Baptism and Discipleship

Today as we gather to celebrate the baptism of Neveah and Noah, I’d like to begin by asking you a question. This is a real question, which is to say that I’d like some people to answer it out loud for all to hear! Many of you here have brought children to be baptized – some of you fairly recently, some of you a very long time ago. What were some of your reasons for doing so?

There are many different reasons why people bring children for baptism. Baptism is like a diamond with many facets; as we hold it up and turn it around, the light strikes different surfaces and we see different aspects of it. Even in the Bible there are a number of different images used for baptism. We’re told that being baptized is like dying on the cross with Jesus and rising again with him on Easter Day. We’re told that it’s like being adopted into God’s family as sons and daughters of God. We’re told that just as God made a covenant with his Old Testament people and gave them circumcision as the sign and seal of it, so baptism is a sign and seal to us of God’s new covenant with us. And we’re told that being baptised is like being born again.

Some of these images of baptism make more sense in the New Testament setting where most people coming to be baptized were adults who were consciously leaving an old way of life behind and starting a new life with Jesus. But Neveah and Noah are not in that category, and so I want to share with you this morning a way of looking at baptism that makes more sense for those of us who are bringing children to be baptized. And I want to start with a story from the end of Matthew’s gospel, from the time after the resurrection of Jesus but before he ascended into heaven. Listen to what Matthew says:

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:16-20).

In this passage I want to briefly point out to you three things: a statement about Jesus, a statement about us, and a statement about baptism.

(Read the rest here).