ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
April 11, 2026
Tomorrow, we continue with our series entitled: Show Them The Exit. For a church that celebrates an open door and a true spirit of hospitality, it feels a little counterproductive to give a title to anything that suggests we are showing someone the door. All jokes aside, over my years of ministry, I have met too many people who have literally been shown the door by their previous churches. For a whole host of reasons, too numerous to list here, people have been asked to leave. In two cases, I know people who were escorted out of worship and told never to come back, and it wasn’t because they were doing anything disruptive in worship. Cypress Creek Christian Church has become the home for many people who have been kicked out of previous churches, and for that, I am thankful.
Our theme that began last Sunday with Easter is really about helping people who find themselves, for one reason or another, stuck in a tomb… a figurative tomb, though figurative does not make it any less real, frightening, or hopeless. And for many people, help showing them the way out might require them to find their way into worship or some other experience of the church. In fact, there are times when it might take a whole segment of the faith community to help someone get unstuck from the tomb and find liberation beyond the entrance/exit (depending on where you are).
As the Apostle Paul suggests, baptism is a dying and rising with Christ. It is both an experience in the tomb and joyous liberation from the tomb, but baptism is not something we do to ourselves. Oh, sure, I got into the argument with a guy who put forth the scenario of an individual being stuck on a deserted island, and if that person wanted to be baptized, then that person could self-baptize. OK, for all those caught on deserted islands who might be reading this Etching, I provide full permission to do self-baptism, but for the rest of us, it is a passive experience. And though a minister might actually do the baptism, that officiant is only acting on behalf of God—a God who seeks to lift everyone from the tomb and into new life. It is a symbol of what people of faith will hopefully experience again and again and again. And for those who are needing a little help, the church—also called the Body of Christ—can point people in the direction of the exit, which is in fact an entrance into new life.
Thank you, O Holy Giver of new life and tomb-exiting power. There aer so many tombs that might seek to hold us, attempting to drain us of hope and joy, we pray for the resurrection of Jesus to be our inspiration and our source of conviction. No tomb is our destination. This is our faith; this is our belief. Amen.
