The gift of Baptism

Acts 2: 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 

I was on the receiving end of a request to be Re-baptized. It was from someone who has been visiting with us recently, a young woman who had been sheltered in a nearby house (usually from domestic violence). She was about to leave with family coming to get her and she was thankful for the welcome she had received at Redeemer.

She shared that she had been baptized when she was twenty. It had been in the name of the Father, and of the Son, & of the Holy Spirit. That’s a trinitarian baptism recognized throughout Christendom.

I suggested that our confession is an acknowledgement of one baptism for the

remission of sins (Nicene Creed). Furthermore, I emphasized that it’s a promise God makes. In this sacrament God welcomes us into a covenant. The wonderful assurance in this is that God does not renege on His promises. This promise is always in effect! There is no need to do it again, for God is good as His word.

This sacrament differs from the other means of grace. Baptism is a

one time event, not needing to be repeated. The Word of God we are meant to hear time and time again. Similarly, the words of institution in Holy Communion are quite specific about the repetition of this reception: “Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.” 1 Cor. 11:25 “As often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. “1 Cor. 11:26

            I followed this instruction with some questions. Does she believe Jesus died in payment for her sins and rose for her to have eternal life? She does. Well, that’s the faith which baptism fosters. That’s what saves!

So, we did a recognition of baptism. It’s a service in our Agenda. It’s also in the orders for chapel at Concordia Lutheran School.

            I pray that daily you take comfort in remembering your baptism. Luther’s suggestion is a helpful one in my mind – awakening, making the sign of the cross before you and remembering that you’ve been baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Truth, Goodness, and Beauty

            I believe I’ve heard them referred to as the secondary trinity. Solzhenitsyn called them the “three transcendentals”.

Here I’ll quote generously from what Robert Royal recently wrote in the Catholic Thing Beauty Will Save the World: “[P]erhaps that ancient trinity of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty is not simply an empty, faded formula as we thought in the days of our self-confident, materialistic youth? If the tops of these three trees converge, as the scholars maintained, but the too blatant, too direct stems of Truth and Goodness are crushed, cut down, not allowed through – then perhaps the fantastic, unpredictable, unexpected stems of Beauty will push through and soar TO THAT VERY SAME PLACE, and in so doing will fulfil the work of all three?

That’s a very hopeful way to look at things today. We know that Truth and Goodness are as confused now as they have ever been. And that while the slow process of reason recovers them both, some way around the impasse has to be found in the meantime. And yet, beauty (small “b”) is also often deceptive and seems more likely to wreck the world, absent faith and reason.

Can Beauty of another sort, a transcendent Beauty among the other transcendentals, actually save for us at least a bit of what made and continues to hold us and our entire civilization together?

St. Augustine famously wrote in Book X of Confessions, ‘Late have I loved Thee, Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved thee.’ (Sero te amavi, pulchritudo tam antiqua et tam nova, sero te amavi! ) He meant, of course, the divine beauty and in the same passage even decries his attachment to ordinary kinds of beauty in the world: ‘these beauties kept me far enough from thee: even those, which unless they were in thee, should not be at all.’”

            Thankfully, these three transcendentals find their source in our gracious God. We have hope for today and for the days to come in this God Who has redeemed us to Himself through the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus. It is around this that we worship daily in our homes and weekly on the Lord’s Day.

With that in mind, St. Paul’s encouragement is needed now as much as ever: 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8-9)

Uncertainties and Certainties

Traveling home from a conference in St. Louis I was listening to a podcast. Dr. Ellen Langer from Harvard was talking about “being mindful.” One of her emphases of being mindful is living with the idea that you really do not know what is to come. You may think you’ve got it figured out, but really you don’t. Life is always in a state of change.

Dr. Langer’s illustration caught me off guard. She will often start a certain class she is leading with the question “What is 1 + 1?” Of course, the expected answer is “2.” But then she asks, “What is one load of laundry plus one load of laundry?” The answer would be “One”; albeit a bigger load, but still one. “What is one wad of gum plus one wad of gum?” “One.” And “what is one cloud plus one cloud?” Again, “one.”

Her point is that the mathematical facts on which we have all been drilled often don’t correlate to real life experience. We should always be aware of the unexpected – and that is a way of being mindful.

As children of our heavenly Father, we know that this world afflicted with sin will with frequency throw something unexpected our way. There will be the cancer diagnosis, the collision when driving, and other things all the way down to the spilling of milk.

Our confidence, our way of living in hope comes from the fact that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8. God has kept His promises in the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus for the forgiveness of all sin. God’s promise of the new heaven and the new earth when Jesus returns is, likewise, utterly dependable. On this certainty we rely, day in and day out. Thus, we can trust that God’s other promises for this life are also completely true. God bless your mindfulness of His truths!