Awakening to Baptism

John 10: 1-10 is not a story about baptism. No one is being dunked in a river, sprinkled on the head, or being blessed in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There are no crowds, no water, and no preacher...

At first glance, this story has nothing to do with baptism. Go ahead and read it...see what I mean?

Except, baptism is not all about the water, the crowds, or a preacher baptizing. Baptism is also about identity. In baptism, you are acknowledging that you are a child of God; that God is with you all your life, cleansing you of sin and claiming you as beloved. In baptism,you claim that you are who you were meant to be. 

Baptism is not only an event, however; it is not simply something that happened in the past. Baptism is a way of life. 

Mark Stamm, in his new booklet, The Meaning of Baptism in the United Methodist Church (Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 2017), writes that in the Pentecost story, the author of Acts says “And that day about three thousand persons were added” (Acts 2:41, NRSV) to the community of Christians through baptism. Stamm goes on to observe:

When I recount this story to my students, I often pause here and facetiously say, “And then they all went home and said, ‘what a wonderful and transforming religious experience that was!’” When they’re paying attention, they protest, saying, “That’s not what happened at all,” and they are correct. Those first Christians became a new community, one that “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts. 2:42). Theirs was a community in which the work of the Spirit was manifest. They cared for one another, sharing their lives on multiple levels, and that sharing overflowed, drawing others into their fellowship. The remainder of Acts provides the continued narrative of that overflow and by the grace of God received in baptism, we continue writing new chapters.

New chapters. We are characters in God's story of love, mercy, and compassion. So how are you continuing God's story through your life? How does your identity as a child of God continue the work of God in your close relationships, your community, in your church family, and in the world? If "God draws us beyond preoccupation with our own needs and destiny, and gives us a place in God’s ongoing project of blessing the world and calling it to justice and love (Stamm, again)," then our baptism empowers us and invites to think beyond ourselves, just like God does. We are children of God. 

In this passage, John 10: 1-10, the shepherd seeks to hold all of the sheep together, regardless of color or physical condition, as one community. This is not your perfect flock. They are not all soft, white, beautiful sheep. Some are blind, wounded, crippled, or lame. But they aren't seen that way, because they are together. Their identity is through their shepherd, who holds them all together. So it is with us and with God through Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. 

If you read this, and are not baptized, but want to be, or are interested in a conversation, my email is jack.ladd@flumc.org. I'd love to talk with you.

*Credit to the Discipleship Ministries of the UMC (https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship/lectionary-calendar)

*Prayer:

Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt!
Yonder on Calvary's mount out-poured,
there where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.
Grace, grace, God's grace,
grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
grace, grace, God's grace,
grace that is greater than all our sin!

*"Grace Greater than Our Sin," United Methodist Hymnal, 365

In Christ,

Jack