The V-Blog: May 2011

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Why we baptized Eli today

Our pastor asked us to share with the congregation why we wanted to have Eli baptized. Here's what we told them:

1. Children have always been part of the covenant God has made with his people. Children were included all the way back in Genesis 17 in God's covenant with Abraham and again on Pentecost when Peter speaks about God's promise being "for you and for your children." Jen and I place our faith in this God, are members of Christ's church, and are filled with the Holy Spirit. As our son, Eli is part of our family, this New Community congregation, and the covenant community we call the Church.

2. We realize that baptizing Eli as a baby runs counter to the hyper-individualism rampant in America today. Baptism places the emphasis on God and what God has done in Christ and what God is doing in Eli. Eli's baptism today is far more about God than it is about Eli. Rather than focus on Eli's helplessness, just like our own, focus on God's graciousness. This sacrament is a visible sign of the invisible grace that God gives to Eli. Perhaps the easiest way to express it is that God says "yes" to Eli.

3. Baptism is not just a sign of God's faithfulness and unrelenting love, it is also a promise of future faith. We look forward to the day when Eli says "yes" back to God. Baptizing Eli makes blatantly clear what we already know - that God acts first in our salvation and that whatever faith we do have, it is because God has given it to us. We baptize Eli today in the promise of faith that is to come. Eli already has a relationship with Christ and the Church even if he has not made a decision to convert. In baptizing Eli, we demonstrate what is true: that Eli belongs to God and is a part of the covenant community until the day that he should reject them. In other words, Eli's "in" until he takes himself "out."