“You have been given fullness in Christ… having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.” ~Colossians 2:10-12
You are not baptized by yourself. Baptism is not a private deal. When you’re baptized into the life, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus, you are baptized into his community. You become a part of God’s redeemed people. Baptism is not just unity with Christ, it is also very much unity in Christ.
“You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” ~Galatians 3:26-28
That’s why we do baptisms on Sundays when the whole church is together. That’s why we cram as many people as we can up on the stage and we all stand as close as we can to the water, so you know this is not just about me and God. This is not just about me and my close relatives or me and my best friends. I am being joined by God into this community. God through Christ is now making me a part of this worldwide, universal, eternal community of the saved in Christ.
This past Sunday was our second Baptism Sunday at GCR. We gave our church several weeks to think about baptism. To pray about it. To talk to others about it. To listen to God about it. I taught two Sunday morning classes–they were more like conversations–about baptism with people of all ages and backgrounds and covered lots of baptism topics. If you have never been baptized or if someone you know has never been baptized, we’re going to spend these few weeks preparing for it and then we’re going to baptize a bunch of people on the 27th.
And, by God’s grace, we did.
Eight brand new Christians put on our crucified and risen Lord Jesus in baptism Sunday. We knew about six of them last week, we learned about one of them Saturday afternoon, and one guy didn’t decide to be baptized until after the second or third baptism. Kristin baptized Bianca, a sweet girl who’s been taught and transformed in Kristin’s GCR children’s ministry. Brandon baptized Charlotte, a long-time member of their small group. Shane and Blossom baptized their son, Donny. Doug baptized his daughter, Ella. Cory and Hannah baptized their children, Margo and Solomon. And I had the tremendous honor of baptizing Kayla, who’s been coming to GCR for two years now at the invitation of a nearly life-long friend, and Nina, Ruben and Angie’s niece, who’s been wrestling with God and her own faith for over three years. We were laughing and crying and praising God together as a united community of faith around the waters of baptism. And each time a new Christian came up out of that water, we charged them and blessed them in unison with the opening lines from Colossians 3:
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, you also will appear with him in glory!”
It was a glorious day. Those of us who’ve been baptized for a long time remembered our own baptisms with thanksgiving and renewed our commitments to Christ and to one another all over again. And we thanked God for the privilege of participating in these eight baptisms together as a church family. We ate and drank the communion meal together and prayed over these new disciples, still literally wet behind the ears, dripping with God’s forgiveness and grace, and filled to overflowing with his Holy Spirit.
May our God bless these brand new Christians with his love and grace. May they look back often on their baptism at GCR and remember what God has created in them. And may they walk with him, together with us, faithful to the end.
Peace,
Allan
Dinner with J.E., Cory, and Jason at Malibu Seafood on the Pacific Coast Highway. The way the sun is situated in this picture makes J.E. look like an illustration from The Old Man and the Sea.
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