Baptized as God's Beloved: Embracing Our Covenant

``Of course, just like all those kids I was talking about, I turned my back and walked away. I had nothing to do with church again for almost forty years. And when my life fell apart and I was really in the depths of despair, when my depression was at its worst, it was the memory of my baptism that brought me home. [00:32:35] (29 seconds)  #BaptismBroughtMeHome

And the trip to see John would have been like a pilgrimage. I mean, John was preaching in the wilderness. There'd have been dozens of people on the journey. So Jesus is showing that he is one of the people. And by going to see John, he's validating what John has been doing. An act of discipleship. It's a public demonstration of submission and obedience to God. And this is also a pivotable pivotal moment in the life and ministry of Jesus. When he rises from the water, the heavens open, and the holy spirit descends like a dove and the lights upon him. [00:39:36] (66 seconds)  #JesusBaptismMoment

But what about all those babies and small children that were baptized? Where are they? And more importantly, where are their parents? Mean, I can see you're not wanting to bring an infant to church with you. Heaven forbid they might cry. But what about the parents? Why doesn't at least one of those parents come to church? And when the child turns four, five maybe, why aren't they coming to Sunday school? Why did they have their children baptized if they have no intention of coming to church or raising their kids in the faith? [00:28:17] (47 seconds)  #BaptizedButAbsentParents

Oh, sadly, this is so true of many of our young people, And I think of all the infants and the small children that I've seen baptized over the years in churches that I belong to that never saw again, or the youth that came for Sunday school, but once they went through confirmation, they seemingly vanished. I do understand that in a way because I did the same thing. [00:27:13] (35 seconds)  #YouthDisappearAfterConfirmation

So the first question that comes to mind, of course, is why did Christ need to be baptized? And the answer depends on how you look at the story. Do you look at it from our modern Christian point of view, or do you look at it from the ancient Jewish point of view? It is possible to bend or stretch things and try to make the event relevant to today's parishioners, But then the why is really hard to understand. [00:36:14] (41 seconds)  #HistoricalLensOnBaptism

One day, they have a new minister that joins the congregation, and they said to him, you know, sorry, we have this really bad rodent problem. And the minister said, I think I know what to do about it. That Sunday, the mice were absent and the neck and the next. And the people were just like amazed. And they said, how did you manage to get rid of all these mice? The result was really easy. Because they baptized them. We'll never see them again. [00:26:26] (47 seconds)  #BaptizedTheMice

So what was the purpose, the reasoning behind the baptisms that John was performing? Baptism wasn't unique to John. He didn't invent it. Baptism was a Jewish purification ritual, but not a common everyday kind of thing. John's ministry was one of proclamation and baptism, was a call to repentance for forgiveness of sins and a proclamation that the Messiah was coming and and the people needed to prepare for it. [00:38:05] (42 seconds)  #JohnsCallToRepentance

I mean, Jesus was the Messiah, the son of God. He was pure of heart and soul, free from any kind of sin which would include original sin. We all know this. So there'd be no need for him to be baptized from our point of view. However, and you knew there was gonna be a however, all of that stuff is the Christian church put forward hundreds of years later and then adopted as theology and doctrine. [00:36:55] (43 seconds)  #JesusBaptismVsDoctrine