B - Baptism
James Cathcart
July 04, 2023
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Romans 6: 1-4 (NRSVA)
1 What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Baptism speaks powerfully to our fundamental human need to belong. It is a deep way of acknowledging someone. In Baptism you are part of something — it’s both about you as an individual and saying ‘It’s okay it’s not all on you — you belong in a wider community, our community.’
Baptism is not about losing our identity, but in baptism we recognise that who we are is not simply down to us alone — it’s something that comes from our relationships with God and one another. Humans don’t come all pre-wired, core parts of who we are come from outwith ourselves. No one human being can have all the answers or be entirely self-reliant. In order to grow we have to lean on others. Who we are is partly a product of whom we know, who and what has shaped us good and bad. And in Baptism there is ending as well as beginning, an opportunity to let go as we step into fullness of life.
In Baptism we are saying we don’t have to go it alone, because we're not alone. From our first breath and our first cries we long to connect. We know on a primal level that we must be heard, that we must be noticed if we’re going to survive. We come into the world helpless. Do we find meaning in rejecting that need for help as we grow up and become more able to? Yes. But we also find meaning in learning to accept our helplessness, in rediscovering it, in knowing what it is to be held by the love of others.
Through Baptism and seeing other people being Baptised we are reminded both of our helplessness and our vitality. We cried out and we are here. We are heard, known, recognised, acknowledged, cared for. God hears our cries and longs for us too. Like a mother in the middle of a maternity ward, instantly recognising our voice.
PRAYER:
Our Baptism invites us into
fuller
wider
deeper life.
Remind us often
of our need of one another
and the call
to walk in newness of life.
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