More and more people are asking me to tell them more about who Lutherans are and what Lutherans believe. Here's the final piece of our five-part glimpse of what Lutherans believe. (Although I'm glad to keep going if y'all ask me more questions.)
Today's piece is on baptism ...
"Can anyone withhold the water
for baptizing these people
who have received the Holy Spirit
just as we have?"
Acts 10:47
Some churches baptize infants. Many don't.
Some churches require full immersion. Others sprinkle.
What's right?
The Christian church historically and primarily baptized converts -- thus, adults.
Nevertheless, it was also a common, original, Christian practice to baptize whole households. This certainly included children and even the homestead's servants and their whole families. For example, under the banner of one bold person's faith -- like Crispus in Acts 18 and Stephanus in 1 Corinthians 1 -- many households were baptized and many individuals became part of the church community.
By the middle ages, the Western tradition evolved in two strong directions. First, it was commonly believed that baptism was required for salvation. Second, the practice was "adult" baptism -- meaning: the age of roughly thirteen and up.
When the plagues swept Europe and huge percentages of people were dying, traditional Western theology hit a major snag. If children couldn't be baptized and yet were dying in huge numbers, were they all doomed to hell? The church -- i.e. the Roman Catholic Church, pre-Reformation -- re-examined its theology, remembered scriptural instances of whole households being baptized, and began again to baptize children. Indeed, children were baptized again under the banner of another person's faith -- namely their parents.
Lutherans are part of this heritage.
Traditionally we believe that two things "make" a sacrament: an element (in this case water) and the Word (specifically Christ's command, which he gives for baptism at the end of Matthew, saying, "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit").
Believing that it's God's Word, God's promises, and God's actions that "makes" the baptism -- not some earthly element that "makes" the baptism, though it plays a role -- Lutherans generally believe that the amount of water does not matter. Water, therefore, is a sign, but it's God's Word and His promises that supply the power.
Other Reformation era Christians -- most significantly the Anabaptists -- returned, however, to adult baptism (an admittedly more common practice in the New Testament) and to full immersion baptism (which was certainly the way it was pictured in the stories of John the Baptist and in the detailed stories of the Apostles' actions, like the Acts 8 account of Philip baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch).
Literal battles with literal blood have been fought over which is right. (Sad!)
I will tell you what I believe is right ... But first let me tell you what I believe is wrong ...
Many people -- and this more true in the Catholic and mainline traditions (of which many Lutherans are a part) -- believe that if someone is baptized, their eternal destiny is already and eternally decided. Taken to the extreme, they believe if a child is baptized as an infant, but never in his life goes to church, scoffs at the Christian faith, and lives a thoroughly agnostic life, he still goes to heaven because he's "a baptized child of God."
Not to negate God's option to save whomever he wishes, we must also acknowledge that this violates the interpretive key to our faith and theology, Romans 3:23-28 -- "since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by [God's] grace ... effective through faith ... apart from works prescribed by the law." Baptism is not part of that equation. Therefore, it's personal faith -- not a ritual -- that justifies.
With that in mind, here's what I believe and teach ...
I believe that there are two parts to baptism. The first is God's part. The second is our part. On God's end -- and through baptism -- our Lord takes us, washes us, adopts us into his family, calls us his child, brings us into his family, and forgives our sin -- washing away, especially, the original sin that taints us all. On our end, we need to personally claim our faith and personally claim the benefits of baptism.
In churches that insist on "adult" baptism, both of these actions occur at the same time. While we are claiming our faith and proclaiming God's saving actions through baptism, God is simultaneously washing us and grafting us into his family. In churches that practice infant baptism, these actions are usually separated by twelve or fifteen years. Under the banner of their parent's faith, a child is baptized -- part one. At confirmation, the growing child affirms his baptism and confirms his faith -- part two. Some say that's not valid; it must happen simultaneously. I say, for God, a thousand years is like a day and a day is like a thousand years!
But here's the real key, both parts are important! But it's not a man-made ritual like confirmation that is required to confirm our faith. I believe that we can claim our own faith through our own confession and in in our own prayers. Furthermore, instead of publicly proclaiming our faith in front of a church of believers (confirmation), I'd rather a believer proclaimed her faith publicly to her friends who were lost.
What matters, first, is faith that is alive and active.
What matters, second, is our obedience. God's spokesman Elijah once told Naaman to wash in the Jordan if he wanted to be cleansed of his leprousy. Naaman was insulted, he wanted a bigger sign. Indeed, he wanted to cleansed on his own terms. It was only after he submitted that he was healed. Why are we to be baptized? Simply because Jesus said to be! It's an act of submission, and it is always in our obedience that our sin-sick souls are healed.
Confession ...
I am not a traditional, American, twentieth or twenty-first Lutheran in my baptismal theology.
I do believe in infant baptism, but only as part one of a two-step process.
I do not however believe that baptism is a "magic bullet."
I also don't practice cheap confirmations where you "graduate" with your class, regardless of how listless our attention is.
I believe, according to scripture, that we are justified by God's grace, effective through our faith. Therefore, I believe that we need to claim our faith.
But here's the really good news ...
I believe God is constantly stirring our hearts, constantly pinging our conscience, constantly interweaving our steps with his path, constantly knocking on our doors, constantly inspiring the faith that we need to claim.
Faith is not our work; it is God's proactive desire for you and me.
In Christ's Love,
a rebelious Lutheran
who goes back again
to our first two principles:
Word and Grace!
