what she said was important in her work with the Boys and Girls Club Organization. Looking out on that crowd of hundreds and hundreds of the city’s finest and most successful leaders she boldly challenged them, “Get involved in the lives of youngpeople!”
Nurturing means getting those baptized to Sunday services and evening fellowships. They can’t drive themselves yet, so they need a lift—and that’s where you come in. But it means even more than that. Get involved with their spiritual lives as avidly and faithfully as you get involved in their music lessons or soccer practice! You’re not going to taint their minds or ruin their outlook—surely you know that children and youth oftentimes seem to have a “mind of their own!” Parents/Sponsors… hang in there—those are the promises you make when you stand there with your babies in your arms dressed up in their baptism gowns and Sunday best. We ooh and aah just seeing you standing there.
But the rest of you, you’re not off the hook either! Not by a long shot. You are asked yet again, “Do you reaffirm both your rejection of sin and your commitment to Christ?” Written there in the liturgy is the short and quick answer, “We do!” but we know, like the presenting parents or sponsors know that we too must fall upon the mercy of Jesus for those times we have done a paltry job of rejecting sin and living out a bold commitment to Christ. Those very same children grow up and not only see their parents and look to them for mentoring and advice; they look to us too. We would do well to prayerfully ask ourselves then, “What do these baptized children to whom I’m making bold promises really see when they see me?”
The pastor asks one more question and this time it’s not to the parents; it’s to each and every one of us—“Will you nurture one another in the Christian faith and life and include this one now before you in your care?” Read with me there in your UMHynmal what your answer/promise is:
With God’s help we will proclaim the good news and live according to the example of Christ. We will surround these persons with a community of love and forgiveness that they may grow in their trust of God and be found faithful in their service to others. We will pray for them, that they may be true disciples who walk in the way that leads to life.
Here at First Church there are about 180 children ages birth through the 5th grade and almost 100 other youngpeople from the 6th grade to the 12th grade. In the past 8 years alone, you’ve sat right there and witnessed their baptisms and made this promise to them. Can you name their names? Do you know their parents? Have you kept your promise of endeavoring to “surround them with a community of love and forgiveness?” Do you speak to them at church and ask them how their week at school is going? Or, are there times when you’ve done quite the opposite when you learned about something at church that got broken when the youth meeting got a little rowdy? Have there been times when you’ve not spoken as kindly as you could have when you’ve read about one of them getting a speeding ticket or engaged in some other sort of reckless behavior that wasn’t wise. How wide was your circle of surrounding these persons with love and forgiveness so that they could actually grow in their trust of God and be found faithful in their service to others? How is your prayer time going that you promised you’d do when you said you’d pray for them that they might walk in the way that leads to life?
The Church in America is truly at a crossroads with this youngest generation. Surveys have been taken and books have been written about their rejection of organized religion and the Church in general. It’s been reported that much of what they see in us is rules, regulations, dogma, and doctrine. Often what they see in us is anti-this or anti-that. They see hypocrisy and sham. They hear do’s and don’ts… it’s high time what they see and hear is all of us making good on the promises we made at their baptisms, and when we do that, we’ll see a renewal in the Church like we’ve never known in our generation. For I still believe Joel’s prophecy is true and can come about even in our age: “In those days I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh… and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions!” (Joel 2:28) We have promises to keep, and they start right here with our baptism promises!
[i] The United Methodist Book of Worship, 1992; pg. 82.