Water, Water Everywhere

Sorry, no post last week but I heard we started the discussion of the other United Methodist sacrament - baptism. Even though as United Methodists most of us have no recall of our baptism as infants, we do get to relive it every time another baby is baptized, expanding the community of believers. Baptism is so full of hope and promise, not only in the innocent child but also in the sound of the water as the pastor pours it into the font. You have to admit there is something compelling, calming, soothing about just the thought of water. My happy place often includes water - sitting by the edge of the ocean, floating in a warm pool in the sunshine, fishing, waterfalls in the forest. But like communion, I mostly find myself going through the motions, reading and responding in the liturgy, without consciously thinking about what it all means.

We do celebrate infant baptism, as opposed the to believer's baptism which requires the individual to be of sufficient age and reason as to be able to choose to be baptized and profess their faith. We only baptize once because once the covenant is made, the original sin is redeemed, so there is no need to repeat the sacrament. God acts, reorienting the individual's spirit or soul to be more open and welcoming of God's grace. United Methodists celebrate baptism as a public event, within the community of believers because it also require a commitment on the part of the congregation to welcome the individual and support and nurture their spiritual growth. We talked about the United Methodist requirements for communion - that you believe in Jesus Christ and earnestly repent of your sins - and noted the requirements for baptism are 1) at least one sponsor must be a member of the church 2) parents/sponsor must agree to raise the child in the church. No real revelations in any of those points for me, but I did gain a richer, deeper, and actively conscious understanding of the covenant that is made.

What do we do, and why do we do it? Those have been the questions in this study, and they are great questions to consider. Some of us never really learned these things, some of us feel better not thinking about these things, some of us have gone into rote memorization mode and forgotten these things. This study has brought this Learner back to conscious and deliberate participation in our sacraments. More than that, I have discovered that I must have been meant to be a United Methodist because "the church's" tenets fit almost perfectly with my own personal beliefs. Could it be because I was raised in this church? Maybe, but I like to think that during the decades when I fell away from the church, I formulated a personal theology. Some would criticize that, saying we need to follow "the church's" theology, but I come back to Wesley's quote, "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity."