Value #4- BAPTISM
Week 4: Community
Word:
“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you are called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one
faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all.” Ephesians 4:4-6
Reflection:
We are baptized in community and into community. If baptism is a mark of our identity as children
of God, then that it also identifies us with God’s family, the Body of Christ, the Church. The liturgy
for baptism says “through baptism we are initiated into Christ’s holy Church”. This family cuts across
denominational lines, but more importantly across nation, race, gender, age, and social class. One of
the amazing things about the early church was the diversity of the community. Paul said, “he (Christ)
has broken down the dividing wall” and that “as you have been baptized into Christ, you have been
clothed with Christ and there is therefore no longer Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female;
for all are one in Christ”. That is a truth about our baptism that we have been slow to live into. As
baptized children of God we should be taught to look at each other through the eyes of our Heavenly
Father who sees us all as of equal value and equally loved. Paul taught that every member of the
body was of great importance and essential to our wholeness. We supposed to be baptized into a
community of love and forgiveness which should change the way we treat each other as baptized
members of God’s family. Like parents whose hearts break when their children are divided so does
the heart of God for the Church.
Being baptized into community also reminds us that discipleship is not a solitary pursuit. It is not just about MY relationship to God through Christ, but rather OUR relationship to God through Christ. Remember how Jesus taught us to pray, “OUR Father . . . give US this day . . . forgive US our trespasses”. In baptism we become responsible for and accountable to one another. The liturgy asks, “Will you nurture one another in the Christian faith and life?” And then charges us to “do all in our power to increase their faith, confirm their hope, and perfect them in love.” To be a baptized child of God essentially means to be a responsible and active part of the faith community, for it is in that community that we learn how to love and forgive, to believe and hope, self-denial and self-giving, and ultimately to be “perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect.” Practice: When you go to church this week, remember your baptism by looking at other people there, especially those you may not know or like and prayerfully say they are baptized children of God, loved by my Father and part of my family.
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