Making Promises: Baptism!

Is it important to keep the promises we make, especially ones made in public?

Ask any of the Australian public about it at the moment and I am sure the answer would be yes. The thought that our PM may have reneged on a promise seems to be unforgivable.

But maybe its some promises we make and not others?

I have recently been reflecting on baptism (here) and it's integrity in our contemporary setting.

Many families who come seeking baptism are not currently attending church and once the baptism is done are rarely seen again. This, despite promises to engage in the life of the church that they make in the context of the baptism service.

When discussing this recently with congregation members I described the promises made in baptism as at least as important as the ones made at a wedding. They are a life-long commitment and involve choices about daily life and involvement in the worshipping life of the church.

This means as part of the conversation I begin to open up a commitment to attending church and church membership.

The question raised was whether or not it was right for me to put the 'hard word' on so early. The example given was that when you make a choice to marry someone you go through a courting period, then an engagement, before reaching the altar.

After reflecting a little more on this, what I have realised is, that for those people who have come simply to get the kids baptised the promises they are making are a bit like an arranged marriage. The people make the promises and then develop the relationship.

Of course we could be critical of this approach but I am caught in two minds as I picture Jesus walking along a beach and saying follow me to a bunch of fishermen. He called them and then they developed the relationship.

I continue to think that as long as I seek to faithfully convey the depth of promise that is being made, and being made in a public setting, then it is up to the family to live out that promise and the congregation, that also makes promises, to help them do so.

The question that parents and congregation should consider is that when the children we baptise are all grown up whether we will be able to answer the questions they might have for us:

Why didn't you take me to church?

Why didn't you tell me about God's love in Jesus?

Did you do everything you could to help me understand the Christian life?

You taught me about everything else, why not faith?

Why did you let others indoctrinate me?

As the Father sent me so I send you!

When the Father sent the Son the Father remained with the Son. As the narrative in John’s gospel builds there is movement from the idea that Jesus is doing the Father’s work to the climax of their relationship described in John 10 “the Father is in me and I am in the Father”. The mystery of the inner relationship of God’s own life is that Son is accompanied by the Father and that the Son also remains with Father.

To quote Calvin, “Here is something marvellous: the Son of God descended from heaven in such a way that, without leaving heaven, he willed to be borne in the virgin’s womb, to go about the earth, and hang upon the cross; yet he continuously filled the world even as he had done from the beginning!”

In John 17 Jesus prays those amazing words. “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

This then is the final and most wondrous aspect of the sending of the disciples and of us. We are sent in unity with Jesus and so with Father, just as the Father remained with Jesus in his life, so Jesus remains with us. And even more amazingly, as Paul wrote to the Colossians, “for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (3:3). Not only is God with us but in Christ we are already with God in heaven!

Listening to Jesus!

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying.

The amazing gift of God is that Jesus has come into the world and this means that like Mary we can sit at his feet and learn about who God is from God himself, in God’s own words artiuclated in human language.

To sit at Jesus feet now involves a willingness to be present to Jesus presence in gathered worship, in daily refelction on the scriptures and in prayer where the Holy Spirit draws us into Jesus very life.

Consider again how much time you put aside to sit at Jesus feet each day in the midst of your own busy life...