Some More Thoughts about Roots

In Chapter 4, Ford asked each of us to ponder this question: “What is the root system of my life?” (82). In my last post, I said that I'd say something more about our being rooted and grounded in God's baptismal waters. Inasmuch as my wife (God bless her!) comes from the Southern Baptist tradition, you can well imagine that she and I have had not a few conversations about our understanding of and appreciation for baptism. Among Christians, it is popularly thought that there are basically two views: one held by those who baptize infants (Orthodox Christians, Roman Catholics, Anglicans and Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, among others); another held by those in the anabaptist tradition (Baptists, Mennonites, Assembly of God Christians, and so on). Actually there are more than two views as Tom Nettles et al. make apparent in Understanding Four Views of Baptism. But as good as that book is (it is at times superficial), I would argue that its four views are too strictly derived from the so-called Protestant tradition; the book says nothing about the views of our Roman Catholic and Orthodox sisters and brothers. Yet although there are more than four views, the book nonetheless moves us to understand that within the Church our understandings of baptism are diverse and nuanced.

Because I best understand and appreciate the Lutheran understanding to Holy Baptism (reflecting the "catholic" view), I agree with Four Views when it describes the Lutheran approach as one which emphasizes the saving activity of God in baptism. As always with our relationship with God, the Holy Trinity initiates and brings to completion our salvation. Baptism is like being born. When my mother delivered me, she did all grunting and pushing, heavy breathing, and muscle contracting; all I did was gasp for a breath of air and start living. So with baptism, "being born again"; God, like a mother, does all the saving work, delivering me; all I do is feel the mighty Word and the water coming down over me, and I catch the Breath.

Interestingly, in a Bible class I attended a year ago we discovered (not unsurprisingly in a Methodist church) that about 50% were baptized as infants and the other 50% were baptized as adults. We talked about our baptisms at some length and then asked each other, "Does the kind of baptism by which you entered the Church now give you deep satisfaction? That is: if you had to do things over again, would you want to be baptized as before or differently?" Not a few of those baptized (and re-baptized) as adults said that they now wished that they had been baptized as infants. Those who articulated this view said that they envied those who from infancy on, from their first memories forward, knew themselves to be baptized Christians even as toddlers and very young children. They wished that they too could have had that sense of identity from birth, from the time of their infancy in baptism. As I now think back on their responses to the question, it really doesn't surprise much at all that so many in the class, baptized as adults, said they would have like to have been baptized as infants.

Knowing that I was a Christian from my earliest memories has been for me a great source of comfort. Thinking about my baptism, I have often been reminded what the Lord Jesus said to my "patron" Saint--Saint Andrew and to me, "Andy, you did not choose me; I chose you." Because God is my Sovereign Savior, I have never felt the need to be "re-baptized." When God acts, he acts decisively! God's placing me by baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus (Romans 6) happened before I was able to remember the watery event, "before the foundations of the world." Like a child who has been adopted shortly after birth, I grew up knowing only God as my True Parent. In baptism the Most Holy Trinity gave me his Name. As I grew older and went to three years of Saturday-morning confirmation instructional classes, learning what it meant to be immersed in the death and resurrection of Jesus, and was then confirmed in my faith at the age of fourteen, I steadily grew in understanding and appreciation of God's decisive love. That's not to say that I always lived out my baptismal identity. I didn't. Even when I forgot who I was and left the Church later in life, going into spiritual exile for something over a decade, I was however so "vaccinated" with that identity that upon returning to the Family of God, my return was, properly understood, "easy." All I had to do was walk home, reclaim my God-given identity, and live in my baptismal life. There was no need to get "re-baptized," for God, once and for all times, had brought me into his family, given me his Name, thrust me into the life of the his Son and the embrace of the Holy Spirit. I may have left God, but God never left me. Just as I have children who will always be my children (no matter what!), so God called me his child in baptism, and he has always said, "You are mine."

So when I think of the roots of my life, there you have it. I am rooted, grounded, and watered in the love of God and always have been since my baptism on November 30, 1937. Now each day, during my Morning and Evening Prayers, and at the beginning and conclusion of each Eucharistic Liturgy when my Pastor says to the Family, "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," I remember when God put me, like the Israelites at the Red Sea, into and out of the water and saved me. When remembering, I mark my body with sign of the cross and live out my identity as God's child. I look around and see many in my Family also marking themselves with the sign of the cross, and I thank God that by God's grace I am a member of the Body of Christ. God has really gotten my attention.