It's that time of year again. In early
June, our church holds a baptism service, which means our pastor has
lost his ever-lovin' mind. Take this week's sermon title as an
example: he titled it “Baptism and Communion”, and in the 40
minute sermon, he spent 40 minutes talking about why everyone needs
to be baptized. See a problem there? Oh, sure, it was communion
Sunday. We have a communion Sunday every month (I think; my schedule
doesn't let me attend every month). But last month, they didn't title
the sermon “Share … and Communion” or the month before that
“Contagious Inviters … and Communion”, because they recognized
that Communion, while part of the service, was not part of the
sermon. But for some reason, this week they felt the needed to
include Communion in the sermon title, even though they wouldn't
actually be talking about it. Reminds me of last year, when he
actually raised the question, “Does a person need to be baptized to
be right with God?” and he would not answer the question. Hint: The
answer is no. But something about Baptism turns our pastor, who I otherwise genuinely like, into an
advertising guru, or possibly a grifter, shilling his shell game.
My pastor is not alone in this
phenomenon. A few years back, I was … not happy … with some
aspects of my church, including this attitude about baptism, so I
decided to look for another church. I went to church after church
after church in my area, and they all said the same thing: “You
need to be baptized. Oh, baptism isn't a requirement for salvation,
but you need to be baptized.” Really? Why? No one can actually give
a satisfactory answer for that. They just say, “It's a sign of
obedience.” But is it, really?
Churches, well, Protestant churches,
are fond of quoting The Great Commission: “Therefore, go and make
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19) Okay. I
actually believe the Bible. I believe that it's the Inspired Word of
God, and good for teaching, reproof, correction and training in
righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16) What I don't believe is that God
requires us to climb into a pool of water and have someone shove our
heads under while that person recites the magic words (“I baptize
you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”).
One of the things
the pastor talked about during his sermon was what he called, “a
brief history lesson.” During Old Testament times, or The Days of
the Prophets for those who don't recognize two Testaments, in order
for a gentile to become a Jew, he would submit to circumcision, to
obedience to the law, to a sacrifice (probably of a bull, ram, lamb,
goat, doves, what have you), and to a ceremonial washing. Today, to
become a member of the Church, a lot of churches gloss over obedience
-- yes, they say you should be obedient, but they don't really talk much
about The Law, they no longer demand that a person not have committed adultery, or that the person not be divorced -- and they certainly don't demand an animal sacrifice
or circumcision. If those aren't necessary, why do they still insist on a ceremonial
washing?
I don't like literalism. I do, however, like understanding. The Greek word “βαπτίζοντες”
(past-participle of βαπτίζω)
means “to dip under, to immerse, to soak, to sink, to wash”. To a
literalist, that means to cover the person in water. Okay, you want
to be a literalist, then why would you say “In the name of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” instead of their actual
names, “I AM” (אֶהְיֶה
or EHYEH or Yahweh), “Jesus” (ישוע
or Y'shua) and … well, I don't know the
Holy Spirit's name, but is that really why they don't use the others?
When we talk about how Jesus said, “Ask anything in my name...”
he didn't mean that saying “In Jesus' Name, amen” at the end of a
prayer will magically make it come true. He meant that if the prayer
is in accord with his name, with his identity, then God will do it
for you*. (This does not mean that only prayers God was going to do
anyway will come true, which would make prayer ... redundant.) Moreso, if you're going to be a literalist,
the Bible doesn't say, “Be baptized,” it says TO baptize. So the
impetus would then not be on the members of the congregation, or new
believers to submit to baptism, it would be on the pastors, teachers
and missionaries to baptize people. Maybe that's why they push it so
hard. Mind you, there are many, many reasons I don't like literalism.
Because, no, I do not
believe God has commanded missionaries to shove people under water
while spouting The Magic Words.
Jesus said a lot of things
while He was alive (one of which was not, “Always capitalize when
referring to me in the third person,” but I digress). He said, “You
must be born again.” He called himself a vine, a gate and a
shepherd. He called his followers sheep several times. None of these
were actually meant literally (and when He said, “sheep,” He did
it in love). No, you do not need to crawl back into your mother's womb
and come back out again to be a Christian. Many Christian faiths even
believe that when he said, “This is my body” and “This is my
blood,” he was not speaking literally, that he did not transform
crackers and grape alcohol into human DNA, while still standing in
front of his disciples.
So, maybe, just
maybe, when Jesus said, after his death, to “go and make disciples
of all the nations, βαπτίζοντες them in the name of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” what he meant was not, “go
and make disciples of all the nations, immersing them in water and
saying, 'in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit',”
but, “go and make disciples of all the nations, immersing them in
the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” immersing
them, not in water, but in the very identities of who the Father, the
Son and the Holy Spirit are (figuratively, the name). After all, it
seems to me that in Jesus' teaching, the state of a person's heart is
far more important than outward signs of religiosity.
* This is not a guarantee. It's a truism. There are several reasons why God's answer to a prayer is or seems to be "no". Of course, most of those can probably be summed up by, "It's not in accordance with His identity, at least not right now."
