LENT DAY 6: Clear Your Calendar

 

Day 6 Tuesday - Feb 28, 2023; Feb 20, 2024; Mar 11, 2025

And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name. -Acts 22:16

One of the saddest things that happens today is families are putting off baptisms more and more. Sometimes it is trying to find the “perfect date” that works for everyone. Sometimes it is because we are so busy and just don’t get around to it. Sometimes we mistakenly think it would be better to “wait until they are older” to "decide" for themselves. Worse yet, sometimes it is because they just don’t care. Baptism does not seem like that big a deal.

But one thing that the Book of Acts is very clear about is that baptism is not something to wait for or put off. The Ethiopian asked about baptism the minute he came upon some water (Acts 8:36). When the Holy Spirit fell upon the people in the home of Cornelius, Peter exclaimed “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people” (Acts 9:47), choosing to defend his actions back in Jerusalem rather than first seeking permission. The Philippian jailer “was baptized at once” (Acts 16:33). And Paul, recounting the words Annanias spoke to him was asked, “why do you wait? Rise and be baptized…”

Martin Luther was baptized the day after he was born! My own mother, a twin, being premature and so small at birth was baptized right away in the hospital by a Catholic priest. That wasn’t all that long ago. These days, however, we are more inclined to delay. Perhaps the church needs to again be confronted with this question Annanias posed to Paul. Why do you delay? Even to those of us who have already been baptized, it is a telling question. It proclaims to us that baptism is an important thing - a vital thing. It tells us how much the gospel’s claiming and saving power resides within its work on us. No Christian should delay. Like the warnings that Christ will return like a thief in the night such that we should always be prepared to meet our Lord, so then we should without delay be marked with his cross and sealed with the Holy Spirit he pours out on us.

To put it a little differently: because baptism is such a great thing and promises God’s forgiveness and grace, why would we delay in receiving it or believing in its promise?

Lord, our priorities too often do not reflect your own. I can make all the excuses in the world, but in the end there is no excuse for how often I do not follow your Word. Do not let me delay on the things you consider most important. Do not let me put off for tomorrow what you would have me heed today in your Word. Give me, in baptism, a chance to taste and see the goodness of my God that is being shared with me in the Word. Amen.

This post is a part of my daily Lenten devotional on Baptism. You can read more about it here.

LENT DAY 5: Dressed in Someone New

Day 5 Monday - Feb 27, 2023; Feb 19, 2024; Mar 10, 2025

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. -Galatians 3:27

Before I got married, I had one undershirt that I had been wearing for some 10 years. It was a ratty, torn mess of a shirt. My soon-to-be wife hated it. Any time she noticed I was wearing it or she saw it in my laundry she would threaten to throw it out. My insistence to keep on wearing it seemed an affront to all fashion decency. Finally, at our wedding, as a sign of our new life together, I wore it under my tux for the last time. I said to her that day we would tear it up and throw it out.

In Colossians, Paul says that “you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” (Col 3:9-10). Some of the old self he describes as “sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness” as well as “anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk” (v5, 8). Then he tells them to “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other…And above all these put on love” (v12-14). That’s quite the wardrobe change.

In Colossians, Paul is speaking descriptively of the change between the old self compared to one adorned in the new self. In Galatians, Paul puts this wardrobe change in the language of its source: “as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” The new life is described not according to the new ways one lives by but the source by which this new way finds life in us: Jesus. And baptism is particularly named as the act upon which God rips off the old ratty sin that tatters our image before God in this world and puts on something different. If we only hear the description of the new and old self, we might think our closet only has that old life to wear because it is sometimes easier to see things like our immorality or our obscene talk in the closet of our past than it is to see things like humility and kindness. It helps to know how this new self gets in our closet. It gets there by baptism. From the moment we are baptized, we are dressed in Jesus. From that moment on, whatever ratty, sin-stained shirts we put in our closet, there is another wardrobe we can put on each day. 

In our life together with God, it is the only garment worth wearing.

Clothe me, O Christ, in your very self. Help me, Holy Spirit, to put off the old sin-stained clothes. See me, Heavenly Father, through your Son Jesus. Let me never dare stand before you without Him who you dressed me in at my baptism. And grant that the world may see him too, for the honor and glory of His holy name. Amen.

This post is a part of my daily Lenten devotional on Baptism. You can read more about it here.

FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT: Contending with Satan

 
First Sunday in Lent - Feb 26, 2023; Feb 18, 2024; Mar 9, 2025

And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. -Mark 1:10-13

The assigned reading from the Revised Common Lectionary for the First Sunday in Lent each year is the temptation of Jesus. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all agree that this happens immediately following the baptism of Jesus. And in Matthew and Luke where we get more details about these temptations, we find that Satan especially goads Jesus with the words “If you are the Son of God…” He right away seeks to chip away at what has just taken place at his baptism when God the Father spoke plainly “You are my beloved Son”. Additionally, we can see that the minute Jesus enters into his baptism, he has begun to contest with Satan. The gospel of our salvation is well under way.

The same thing happens in your baptism. Baptism is a consecration: we are consecrated to God. You are God’s child in baptism. And you will have to believe this against every effort the Devil makes to get you to cast that identity aside. Additionally, you are consecrated into the fight against sin. You must live a life of repentance and put off the old self. You must die every day to sin. This is your life-long calling.

But we must never forget that Christ took on this calling first and won it for us. The way to put aside every doubt that questions if you really are God’s child is to listen to the words about Jesus at his baptism and hold fast to him as God’s Son, because as God’s Son he has shared with you in baptism his own sonship. Jesus’ victory over Satan and temptation was meant to help you in your weakness (Hebrews 2:18). You are therefore not simply called to put off the old self by your own powers, or repent in your own strength. You are to die with Christ, be buried with him, and rise with him. Baptism is a consecration to the struggle precisely because it joins you with Jesus who entered into this struggle for your sake.

Lead me not into temptation, Heavenly Father, but deliver me from the Evil One. Let me believe that I am what you have made me to be. Give me the victory your Son won over Satan, and let me die to sin today that I might rise in the strength of him who loved me and gave himself up for me. What life could I more fully live than the one you give me? I ask, therefore, for this life today. Amen.

This post is a part of my daily Lenten devotional on Baptism. You can read more about it here.

LENT DAY 4: Word+Element=Sacrament

 Day 4 Saturday - Feb 25, 2023; Feb 17, 2024; Mar 8, 2025

See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized? -Acts 8:36

We’ve talked about baptism and the Word, baptism and faith, now let’s talk about Baptism and water…

A sacrament is in a way a “sermon with props”, but not just any props that the preacher chooses. Rather, Jesus associates a very specific one to the message he speaks over you. The more traditional words used in the church to describe these props are “elements” (to emphasize their physicality) or “signs” (to emphasize that they convey a message). Martin Luther’s preferred definition of a sacrament came from Augustine: Accedat verbum ad elementum et fit sacramentum (“When the Word is added to the external element, it becomes a sacrament”). You might think of it as a formula: element + God's Word = Sacrament. God chooses the element and Christ shares a specific Word to accompany it. As a sacrament, baptism has a unique way of sharing the message of grace in that it is accompanied by an element; a sign; water.

In the early church document the Didache, we can see that the church preferred cold, running water. But if you did not have access to cold water, it said use warm. And if you didn’t have access to running water, then use what water you do have access to. If you must pour on the person instead of submerging them, then pour it. The idea was that certain practices like submerging a person in cold, running water (like a river) was preferred - probably because it pointed to the way the element served as a sign of the message it proclaimed - but in the end all that mattered was that one used water.

Even today there are a lot of different ways a person can be baptized, but one thing is clear, a baptism should include water. When the Ethiopian Eunuch saw that he and Philip had come upon some water he realized that the opportunity to be baptized had come. We rightly emphasize the power of the Word in baptism. That’s what makes the water holy if you will and no longer “just plain water”. That's what we base baptism upon, not the internal strength of our faith or the external rightness of the type of water we use or way we are covered in that water. Yet just as faith matters, so also water still matters, especially as a means of helping our faith grasp and remember baptism. Its message is not only heard, but seen and felt. The elemental nature of it allows it to work as a proclaiming sign.

It’s an amazing thing to have water as the sign for baptism, because we cannot live long without water. Its essentialness is part of the message, as is its access. In general, we try to always have access to water. And if access to water is all it takes for a person to start asking “What prevents me from being baptized?” then baptism’s message of grace is always close to us - calling us to Jesus and reminding us of his salvation. How long will you go today before you are in front of water? Let that serve to remind you of how readily present God’s grace is, and may water’s life-giving nourishment and our desperate need for it remind you of our need for the life-giving grace of Jesus.

Let me see you Jesus, in the waters of baptism. Let every drop of water I see, remind me of how you came to me in these waters. Let every thirsting I crave cause a craving for righteousness to well up within me. Let every bottle, glass, faucet, lake, river, ocean, and spring remind me that you are all around me and as the rain that waters the ground so you cover the earth with your mercy in Jesus. Blessed are we, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for you have filled us indeed. Amen.

This post is a part of my daily Lenten devotional on Baptism. You can read more about it here.

LENT DAY 3: Baptism's Bond with Faith

 

Day 3 Friday - Feb 24, 2023; Feb 16, 2024; Mar 7, 2025

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. -Mark 16:16

Yesterday we spoke of baptism in relation to the Word, today we look at it in relation to faith. 

When we first got our new dog Monk, he just adored our older dog Pope. Wherever Pope went, Monk wanted to follow. Whenever Monk saw Pope, he just wanted to run up to him and play with him. If you called for Pope, you might as well have called for both dogs because Monk was going to show up too. In fact, if it happened that we saw Pope but Monk didn’t follow, something wasn’t right. 

“Whoever believes and is baptized…” This conjunction tells us that there are two things which rightly belong together: faith and baptism. Wherever faith shows up, baptism ought to show up too. And wherever someone is called to the waters of baptism, they are being called to a life of faith. Something is not right if we have one with no desire for the other. Baptism’s message is the gospel, and the gospel is to be believed. Faith seeks the fullness of the gospel message, and therefore will seek baptism and its graces. No matter which comes first, baptism or faith, we should hardly be surprised that it would lead to the other. Any time you call for one dog, the other has a way of showing up too.

And together, faith and baptism become a formidable duo. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,” Jesus declares. Baptism shares the gospel; faith receives it. If the Word makes baptism what it is, faith believes in all that the Word makes it to be. Baptism is our assurances of salvation in Christ, faith is to be assured that we are saved in Christ. Find one, you should find the other.

And when you do, Christ has promised that what really has shown up is his salvation.

Lord, help me to never make it about being baptized or believing, but rather about being baptized and believing. Use my baptism for my faith, that I may believe in your work upon me. Use my faith for my baptism, that I may believe the Word you have spoken over me there. Amen.

This post is a part of my daily Lenten devotional on Baptism. You can read more about it here.

LENT DAY 2: The Word of Baptism

 Day 2 Thursday - Feb 23, 2023; Feb 15, 2024; Mar 6, 2025

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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. -Matthew 28:19-20

What is baptism? 

“Baptism,” replies our catechism, “is not simply plain water. Instead, it is water used according to God’s command and connected with God’s word.” And if you wanted to know what word we meant particularly, our catechism would then take you to this passage in Matthew 28. This is the “Great Commission” where Christ institutes the Sacrament of Baptism. It is why we always do baptisms “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We were commanded to do it that way.

And when baptism is done this way, we say a baptism has truly happened. It is no longer “just plain water.” Why? Well, because we bank everything baptism is on the Word of God. We don’t give baptism its meaning, God does. Therefore, so long as it is done according to the Word, then everything the Word says about baptism must be true.

This means that even if you were baptized in another church, be it Methodist, Catholic, or Baptist it would not matter. You are still baptized! This means that even if people involved in your baptism were not the best people - a pastor who eventually fell into scandal, Godparents who later avow their atheism, parents who were cruel and abusive - none of them could delegitimize your baptism. This means that even if you were an infant with no discernable faith, or an impulsive teenager who believed so hard one week only to hardly care the next, a fringe Christian who has fallen in and out of the church, a devout person who realizes how much more you now know than you did then, or an age old person who simply reflects on how long it has been since your baptism - none of that can delegitimize the word of promise. Baptism is what it is not by faith, but by the command and word of God. God put his very name into it so that we might realize on whom baptism’s power truly rests. And God’s Word has no expiration date. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:8).

Tomorrow we will talk about the important role of faith in regards to baptism. But for today, we begin with the Word, because that is where faith always begins. And when our faith for baptism is in the Word given in baptism, then it will always be just as sure today as when we first believed it.

Thank you, O God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for letting me stake my baptism on your good name. You are faithful, and your love endures forever. Give me a confidence that my baptism cannot fail me because you will not fail me. Today you open my lips to proclaim your praise: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen.

This post is a part of my daily Lenten devotional on Baptism. You can read more about it here.

LENT DAY 1: Not a Skin-Deep Washing

 Day 1 (Ash Wednesday) - Feb 22, 2023; Feb 14, 2024; Mar 5, 2025

Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ -1 Peter 3:21

It’s Ash Wednesday, a day where many Christians are called into a time of repentance, fasting, and prayer. We come forward and get an ashen cross placed upon our head - a visible sign of this calling and the movement of the season towards Holy Week.

We often read on this day from the prophet Joel. God through the prophet tells us to “return to me with all your heart” (Joel 2:12) and to “rend your hearts and not your garments” (Joel 2:13) because the problem is far deeper than our clothes and our skin. That is, human sin is more than a mere blemish that can be scrubbed away. In classical prophetic style he reminds us that repentance is not mere doing of outward religious rituals because mere outward fixing of things simply won’t do. The corruption of sin has dug deep into our hearts and will eventually return us to dust and ashes. "[Y]ou are dust," God says to Adam, "and to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:19). If the ash placed on our heads reminds us of this, the cross reminds us that in Jesus God has gone just as far to save us when he died on the cross. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23).

This reading today from Peter says that baptism proclaims that Christ’s saving power has run just as deep in us as this sinful corruption. Our first word on baptism this season says that baptism is more than an outward washing, a mere “removal of dirt from the body”. Baptism is not just an outward ritual. It’s work is more than skin deep, and that's good news because our need is more than skin deep. On Ash Wednesday we are confronted with the depth of sin’s effect on the entire human condition. Today also, therefore, we remember the depth of baptism’s power. It “now saves you”. Like Joel speaking of the need for repentance to run all the way to the heart because the corruption has, Peter speaks of baptism’s ability to run just as deep by granting us a "good conscience" through Jesus.

It's telling you then the story of the cross and resurrection. However far, however deep, whatever the length sin and death has gone to get a strangle-hold of you, Christ has gone just as far to win you back.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love. In your boundless compassion, blot out my offenses. Create in me a clean heart, put a new and right spirit within me. As you have promised in my baptism, save me and give me a clean conscience. All for Christ's sake, Amen.

This post is a part of my daily Lenten devotional on Baptism. You can read more about it here.

Lent Devotional Introduction: 40 days, 10 passages, and Your Baptism

I was working on a devotional again this year for my church. Last year I wrote up one that walked through the seven last words of Christ from the cross. Instead of flooding the reader with a lot of different passages it focused on the same 7 passages for the entirety of the season (with the exception being Sundays, since they are not counted in the 40 days of Lent but are "Little Easters", so we read from the words of Christ on Easter Sunday on those days). 

This year I intended to do a similar pattern while focusing on the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. Unfortunately I started later than I had last year and ended up being too busy to complete the devotional in time to print it. Then at the start of this week I thought, "Why not put it online?" So beginning today we will have a daily devotion available for readers. The devotional will use 10 passages around baptism (so we will read from each one 4 times). On Sundays, we will look at different passages around Jesus' baptism by John. Below are the 10 Passages:

1. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ -1 Peter 3:21

2. 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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. -Matthew 28:19-20

3. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. -Mark 16:16

4. See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized? -Acts 8:36

5. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. -Galatians 3:27

6. And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name. -Acts 22:16

7. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. -Acts 2:38-39

8. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless  one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ -John 3:5-7

9. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? -1 Corinthians 1:13

10. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. -Romans 6:3-4

I should also note that the message and prayers in this devotional assume that you the reader have been baptized. I know that may not always be the case, but as I wrote this for my congregation first and foremost, that is the audience I am working with. And I hope that if one finds they are not baptized, there might be a desire for these promises and prayers to apply to you. If that is the case, may this devotional create an urgent need within you, a hunger and thirst for righteousness that Christ and his baptism alone can satisfy. And may the Shepherd of Souls guide you to the waters of baptism.

The devotional will be less refined than I would like due to the rush job, but hey it's free and this is an armchair theology blog! So you get your money's worth. Although, dear readers, I hope you do both enjoy it and find from it Gospel promise for your life and clarity towards the gift God has given you in Baptism.

Blessed Lent,

Your Armchair Theologian