Pastor Lynda Eastwood Ernst, Epiphany Lutheran Church, Collierville, TN
They were fairly new “attenders” at Epiphany Lutheran Church (Collierville, TN). Together, Nicole, Matt, and I were doing an Adult Confirmation Class based on the booklet “Baptized, We Live” by Pastor Daniel Erlander. Their son, Isaac, was 7 or 8 months old, and they had just shared that they were ready to have Isaac baptized. A few weeks before, I had preached about baptism in the ELCA – noting that among the liturgical churches (including Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, and Lutherans) there had been a renewed interest and resurgence in Baptism by immersion.
“Why is that?” they wondered. My answer was: “I’m glad you asked.”
The answer to their question has been an amazing and joy-filled exploration for me. Before seminary days, I was dazzled by the amazing photographs in the Roman Catholic journal “Environment and Art” that featured photographs of “walk-in” fonts. Later, in a seminary liturgy class, Dr. Robert Hawkins screened the Liturgical Training Publication video “This is the Night” – a study of a Catholic Easter Vigil service - complete with immersion baptisms for both adults and infants.
Hawkins further explained that the liturgical churches were beginning to take another look at how our worship spaces might accommodate fonts that place greater emphasis on the importance of baptism. Baptism, after all, IS the sacrament of identity. It identifies Who and Whose we are.
This was good information. But what difference does this mode of baptism make? Lutheran Christians are taught from an early age that the amount of water in baptism is not an issue. The fact is, most Lutherans have water poured over their heads when they are baptized. By changing the mode of baptism, aren’t we also saying “This baptism is ‘just a little more special’ than yours?” (At Epiphany, candidates for baptism, or the parents of infants, have the option of immersion as well as affusion.)
My answer to this question is “Absolutely not.” I am clear that we are brought into the family of God through water and the word. The mode of baptism does not save us and this is God’s saving act alone. However, I am also mindful that our liturgy is loaded with symbolism that instructs, illustrates, and informs our theology. So much of what we learn about God, and how God relates to us is supported in our liturgy. What we do in the liturgy expresses what we believe and shapes what we believe.
In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul writes: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” This death and resurrection is especially made plain when an infant or adult is baptized by immersion.
“Immersion into water as a participation in the death of Jesus and the emerging from it as participation…in the resurrection of Christ was apparently a widespread motif in Hellenistic Christianity….Christian baptismal practice in the early centuries normally involved the actual stripping off of the clothes of the candidate before immersion and the robing in a white garment after he had emerged from the water.” - Journal of Biblical Literature.
Students of the liturgy (from the 12-14th centuries –in some places, as late as the 16th century) realized that in the move from immersion to sprinkling or pouring, something big had been lost. Something very big.
Even Dr. Luther wrote: “Although in many places it is no longer customary
to thrust and dip infants into the font, but only with the hand to pour the
baptismal water upon them out of the font, nevertheless the former is what
should be done.” - The Holy and Blessed Sacrament of Baptism.
With this information, Matt and Nicole decided on an immersion baptism for Isaac who was baptized on Easter Sunday. My husband Chip and I went shopping for a “font” that could be easily transported to a worship space that does not belong to Epiphany, a mission congregation of the SE Synod. We found and waterproofed a copper fire pit-outdoor grill (really, it looks great!) and placed it in the center aisle of the chapel of the school where we worship.
On Easter morning, the congregation gathered around Matt, Nicole, Isaac and his family. Together we experienced and relived that dangerous ritual in which we “die to sin and death and rise to new life in Christ.” The three sweeps through the font were punctuated by a scream from Isaac that indicated his awareness that this was serious stuff. The image was breath-taking – and there was no missing the moment.
They were fairly new “attenders” at Epiphany Lutheran Church (Collierville, TN). Together, Nicole, Matt, and I were doing an Adult Confirmation Class based on the booklet “Baptized, We Live” by Pastor Daniel Erlander. Their son, Isaac, was 7 or 8 months old, and they had just shared that they were ready to have Isaac baptized. A few weeks before, I had preached about baptism in the ELCA – noting that among the liturgical churches (including Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, and Lutherans) there had been a renewed interest and resurgence in Baptism by immersion.
“Why is that?” they wondered. My answer was: “I’m glad you asked.”
The answer to their question has been an amazing and joy-filled exploration for me. Before seminary days, I was dazzled by the amazing photographs in the Roman Catholic journal “Environment and Art” that featured photographs of “walk-in” fonts. Later, in a seminary liturgy class, Dr. Robert Hawkins screened the Liturgical Training Publication video “This is the Night” – a study of a Catholic Easter Vigil service - complete with immersion baptisms for both adults and infants.
Hawkins further explained that the liturgical churches were beginning to take another look at how our worship spaces might accommodate fonts that place greater emphasis on the importance of baptism. Baptism, after all, IS the sacrament of identity. It identifies Who and Whose we are.
This was good information. But what difference does this mode of baptism make? Lutheran Christians are taught from an early age that the amount of water in baptism is not an issue. The fact is, most Lutherans have water poured over their heads when they are baptized. By changing the mode of baptism, aren’t we also saying “This baptism is ‘just a little more special’ than yours?” (At Epiphany, candidates for baptism, or the parents of infants, have the option of immersion as well as affusion.)
My answer to this question is “Absolutely not.” I am clear that we are brought into the family of God through water and the word. The mode of baptism does not save us and this is God’s saving act alone. However, I am also mindful that our liturgy is loaded with symbolism that instructs, illustrates, and informs our theology. So much of what we learn about God, and how God relates to us is supported in our liturgy. What we do in the liturgy expresses what we believe and shapes what we believe.
In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul writes: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” This death and resurrection is especially made plain when an infant or adult is baptized by immersion.
“Immersion into water as a participation in the death of Jesus and the emerging from it as participation…in the resurrection of Christ was apparently a widespread motif in Hellenistic Christianity….Christian baptismal practice in the early centuries normally involved the actual stripping off of the clothes of the candidate before immersion and the robing in a white garment after he had emerged from the water.” - Journal of Biblical Literature.
Students of the liturgy (from the 12-14th centuries –in some places, as late as the 16th century) realized that in the move from immersion to sprinkling or pouring, something big had been lost. Something very big.
Even Dr. Luther wrote: “Although in many places it is no longer customary
to thrust and dip infants into the font, but only with the hand to pour the
baptismal water upon them out of the font, nevertheless the former is what
should be done.” - The Holy and Blessed Sacrament of Baptism.
With this information, Matt and Nicole decided on an immersion baptism for Isaac who was baptized on Easter Sunday. My husband Chip and I went shopping for a “font” that could be easily transported to a worship space that does not belong to Epiphany, a mission congregation of the SE Synod. We found and waterproofed a copper fire pit-outdoor grill (really, it looks great!) and placed it in the center aisle of the chapel of the school where we worship.
On Easter morning, the congregation gathered around Matt, Nicole, Isaac and his family. Together we experienced and relived that dangerous ritual in which we “die to sin and death and rise to new life in Christ.” The three sweeps through the font were punctuated by a scream from Isaac that indicated his awareness that this was serious stuff. The image was breath-taking – and there was no missing the moment.
Isaac was wrapped in a white towel and sealed in oil with the cross of Christ forever. His mother wept, and truly all were glowing, teary eyed, and blessed to bear witness to yet another mighty act of God. And I was strongly reminded again, that what we do in the liturgy expresses, supports, and shapes what we believe.
No comments:
Post a Comment