"In Christ: A Meditation on the Sacrament of Baptism"

Colossians 3:1-11

What just happened around this font?  For this part of our worship that we call the Sacrament of Baptism, what did we just do?  Of course, in one sense, what we did was obvious.  We gathered around this baptismal font.  Lance and Stephanie stepped forward, carrying their beautiful twin daughters, Adele and Baker. We read some scripture, said some words, recited a creed, put  water on the girls' heads, prayed, and walked down the aisle as you oohed and aahed approvingly.  I've heard a number of you say how good it makes you feel to see so many children in the congregation.  We're thrilled to be able to welcome new babies, with more babies still on the way.  So the baptism this morning was an uplifting, joyful event. That much was obvious. But the deeper meaning of baptism is not so obvious.  Using the language of faith, baptism declares that Adele and Baker's lives—indeed all our lives—have been grafted to the life of Christ.

In our reading today from Colossians, Paul uses images of intimate belonging to describe the baptized life—"dying and rising with Christ, hidden with Christ in God, clothed with Christ." These images of belonging make up what one person called, "the poetry of hope."  They enable us to envision our lives as God intends them to be. In Christ we are made members of the new, restored humanity—we are people who have died to sin and risen with Christ, to be in loving communion with God.  So when we baptized Adele and Baker, we made the audacious claim that their lives are "hidden with Christ in God." 

That's an arresting phrase to use for baptism, isn't it?  "Your life is hidden with Christ in God."  To be hidden in God at one level is a promise of enclosure and warmth.  We sensed that this morning when we saw Adele and Baker enclosed in their parents' arms, surrounded by a loving family and embraced by the congregation. This notion of being hidden in God evokes some of the imagery in scripture in which God is likened to a mother hen who hides her young under the protection of her wings.  This is why we've expanded the baptismal formula to include the words, "one God, mother of us all."  In baptism, we are enclosed and embraced by a God whose love is as fierce as a mother's love, and under whose protection we are forever hidden.

Of course, God's protection promised in baptism does not guarantee safety and security from all harm.  Adele and Baker, like all of us, are subject to the contingencies of life and dangers that accompany our vulnerable, fragile lives.  At our mid-week Supper and Substance program last Wednesday, we watched scenes from the movie "Crash."  In one scene, a father wraps his frightened daughter in an imaginary cloak, which he tells her will protect her from harm. Baptism also speaks of being cloaked with Christ, putting on, as Paul writes in Ephesians, "the whole armor of God."  Such spiritual armor, however, doesn't make us immune from suffering. What it can assure us, though, is that we are in God's hands, come what may.

On Friday, the Presbytery of the Twin Cities sent out an e-mail to Presbyterian pastors around the country, sharing the Presbytery's response to the collapse of the bridge in downtown Minneapolis.  The e-mail ended by sharing this prayer:  "Out of the darkness we cry to you, O God. Enable us to find in Christ the faith to trust your care even in the midst of pain, so that we may not walk alone though the valley of the shadow of death; through Christ our Lord."  That prayer expresses the promise of baptism: we cannot be made safe from all danger, but in Christ we are assured that we never walk alone.  Today we promised Adele and Baker that their lives are forever hidden, enclosed, and embraced by a loving God.

And this promise of being hidden with Christ in baptism also conveys the sense of something waiting to come to light. "When Christ who is your life is revealed," writes Paul, "then you also will be revealed with him in glory."  Sharing in Christ's glory isn't a promise to be with Christ in some future heaven so much as it is the assurance that, when our lives are fully revealed, they will reflect the harmony, peace, compassion, and goodness of God.  In baptism, we express the conviction that we are works in progress. We are with Christ now, but we have not yet fully become the people our baptism declares us to be. Thus baptism carries with it an aspect of future fulfillment.  I'm sure Lance and Stephanie have already speculated on Adele and Baker's future.  Will one become a dancer, and the other a musician?  A teacher?  A scientist?  President of the United States?  Baptism doesn't predict any of these possibilities, but it does promise that the girls' lives will find their completion, their fulfillment in Christ.  Remember the song Simple Gifts, which has the refrain, "To turn, turn will be our delight, till by turning, turning we come round right?"  Our baptism guarantees that, whatever direction our lives take, and however many false turns we make, in the end we "come round right." Lance and Stephanie, when Adele and Baker reach adolescence and their teen years, and you wonder what's happened to your little angels, just remember that God isn't finished with them yet. They have been baptized, and one day their true identity in Christ will be fully revealed. 

One more thing: Baptism challenges us to practice our new life in Christ, now and every day. Even though Adele and Baker are only infants, they are already picking up and internalizing the world around them. This is why, in the baptismal service, we challenge both the parents and the congregation to model the Christian life for those whom we baptize. This means putting aside the things that destroy community, injure others, and damage relationships—things such as sexual immorality, anger, malice, abusive language, dishonesty.  In Christ, we are called to live in such a way that the image of God is seen through our actions. We are called to become so hidden in the being of God that we become part of God's healing work in the world. So you see, baptism isn't just an enjoyable moment; it is a serious call to discipleship—a command to strip off those things which don't belong to Christ, and to put on the Christ-like qualities of peace and harmony and love for one another.

Remember, too, that the meaning of baptism reaches far beyond the walls of this sanctuary.  When Paul says that "Christ is all and in all," he's pointing to the reach of Christ that embraces all people and all of creation.  The goal of God's love proclaimed in baptism flows outward so that no one is beyond it and no part of creation is outside God's care and concern.

So what just happened around this font?  Much of what happened was obvious.  But the deeper truth is that baptism is an act of faith that shows we belong to God and are united with Christ.  Let us give thanks for the gift of our baptism.