Rector’s Reflections
Tuesday 21st January 2025
Baptism in Today’s Church: Time for a Change?
I finished yesterday’s reflections with the following question: what would Baptism look like if we re-discovered our focus on God? It might surprise you to learn that when Baptism is talked about in the contemporary Church, it is only rarely that God ever gets a look in: all the conversation is usually about becoming members of the local congregation or about how baptism can be used to get more children and young families to come to church. But what about God?
Might it be that baptism and confirmation is actually about the work of God calling children and adults into a special relationship with Him, in and through His Son Jesus Christ? Might it be that the significance of baptism and confirmation is that it is one of the ways in which God calls us to know Him , to serve Him and live our lives to His praise and glory? In short, should baptism and confirmation be seen in terms of our “calling” or “vocation”?
I should add that the words “calling” and “vocation” mean the same thing, and that neither necessarily involves serving God in a role within the Church, whether lay or ordained. Every Christian is called to serve God in that they way they live their lives, and also in the particular roles which they may undertake. For example, being a husband or wife is as much a calling as paid employment or a professional role.
The idea here is that God treats us as individuals. He knows that we live our lives in a particular time and place, and that we all have different interests, gifts and personalities. So God calls each one of us individually, to serve Him in the way or ways He sees best. God’s call is an expression of his wisdom and His love. Sometimes this will mean that we have several different callings at anyone time, and sometimes it will mean that our calling or callings will change and develop over time. It might well be that our calling in our 20s is different from our calling in our 70s.
Sometimes we hear our calling through a direct communication with God : God talks to us, and we respond. But sometimes this calling comes to us through a wider group of which we are members, for example a family or a nation. God is still calling us, but He is calling us a member of the wider group, and it is this wider group which gives meaning to the call. God can also call wider groups as a whole: for example, God can call a family or a whole nation to serve Him in a particular way.
Baptism and confirmation are our response to God’s calling. God calls us first, both as individuals but also as members of a family and a wider community of friends. He invites us to respond positively to this call by submitting to baptism. Confirmation can be seen as opportunity for us to confirm our acceptance of God’s call.
When we respond to God’s call and undergo baptism and confirmation, God provides us with the gift of His Holy Spirit, and this gift of the Holy Spirit enables and encourages us to lay hold of the wonderful possibilities inherent in our calling.
So baptism and confirmation are all about our relationship with God. They are about the wonderful plans which God has for each one of us. They are about responding to God with a resounding Yes! Through baptism and confirmation, God is inviting us into a future full of adventure and blessing, a future lived in the strength of the Holy Spirit and in the company of all God’s faithful people. It may well be true that we now see ourselves as members of the local congregation, and that we might start coming to church on a regular basis. But it is about so much more than this. It’s about the start of an adventure with God – an adventure which has the potential to change our lives for ever.
I wonder what you think of this idea that baptism and confirmation should be seen in terms of our human response to God’s initiative in our lives? This dynamic approach puts the focus very much on God and on God’s plans for our future. It frees baptism from the bondage of the Church and places it firmly in God’s hands. However, not everyone in the Church would be happy at such a prospect. It assumes that God can be trusted to run the affairs of His Church, and not everyone is quite sure about this.
There are other possibilities, too, which give the Church more control, and we shall look at one of these in tomorrow’s reflections.