I’ve been thinking about the Christian practice of baptism lately. Perhaps that’s because in a couple of weeks we will be baptizing my youngest granddaughter.  Methodists practice what is called infant baptism, though we are perfectly happy to baptize anyone who has not been baptized before regardless of age.  But infant baptism is the preferred practice.

Baptism is not a magic trick in which a person’s soul is guaranteed a free pass into heaven. No is the lack of baptism a condemnation to the underworld.  It is simply an initiation rite that recognizes what God has done in the life of the initiate and an acceptance into the church universal. Not a specific denomination, Methodist, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, etc, but into the Christian faith as a whole. Thus, a baptized Roman Catholic or a baptized United Methodist are both members of the universal Christian faith.

In one of my previous churches a young couple were talking to me about their brand new baby.  Of course, I asked them about their readiness to have him baptized. They told me they did not want to baptize him because they did not want to influence his decision to become a Christian later in life.  In my mind I thought about another couple who had made the same decision years ago not to try to influence their children’s religious beliefs taking them to church or sending them to Sunday School.  In that case, their children grew up without a frame work against which they could form their own beliefs.  They had no knowledge of what Christianity, or for that matter any other religious tradition had to offer. They had no foundation upon which to grow.  Their parents were not an influence in their spiritual development.

Recently, I was listening to a school teacher complain that the parents of the children in her class seemed uninterested in participating in the moral or ethical development of their children, expecting that the school system should do that part. As a result, the teacher was in the position of being expected to teach the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic, as well as history, science, health, civics, and then ethics as well.  She felt out of her depth and overwhelmed. Too much to expect from someone with 34 children in a class.

In baptism, we take the opposite view about influencing our children.  In baptism parents and sponsors take vows to intentionally be an influence in the lives of those baptized.  Not only parents and sponsors, but the entire congregation makes the same vow to raise up the baptized in the Christian faith, giving them the foundation upon which they can make informed decisions later in life about what kind of relationships they will have with God, with Christ, with the Church, and with the people with whom they come in contact.

My parents didn’t have a perfect faith, but they made the decision to raise me in the Church and that gave me the basis upon which I could form my own beliefs.  I did not always, nor do I always believe exactly as I was taught, but I was able to think through my spirituality and ethics with something upon which to base it.  For that, I am grateful.  I think my parents made the right decision to have me baptized. In fact, of all the people I know who were baptized I never heard anyone complain that their parents had them baptized as infants.

Perhaps we as parents and as members of the body of Christ are responsible for influencing the decisions of our children.  Perhaps that’s our job.  Perhaps, if our children have an informed understanding of the faith they will be in an even better position to make choices later in life.

Blessings,

Pastor Steve