Though it is widely accepted and performed all the time in our churches, it is “taken for granted.” Baptism is absent from our lives today!
It is not opposed, nor is it questioned, however, the reality of baptism is absent. This absence is at the root of many of the tragedies of the church today!
Baptism has become a private family celebration performed as a rule outside of the corporate worship of the Church. For many church-goers it has been years since they have attended a Baptism.
A Christian of the past knew that Easter each year was the celebration of his own Baptism, of his own entrance into and participation in the life of the Risen Christ. He knew that the Resurrection of Christ was again revealed and reaffirmed in this act of regeneration and rebirth through which new members were integrated into the “newness of life.”
Today’s believer does not think of his baptism in relatioship to the church. He does not referred to the Church as the “very community of those who died with Christ and who therefore were given a new life in HIm.”
Baptism is something someone recorded somewhere, but it has ceased to be a permanent reality, an ever-living source of joy and hope. He no longer experiences and encounters the “Presence of God” in the Easter, Pentecost, Christmas, Epiphany worship of this living community of the Church. Absent from his conciousness is the reality of the “new-life” that is his through baptism.
Baptism no longer shapes our world-view, our basic attitudes, motivations, and decisions. Early Christians not only had intellectual knowledge of Christ, but understood that through the mystery of Baptism he was placed into a radically new relationship with all aspects of life and with the “world” itself.
Baptism was a “starting point” of an entire “philosophy of life.” We must rediscover Baptism — its meaning, its power and its validity.
What is your experience with Baptism?
