Hi First Presbyterian Church,
It’s time for our Mid-Week Meet-Up! I wanted to start off today by reminding you that this Sunday, May 15, at 3:00pm, in our sanctuary the Presbytery of Genesee Valley will be installing Rev. Erin Jacobson as your Associate Pastor! Clear your calendars; you won’t want to miss it!
I’ve lived in Fairport now for two years, and one thing I’m realizing at this point about this time of year is that I love when the waters of the Erie Canal return to their normal level. It’s a clear signal that summer is almost here! I can’t wait to get my kayak out and to grease up my fishing reels! However, this year, waiting for and watching the rising waters of the canal made me think of baptism. Not that I would ever think of baptizing anyone in the canal! Although, I have joked about that on occasion! I think it has to do with the fact that the water is rising, which makes me think about resurrection and the purpose behind baptism.
Have you ever wondered why we practice baptism? Lots of faith traditions have water rituals. Roman Catholics use holy water. Jews sometimes still practice immersion in mikveh (like when a person converts to Judaism). Muslims make wudu before going to jummah prayer. Water is a pretty universally used element in world religions. But how did it start for Christians?
Did you know that in the time when Jesus lived, MANY Jewish groups practiced baptism? The Hemerobaptists believed they need to be baptized every day in order to receive salvation (that’s what hemerobaptist means = “daily baptism.”) The Ebionites believed it was necessary to be baptized every time you touched something unclean. The Elkasites believed that baptism cleansed you from sin and that you could exorcise a demon by being baptized 40 times over a period of 7 days. The Dositheans believed that baptism had magical power to convert people to faith. A Jewish group that followed a man name Banus baptized themselves in ice-cold water as a form of religious asceticism. And the Essenes who lived at Qumran (where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found) practiced frequent baptism for ritual cleansing.
You can see that when Jesus commanded his disciples to baptize new believers, they probably didn’t respond to Jesus by saying, “What’s baptism?” No! Lots of their contemporaries were practicing baptism, and it was a very normal and ubiquitous ritual happening all around them. But, here’s an important question: What did Christian baptism originally signify? Was it a magic ritual like it was for the Dositheans? No! Was it to be practiced multiple times like it was for the Hemerobaptists, Ebionites, Elkasites, or the Essenes? No! From the very beginning, at least two things are clear about Christian baptism: 1) it was an initiation rite, and 2) it was to remind us of the death and resurrection of Jesus.
1) As an initiation rite, baptism was the ceremony that welcomed a person into the family of God. Just as at Jesus’ own baptism where God recognized him as “my Son,” so we too are recognized as God’s children when we receive baptism. Additionally, we are not alone as God’s children, we become part of the church when we are baptized and are welcomed into a large family of brothers and sisters. Just as we are born or adopted into our earthly families only one time, so too we need to be baptized only once.
2) From the earliest Christian writings, we see that baptism carried with it the symbolism of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Just read what Paul wrote in Romans 6:4, “We have been buried with Christ Jesus 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.” If you’re struggling to see the connection of baptism to death-and-resurrection, you’re not alone. The connection is much clearer if we imagine the way baptism was done by most Christians in the first century: through immersion. Imagine a person being plunged under the water. (This kind of looks like being buried under the water.) Then imagine the person coming up from under the water. (This kind of looks like being raised up from being buried.) Baptism is supposed to remind us that, through the Holy Spirit, we are children of God because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. And, as God’s children, we share the same inheritance as God’s only begotten son Jesus Christ, namely: resurrection from the dead. Thanks be to God!
Friends, remember that you have been baptized, and give thanks to God! If you or your children haven’t been baptized, please reach out to me or Pastor Jacobson! We want you to become part of God’s family and to be marked with the sign and promise of our faith in Christ – victory over evil and resurrection from the dead!
Peace to you,
Pastor Aaron