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<\/a>This post is about baptism, so much more than merely the door by which we enter God\u2019s family, but also a central part of what keeps God\u2019s family \u201creal\u201d. Baptism not only makes us brothers and sisters, it keeps us bothers and sisters. It is forever.<\/p>\n
In my years, I have had to deal with many (physical) fights, but I have seen many more fights prevented, and all of them prevented by baptism. Many times I have been standing between two kids, screaming \u201cYOU CAN\u2019T FIGHT HIM\/HER, YOU ARE BOTH BAPTIZED!\u201d. And it worked. Always with much shouting and noise, but it worked. Once, someone cursed their own baptism, yelling \u201cI HATE MY &%(#*$% BAPTISM! I WISH I\u2019D NEVER BEEN BAPTIZED!\u201d. I have always said that, in that moment, that kid understood baptism better than many theologians.<\/p>\n
You cannot undo a baptism. It is forever.It makes us bothers and sisters, forever. Brothers and sisters that are real, that you can reach out and touch, and you can love and that can love you back. Forever.<\/p>\n
Sadly, many in American Christendom today inadvertently emasculate this great gift from God through their misunderstanding of it. When you believe and teach that baptism is merely an \u201coutward sign of an inward confession\u201d (evangelicals, baptists, etc), you have already admitted that it might not be forever, because any decision made by a man or woman (even a decision to \u201cask Jesus into your heart\u201d) can be undecided later. A brother and a sister apparently can be temporary. This view has other consequences as well, one of which is a watered down view of the church. Every day we can see people deciding that their church no longer \u201cmeets their needs\u201d and moving on. In a real family, a brother can\u2019t decide not to be a brother anymore.<\/p>\n
Others have a slightly stronger view of baptism, but unintentionally water it down by teaching that the church being joined is invisible (reformed). Do you know what the problem with an invisible church is? It is that it is invisible. Invisible churches can\u2019t really take stands on issues or provide real leadership, and the state of protestantism today makes this manifestly evident (protestants as a group can\u2019t decide whether abortion is bad, whether gay marriage is bad, etc). Another problem with an invisible church is that you are always wondering whether or not you are really part of it. This sort of \u201cfamily\u201d is ephemeral and vaporous. Hard to compete when all you have is vapor.<\/p>\n
If we are to have any hope of success in showing those with wayward, but very real and tangible families, that Christ\u2019s love is real (in fact, more real than anything else), then we must strive to keep our baptisms real, and in so doing, keep God\u2019s family on earth real, vibrant, tangible, permanent, and filled with love. Then (and I don\u2019t think JRR Tolkien will mind me absconding with his words here \u2013 the light of E\u00e4rendil, after all, was a vial of WATER), our baptisms will be for us, and for those around us,<\/p>\n