ROUGHLY EDITED COPY LUTHERAN PASTORAL THEOLOGY & PRACTICE LPTP-16 Captioning Provided By: Caption First, Inc. P.O. Box 1924 Lombard, IL 60148 800-825-5234 www.captionfirst.com *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. *** >> JOSH: I'm wondering how I can teach my people the importance of baptism in the Christian life. Can you suggest some ways that baptism can be stressed more in the ongoing life of our congregation? >> PROF. SENKBEIL: I'd be happy to address that, Josh. You know, again, it revolves around what baptism is and then what it does. People need to be constantly reminded of this tremendous gift. In fact, Dr.�Luther called it a precious gem which is given to us in Holy Baptism. In fact, he says, a Christian in his or her baptism is given a whole lifetime of things to do. Why? Because in baptism they are made a child of God. What I do, you see, flows out of who I am. And so the historic way of understanding Christian baptism is not simply to look back at baptism as something that happened a long time ago. For a lot of people here, and certainly in our fellowship, it happened when they were infants, something that they themselves don't even remember or recall. Maybe they have some mementos of that occasion. Maybe they have some pictures, for example, of their baptismal day. And maybe they have a baptismal certificate. Again, these things tend to be kind of artifacts of the past. As important as it is for every Christian to know that he or she has been baptized into the Christian faith, above all it's important to remember that baptism is not something merely from long ago but it's something that's here and now. In fact, the historic way of speaking about baptism is not simply to say "I was baptized" as though it's merely something that happened a long time ago, but rather "I am baptized," namely, I exist now as a child of the heavenly father through faith in Jesus Christ my Lord because I've been claimed by him. I've been incorporated into this family of the Christian faith. I've been washed in the name of the father who created me, the son who redeemed me by His blood, and the Holy Spirit who by Holy Baptism has made my body to be his temple. It's quite a powerful thing when you stop and think about it. It's really a mark of God's ownership upon us. I think Josh out there in Wyoming may still have the practice of branding cattle on the open range in order to mark them as -- as belonging to certain owners, certain ranchers. Well, in baptism, we've been given God's own brand, if you will. We've been claimed out from the kingdom of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of light. We've been marked with the sign of the cross. We've been buried by baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus. This is who we are as God's people. It's a powerful sign of God's redemption. In fact, you remember in the Small Catechism, every morning and every evening Dr.�Luther suggested that we remind ourselves that we are baptized, not merely that we were baptized. By invocation of the Holy Trinity in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, he says, make the sign of the cross when you call upon the name of the Holy Trinity. Now, of course, this is a matter of Christian freedom. And we would never insist that every baptized Christian use that external sign of the cross. But to answer your question how do we teach the ongoing importance of Holy Baptism, well, certainly by the recollection of who we are again as a baptized believer. Every time we invoke that divine name into which we have been baptized, we're actively recalling and participating in all the gifts that God gave us when we were washed in his powerful name. Now, some practical suggestions might be remember not just people's birthday into which they were born physically, but also their baptismal birthday by which they were born again from above by the power of the Holy Spirit through the washing of water with the word. One way to do that would be to make yourself a list of everyone's baptismal birthdays. And you, as a pastor then, could send them a little card. That's unusual in our time. Or at least pick up the phone and talk to them to congratulate them on being God's child by virtue of his washing to rejoice with him at his gifts that were given to them in their baptism, to remind them who they are as God's people. There are other opportunities as well. For example, every Easter day it's possible to use the rite of the renewal of baptism so that we would recall again that great Paschal feast, that Easter feast, remembering and rejoicing that we serve a living Savior who once was dead but now is alive forever and ever. We can also actively recall that we've been buried into his death and raised again into faith in him by newness into life by our baptism into him. It's a wonderful rite of recollection of Holy Baptism that really adds a whole new dimension to the Easter celebration. Beyond that I think it's important that we teach people actively from the pulpit as appropriate, certainly in our classes, and then individually when we call upon people, especially at moments in crisis in their life, what it means to be a baptized child of God; that we then actively remember and recall and participate in our baptism on a daily basis. You remember in the last question, the fourth question in the Small Catechism, under Holy Baptism we read "What does such baptizing with water indicate?" It indicates that the old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die together with all sins and evil desires and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever. That's on the basis, again, of the promises which God makes in Romans chapter 6 where St.�Paul writes, "We were, therefore, buried with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life." So we can teach our people that they actively recall and participate in their baptism by daily -- by contrition and repentance�-- drowning their old sinful flesh. And, therefore, by the grace of God, by faith in Jesus Christ, the new man that they are in Jesus by virtue of their baptism in Him might daily emerge and arise. That's an ongoing process. No wonder then that Dr.�Luther said that each and every Christian has a whole lifetime of service to Christ in his or her baptism into that Lord who bought them and saved them and made them his own in this magnificent washing of water with the word. It's an ongoing lively reality through faith in Jesus. *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ***