What is Baptism about anyway?

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.


What is baptism all about?


What was baptism about in the time of Jesus? Does anyone know?


Well, the Jews had a ceremony called Mikvah. It was a ritual of cleansing. It was not really about sin. It was about being ritually clean so that you could enter the temple. For example, if you had been defiled by coming in contact with the dead you had to go through the ritual immersion of Mikvah to return to the temple. It was also required of those who wished to convert to Judaism. You could go through Mikvah more than once if you needed to.


John the Baptist took this ritual and adapted it as a rite of conversion to his particular branch of the Jewish faith: those who believed that the time of the Messiah was upon them. For him, baptism was about being ready to enter into the presence of the Messiah, not the temple.

In the early church, what age do you think people were typically baptised?


Usually, they were baptised as adults. Baptism gave you full entry into the church. The only time children were baptised was when a whole family got baptised together.


As Anglicans, what do we believe baptism is all about?

If you open your BCP to page 532 and read the paragraph starting “Dearly Beloved” you will see what the church believed in 1662. These explanations and prayers have changed only slightly from that edition of the prayer book.

What does this paragraph tell us?

1. Without baptism, we cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
2. Through baptism we receive the Holy Spirit.
3. Through baptism we become part of the Christian community.
4. Through baptism we become members of the body of Christ.

… …

What has changed in our understanding of baptism since these words were written?

Now we turn to the BAS. Please open it to page 156 and look at the last paragraph read by the celebrant. What does this paragraph tell us about the change in our understanding of baptism?

…

It is the sacrifice made by Jesus that frees us from sin, not anything that we can do. It goes on to talk about baptism as being a way to be made one with Christ and to be cleansed from sin.

This is a very important distinction. Christ’s sacrifice frees us from the bondage of sin. By baptism we are cleansed from sin and enter into the community and body of Christ.

This is a very subtle difference, but worth thinking about.

If you haven’t already done it, please open your BAS to page 158 and we will renew, together, our baptismal covenants.