My baptism is not a subject I really have thought a lot on lately, so this has been rather good for me. I thought that I would start with a song that I sometimes sing in the car alone or think at odd times of the day. It’s a song by John Michael Talbot, and it is called, “Create In Me A Clean Heart.”

Create in me a clean heart, O God

Let me be like you in all my ways

Give me your strength; teach me your song

Shelter me in the shadow of your wings

For we are your righteousness

As we’ve died to ourselves and lived through your death

And we shall be born, again to be blessed in your love.

Baptism, if nothing else to me, brings to me images of the cleansing of sin. The act of “washing the sin away” is a powerful one at that. In the book of Matthew where Jesus is baptized, however, I have always wondered why Jesus would be baptized if he were sinless. John was hesitant to baptize Jesus as well, but Jesus felt it necessary.

What I think is that for Jesus to be fully human, he needed to experience that which was human. Jesus took our sins and our burdens upon us when he died on the cross. In a way, Jesus was baptized for all of us when he was baptized by John the Baptist, just as he died for all of us.

I have always liked John the Baptist, and always admired his single-mindedness and lack of fear. He had no fear in confronting Herod, or any. At least that is the impression I get of him after watching Charlton Heston in “The Greatest Story Ever Told.” Actually, it becomes hard to sometimes separate the movie images from real images, and it was a movie image that gave me my first introduction to baptism.

In the movie “Little Big Man” starring Dustin Hoffman, Hoffman plays a young man who is raised by the Indians and then is eventually back into “white” society. He is placed with a fire and brimstone minister and his wife. Since Hoffman was raised among “savages” according to the minister, he must be baptized. So, he is taken to the river and dunked, the third time the minister really gets going, and keeps Hoffman’s head under water for a long time and it becomes apparent that he is running out of air down there.

This put a little baptismal fear into me, as I was set, I believe to be baptized as an older child at about age 10. I had made sure by asking my mother that I was not being immersed, as I had visions of being drowned by the congregation.

I do remember my baptism, as it happened as I said when I was 10 years old. I remember the water put on my forehead, the wiping with the handkerchief with the little cross on it, and thinking it was pretty cool at the time. Not a whole lot was explained to me as to why I was doing it, but I had some sense that at the time it was important.

My mother was also baptized as a thirty-something year old, as they could not find her baptismal records and my grandfather could not honestly remember of they had baptized her or not, and since she was a later “convert” so to speak, it was incredibly important to her to be baptized. The records later materialized, but I had the pleasure of seeing my mother baptized, which was pretty cool as well.

Other visions of baptism come to mind, some of the clandestine. A good friend of mine years ago named Patrick had a young son named Owen. Patrick was not a church goer, although he came from a strong Catholic background. Patrick’s brother, however, was appalled that Owen may not be baptized. He ran out and brought some Holy Water and at a family gathering gathered up the child and did his own secret baptism to save the child from Limbo. An image of baptism as a protective shield and requirement to heaven comes to mind…as if when you finally go to heaven, if baptism is not on your resume, you can’t get in.

I struggle even now thinking about the meaning of baptism, and in talking to some friends, doing some reading, and a lot of thinking, I think I have come up with what my baptism meant to me, and what I see it meaning beyond just myself. But before I divulge my great wisdom upon you, I thought I would share with you what some of my friends said. I think you will see some recurring themes.

One of the first things that I did was e-mail my friend Nyla’s pastor at her church. Nyla and I have worked together for almost 10 years, and have a lot of religious discussions. She comes from a more conservative background, and has a lot of respect for her pastor. Her background is of the church of the Lutheran Confession. So, on her advice I e-mailed a Pastor John Ude and I received a wonderful response which was as follows. One thing that is amazing about Pastor Ude is his ability to remember and quote scripture. He wrote me:

John 3:5 Jesus answered, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Titus 3:3-6 3 For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared,5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

Baptism is not just a symbol. It brings the gracious gift of faith in Jesus to wash away our sins. It brings the gracious power from on high to create a new life within us and empower us by His Spirit to live according to His will.

Romans 6:4, "Therefore we are buried with Christ through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."

Baptism does not save because of the mere external act but only through the gift of faith that will continue to live on in repentance only by the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word. Repentance is not a one-time act fulfilled in our baptism. "Our baptism signifies that the old Adam in us is to be drowned by daily contrition and repentance," (Luther). Drowning is never comfortable. But drowning our sin in the baptism for repentance daily cleanses us of all sin.

Hmm. I was surprised and looked again at what he said again: “Baptism does not save because of the mere external act, but only through the gift of faith that will continue to live on in repentance…” Baptism shows the washing of sin, and reminds us that to be made “clean” we must continually repent.

Another good friend of mine named Shawn gave me her view. She told me that baptism means that she has been “marked with the cross of Christ” and this is vitally important to her. By having your child baptized, you are dedicating that child to learning about the life of Christ, how to grow up in Christ, and what it means to be a Christian. Baptism is usually done with many witnesses, and it often makes her teary-eyed. It is also a very serious thing, and a thing that should be done if one is serious about committing the child to faith. It is not a thing to do just to please others. I asked Shawn if she felt that baptism was necessary for salvation, and she believes it is. She admits it seems kind of “superstitious” but she feels that baptism kind of creates a protective “shield” for the child, in that the baby has been dedicated to Christ and cannot be dedicated to anyone else. To Shawn, the method of baptism is not important, and she even has seen and witnessed people “rededicating” their baptism, as her sister did about ten years ago.

As I talked to Shawn, I really liked what she said about dedicating yourself and the congregation dedicating itself to the care of the child to help them nurture and grow in faith. The image of dedicating the child to Christ is powerful, and baptism holds strong meaning in her life.

My friend Lynn, however, was more vague in the meaning of baptism. To Lynn, baptism is more symbolic. It symbolizes the love we show for our children. It shows that we are making a public statement that we are committed to raising the child a certain way. Baptism is spiritual, and when her daughter was baptized, she dated that it meant a lot to her, there were a lot of feelings that she could not describe, and said she acutely felt the Holy Spirit was present there and in her and her daughter’s lives. She is a bit ambivalent about her own baptism, and is not sure what it means to her. She stated that her parents had her baptized although they were not really “churched” so to speak, and did not ever discuss religion. Yet, it was important to have her be baptized.

I spoke with my wife Erin, who viewed her baptism as the very beginning of her faith journey. The parents commit to raise the child as a believer in Christ. She found it odd that some people are baptized when older, as her background as a Catholic person strongly believe that the unbaptized are denied heaven. She then said that maybe I should call her sister, who was probably more “Catholic” than her at the moment, so I called Theresa in New Salem, North Dakota.

Theresa was eloquent, and baptism is an important ingredient in her faith. To her, baptism symbolizes the welcoming into God’s family and being forgiven of Original Sin. I asked why she baptized her children, and she also expressed the fact that it is important to baptize children as babies so that there would be no sin on their soul should they die accidentally or unexpectedly. Baptism, for the parents, according to Theresa, emphasizes that that you are bringing a child into the community and to help raise the child to be good in God’s eyes.

I asked her if the unbaptized are denied heaven. Theresa said, “Well, the position of the Catholic Church is that they do.” I asked what Theresa thought, and she stated that she could not believe that God would condemn a baby who has done no harm, so she is kind of on the fence wit this.

So, with all these views floating around in my head, what is MY view? I think that talking to others helped clarify what was in my mind. To me, my baptism expresses the forgiveness of my sins; of being washed clean. Also, my baptism was an expression of my mother’s faith and will to bring me up in the church, and to nurture the child in faith. She committed herself to exposing me and teaching me in my faith journey. In a broader sense, when I see us baptize a baby here, and when as a congregation we commit to the child, that says a lot about what a community of faith should do. We are responsible to everyone. The children are our future, and it is up to us to guide and to nurture them.

Yet, there is something special that happens when a baby is baptized. That child becomes a child of God, and when Debra walks the baby around we can see innocence and the beauty of life, and the preciousness of each one of us.

Is baptism required for salvation? I don’t know. Is baptism important then? Yes it is. It cements and welcomes the child into the family that is this church. Is shows our love and our commitment to our children, our church, and our God.

Amen