No. 12 Some adult converts talk about their baptism as a deeply moving event in their life. I do not remember being baptized. How can it be meaningful for me today? >>PROFESSOR ROLAND ZIEGLER: That's a good question, Eric. Because Lutherans oftentimes have this kind of a detached relationship to experience, they are suspicious of experience. They are suspicious of emotions. And some people might think "Well, it's just because they are all stuck up central and northern Germans who are taciturn and not in touch with their inner feelings." Because there's of course a theological reason for that, too. There might be a psychological reason. But we have a few Italian Lutherans in the Synod I think. So yeah. But how can it be meaningful? There's nothing wrong with experiences. And for every experience we have of the grace of God, we are thankful. And God gives us these experiences from time to time. And they build us up. On the other hand, there are also stretches of our life where there are no experiences. And what do you do then? Throw away your faith? Say: Oh, it's all a shame. Some of the great mystics in the Roman Catholic Church, they talk about the night soul or the feeling of barrenness, going through the desert. I'm not a total fan of mysticism certainly and some of the stuff is really quite strange. But there is some truth in these statements. That is we do not have the experience of God's peace, of God's forgiveness, of God's joy always. Sometimes we do. And we are thankful for that. But what we have always is the promise of God's Word. And that can sustain us even if it seems that we wander through the valley of the shadow of death or if we go through the desert and there seems to be no water. So faith is founded on the Word of God. And then faith has experiences or experiences things. But faith is not founded on a very moving experience. And we should always be cautious that we don't say: Oh, you know, this service was so moving so the Holy Spirit was really there. There can be services that are very moving and that's pure psychology. Nevertheless, again, the question is justified. I've been baptized as a baby. Okay. Fine. I can look at the baptismal certificate. I might be able to look at pictures. But that's it. So now what does it mean for me now almost 40 years after I was baptized? What does it mean that I am baptized? Is it like a diploma I have framed and put on the wall and then forget about it? Baptism is indeed not only the admission ticket to the church, it is a present reality and therefore has a present significance for our life as Christians. But what is this present significance? Well, as there's really nothing else than what baptism means. And there are several things that we can do that baptism becomes more relevant for us. The first step is that we remember our baptism. The second is that we apprehend the promise of baptism. The third is what the fourth question of Luther's Catechism talks about the daily dieing and rising with Christ, that is daily repentance in the new life of the redeemed. And finally, that we realize that the promise of baptism finds its fulfillment in the resurrection. So the first step is remembering baptism. How is it done? Well, it can be part of our devotions, our daily devotions. It can the sign of the cross, if you choose the cross yourself. Because crossing yourself reminds us that the sign of the cross is traced on the baptismal candidate receiving the sign of the cross both on your forehead and on your chest. That is that he now is connected with the cross of Christ. One of our -- my teachers in Germany at the seminary, Professor Hoffman, said that he prayed daily a German prayer which translated: As I renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways and dedicate myself or I surrender myself to you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to be faithful to you in faith and obedience until my dieing day. So you combine elements from the baptismal liturgy, the renunciation of the devil. And the aspect that now you belong to God and live in his service. In the new Lutheran service book and hymnal you have a little prayer, the life of the baptized child of God, on Page 310. It reads: Merciful Father, through holy baptism you called us to be your own procession. Grant that our lives may evidence the working of your Holy Spirit in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control according to the image of your only begotten son, Jesus Christ, our savior. It can be a baptismal hymn you use, either read it or sing it. And it can be that you celebrate the anniversary of your baptism like you celebrate your birthday. Especially for kids. It's a great thing if they have a baptismal candle. You can have a little party. You can light the candle. You can remind them maybe of the Bible verse they got and sing a baptismal hymn so that they from early on realize baptism is important. Baptism is where I was made a child of God. It's recorded that Luther wrote on the walls of his study ***baptiz zatus zum. I am baptized. Just to remind him in times where he was afflicted or maybe you would say now depressed that: Yes, I am baptized. That is God is my Father. God is gracious to me. I am a child of God. And therefore, I do not have to fear anything. And the most important thing in the world is still mine. So there are different ways how daily we can remind ourselves of our baptism, recall that we are baptized. So we remember and recall that we are baptized. And in order so that we daily apprehend that promise of baptism in faith. Baptism is not just an initiatory rite but the basis of and will of our faith every day. In baptism God has made me his child. He has born me again out of water and the Spirit. That's who I am. I am a new creature. I am the child of God. He has given me life. Salvation. Forgiveness of sins. In faith I receive this every day. I tell myself: Yes, I am this. I thank God for what he has done. I apprehend that. That means that I say I have died to sin and live the new life in the power of Christ's resurrection. Even though that seems to be not real. Even though in the daily affliction my sin seems to be much more real. In faith I realize what God has done in baptism is more real than what I see. That's one of the things where my experience is less real than the Word of God. Normally we think it's the other way around. But that's the whole point of faith. That in the face of an experience that seems to contradict the reality of God's Word I assert: No, what God says is true. In the fourth question of the Catechism Luther asks: What does such baptizing with water indicate? And he answers it: It indicates that this old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires and that a new man should daily emerge and arrive to live before God in righteousness and purity forever. So to live the life of baptism is the continual struggle against this old Adam, my sinful self who has been sentenced to death in baptism and has been executed. Daily contrition and repentance is the life of the baptized. That we confess our sins to God and that we apprehend God's forgiveness which is given to us in baptism. Daily I acknowledge there is this old Adam and I fight him. And daily I say: I am nevertheless. God I come to you. Because you have made me your child. And see, the thing is, this promise, "You are my child. You belong to me. You are now part of the body of Christ," it's not fractured by our sin. Jerome had this idea that okay you get baptismal grace but then you start -- that is you have a little boat. And then you start sinning. Well, now you are shipwrecked. So how do you survive? Well, there is the second plank, the plank of confession and absolution. So you destroy baptism by your sin but fortunately there is confession of absolution and by that you can be kept over water. The Lutherans say. No. The boat of your baptism never breaks. Now, you might jump out when you sin. But the boat is still there. And the daily repentance -- also confession of absolution is nothing but a returning to that boat. It is God actually pulling you back. So we go back to this promise of baptism daily. In this new life, this dieing and rising means also the life of the new man. It means the Christian as a new creature. What does he do? The Christian as a new creature, he believes and he loves. He believes. As seen before he has contrition and faith. And he loves. That is he lives in righteousness and purity. The Christian loves his neighbor because he is a Christian. That is because he's baptized. Baptism not only reminds us but is the basis that we can do good works. It is also a stimulus. Baptism reminds us that we no longer live according to our own wishes and devices but as the children of God. Not only as a remembrance. But it is actually the basis that we can live so. Daily remembrance of baptism is therefore a daily reminder to live before God as the new man. To do good works. And not the works of the flesh. Besides Romans 6, which is quoted by Luther in the Small Catechism in the fourth question, we find that for example in Ephesians 4:24 where Paul says in that: He put on the new man which after God has created in righteousness and holiness. We have the gift of that new man that is grasped in faith daily so that we walk as the children of God. Finally, the promise of baptism finds its fulfillment in the resurrection. It is the new life. The life of immortality. And during our earthly life, we are still on the way. We still have to suffer death. But the full salvation, also the salvation of our body, will come to us in a resurrection. Sacramentally it is already ours, the resurrection of Christ. But the full execution of this resurrection of Christ on our existence will only come in the resurrection of the dead. When God will give us incorruptible bodies, then the promise of baptism that we are dead to sin will come to its conclusion. Living one's baptism means, therefore, that we live in expectancy of the resurrection. That this is our hope against any Gnostic idea of bodily immortality. In the classical Lutheran hymns of the 16th and 17th century you have quite often that the final stanza has the eschatological hope. It's not a morbid fascination with death but rather it is a longing that what God has promised and given in baptism will come to its conclusion. So you haven't seen your baptism. You just know it from pictures. But baptism really shows you what your daily life is as a Christian. Daily contrition and repentance. A new life that lives in holiness and righteousness. And we look forward to the completion of salvation. And it's worthwhile that we remind ourselves daily of the great gift and also of the great struggle we have been put in. And therefore, that our entire life is really a life in this baptism. In a way everything we are as Christians is in baptism.