Easter Vigil - Baptism Revisitted

Eternal God, help us to find the way from darkness into light.  Show us your presence in our lives.  Lead us into the glow of your glory reflected in your creation and in us.  Through Jesus Christ our risen Lord.  Amen.

Tonight we are reborn.  Tonight we surrender to death and are brought into new life.  All through Lent we have been making our way, step by step, in the path of Jesus as he walked his road to Resurrection.  Well, we made it.

Tonight is a happy message.  We are done with the doom and gloom of Golgotha.  Tonight we are renewing our baptismal vows.  Tomorrow morning we will celebrate baptism itself.

But if this is such a joyous event, what is with that reading from Romans.  According to it, we were baptized into Christ’s death.  Tomorrow Jayden will be baptized into Christ’s death.  How is that good.  Aren’t we supposed to be baptized into new life?

 

Well, both are true.  Because Christ died for us and rose again, he defeated the power of death over us.  As Christians we do not live in his crucifixion, we live in his resurrection.  In baptism, we take our part in his death and are raised to new life on the other side.  We are an Easter people.  That is our choice and our calling.

This does not mean that we undertake baptism lightly.  Baptism has serious consequences and the benefits are much less clear.

We don’t need to be baptized to be saved from eternal death.  Christ was quite clear that he died for all, not just for those who follow him.  For the same reason, we don’t have to be baptized to be forgiven our sins, but it helps.

That’s what baptism isn’t.  There are many very different customs and beliefs about what baptism is.  There are a few that most churches agree on.

Baptism is a gift from God.  In baptism the Holy Spirit becomes part of us and is with us for our entire life.

Baptism cleanses us from sin, both past and future.  In baptism we become more aware of the moral implications of what we do.  We become more able to recognize when we need to return to God, when we have strayed.

Baptism is a sign of the Kingdom of God here on earth.  Baptism is part of God’s promise to us of the time when all will acknowledge the One True and Living God.  When justice will reign and the strife will be over.

Baptism is a rite of initiation into the Body of Christ.  When we are baptised we make promises to God and to the other members of the Body of Christ.  These promises are bound to change our lives if we keep them.  None of them are particularly hard to keep but as a whole they define a way of life that takes discipline, practice, and help to maintain.

In baptism we participate in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We become part of the story of salvation.  We give up our former life.  We surrender to God through Christ and promise to follow his example as we make our journey in the light of our own resurrection.

In just a moment we are going to renew our baptismal vows.  As we make our way through these vows, think carefully about what they mean to you today.  Try to remember what they meant to you in the past and how you have grown in your faith.  As we affirm our own faith in the baptismal covenant, think carefully about what you are promising.  These are promises made to God.

  

We know that God is faithful and will keep his promises to us.  Let’s see if we can help each other keep our promises to God.

Amen.