ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING
January 14, 2022
In Matthew 28:19, Jesus offered some insight in regard to baptism when he said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Over the years, in churches I was serving, we received phone calls from other churches were a former member of our church (often a person who had grown-up in the church and moved away) was joining this new church. They wanted to know if we baptized in the name of “the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” and they wanted to know if we used that exact language. I was even asked by one minister if we used Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost (good old King James), and another minister wanted to know if we included “…and of the” both times as he had heard that some church were baptizing in the name of “the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit,” leaving out the first ‘and.’ I’m not intending to make a joke here or judge others, but it sort of misses the point in my opinion. I’ve never been asked whether or not the person lived a different life after the baptism. I’ve never been asked if the individual seem to strive toward the love displayed in the life of Jesus with great passion. In Luke 11, Jesus seemed to be a bit frustrated by those who were so obsessed with splitting hairs over the irrelevant at the expense of justice and love. Ultimately, baptism is something God does. Whether the ritual uses certain words or not, the symbolism of the water and the movement of the Spirit create a place where amazing things can happen. Yet if you get people all preoccupied with the inconsequential, they will find themselves participating in a religion of the inconsequential. So often folks want to know how you spoke of God, but they seem uninterested if there was any visible sign the person had become a disciple of Jesus.
May the purpose of my life, O God, be a purpose full of passion about the things that matter – justice and mercy and love. I wish to make it so. Amen.
