All posts tagged baptism
I'm not always wearing my full habit...
This is a condensed video of the Great Vigil of Easter at my parish. With the lighting of the paschal flame, the salvation story, six baptisms, and the eucharist, this service went from sunset at 7:33 pm until right about 10 pm. The Vigil is the very best liturgy in the whole history of liturgy; done right, it is exhilarating and exhausting, full of awe and radiance.
Watching this video, I get a combination of smiles, goosebumps, tears, breathlessness, and, well, awe and radiance. Enjoy!
Reblogged from a whole bunch of people, including… purpleferretspirit:pinktriangleonhersleeve:laughingsquid:
Now this is not a god I would want to worship.
You know what? Me neither.
While I don’t want to get too deep into the theology of baptism, if I believed that God loved any person any less because that person hadn’t been sprinkled, dunked, or splashed with water, then I would choose not to be a Christian.
Making such a distinction is just like the argument in the early church about whether converts to The Way had to be circumcised. Does God love this man more than that one, because this one has been circumcised? It sounds absolutely ridiculous, doesn’t it? And yet, people are willing to believe that an action performed by a human being can cause God to love this person more than God loves that one. It is patently absurd. And the reason is right there for us in scripture, written in a letter to a group of early followers of The Way:
For I am convinced
that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor rulers,
nor things present, nor things to come,
nor powers,
nor height, nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It’s that simple. Absolutely nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing. Not circumcision nor un-circumcision. Not water nor lack of water. Not priestly blessing nor human cursing. Not anything at all. Nothing.
God loves us all. Period. Full stop.
Amen! Alleluia!
A catholic Christian
Undercover Nun remarked in a post last week that I am a member of the one holy, catholic, and apostolic church but am not a Roman Catholic.
You might wonder, how can somebody be catholic but not Catholic. It’s actually pretty easy. If you are a trinitarian Christian, then you are also a member of the one holy, catholic, and apostolic church. The way this works is simpler than most people want to make it out to be. All people are invited into the Body of Christ. That’s right: all people, from all nations, cultures, backgrounds, races, places, and times. Everybody who is now, ever was, and ever will be. Your baptism is your RSVP to God; this is how you say “Yes, God, I’d like to join you in the Great Feast!”
This works because the word catholic actually means universal or for everybody. The catholic church is the universal body of all Christians. Things get a little confusing, because the Roman Catholic church has laid claim to the word “Catholic.” But all Christians can rightfully claim the word catholic. It belongs to all of us. I am proud to be an Anglican catholic Christian.
Sadly, there has never actually been one single body that included all faithful followers of Jesus. From the very beginning — as you can read in the book of Acts and in the New Testament epistles — there have been conflicts and divisions in Christianity. As new ideas and interpretations came to light, some were accepted by the ecclesiastical authorities in Rome (and/or in the Eastern Church) and others were labeled heresies and violently stamped out. It’s easy to visualize one great Church, peacefully homogeneous, until Martin Luther hung his theses on the door of his church, when suddenly, the Church splintered into the Roman Catholics and all sorts of Protestant groups. It’s a nice vision, but it’s false. On this earth, the only time the universal church has been whole and peaceful, was in the body of Jesus of Nazareth.
Thus, even though the Roman church claims “Catholic” for itself, it never has been the single universal body of all Christians. I believe that the Roman Catholics came the closest to this that any body ever has, in the first few centuries of the common era, but the exclusive claim to the word “Catholic” is disingenuous.
So claim the word catholic. Claim it as your birthright, your spiritual heritage. Claim it as part of your baptism as a Christian. Live in the one holy, catholic, and apostolic church. Don’t denigrate any church of Christ-followers, but join the choir of all members of the Body, those who live now, ever have lived, and ever will live.
Westboro Baptist Church to picket funerals of Arizona shooting victims (Click image for story and press release)
Let me say this one more time:
The leaders of Westboro Baptist Church are not Christians.
It takes more than claiming the name to be a Christian. What does it take? It’s right in the baptismal vows:
- Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God?
- Do you renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God?
- Do you renounce all sinful desires that draw you from the love of God?
- Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as your savior?
- Do you put your whole trust in his grace and love?
- Do you promise to follow him and obey him as your lord?
- Do you believe in God the Father?
- Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?
- Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit?
I’m sure that the WBC folk think they’re okay so far, and I’m willing to give them this much. But this isn’t all. It gets harder from here.
- Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?
- Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?
- Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?
- Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
- Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
It’s in these later parts of the vow (which we answer not just with I will, but with I will, with God’s help) where the Phelps family and other members of Westboro fall short.
Where are these people proclaiming the Good News of God in Christ? What evidence is there to show them finding and serving Christ in all persons or of loving your neighbor as themselves? And how on earth does this respect the dignity of every human being?!?
To be a Christian, one must believe in and accept Jesus as savior. And then, one must behave in the ways Jesus commands us to behave. These commandments are actually very simple.
- Love me.
- Love all persons.
That’s it! It’s a two-part plan, and it is just that simple. The thing is, love is hard work; it isn’t easy. To love means to work for the very best for another person, even at the cost of getting the very best for oneself. That sounds pretty simple, too, doesn’t it? We may not be wired this way, but we can do it… with God’s help.
This kind of love becomes more complex and difficult once the community gets to be larger than about a dozen or so people. That’s when we need love-in-community, which is called justice. Justice means that we work to secure equal access to the good things in life for all persons. And the good things in life are both the things we need to physically survive (food, shelter, clean water) and the things that give us life (learning, meaningful work, a life of the spirit, love, forgiveness, grace). Truly, justice is pretty simple though it can be as difficult as love. But we can do this, too… with God’s help.
The Westboro folk, though, do not appear to live out the love and justice that Jesus commands of us. Instead, they hide behind shouts, chants, and signs, all of which display anger and hatred. If you’ve read this tumblr blog for more than a week or so, then you know where anger, hatred, bullying, and abuse come from: FEAR. And fear is not just the opposite of faith but the rejection of faith. So not only do these demonstrators clearly demonstrate their rejection of the very basic and simple commandments of Jesus, but they demonstrate their complete rejection of faith. By their actions, these demonstrators show us that they utterly reject Christianity.
Fred Phelps, I name you a False Prophet. You and your family teach God’s children to reject and defame the savior God sent to us. You and your family teach God’s children to live in fearfulness, in anger, in abuse. You and your family are the forces of wickedness that rebel against God. You and your family are the evil powers of this world that corrupt and destroy the creatures of God.
As a Christian — newly reaffirming my own baptismal vows this morning, on the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord — I RENOUNCE YOU.
And I pray for your immortal souls. God knows, you need it.
Happy John Bunyan Day!
Yes! Today is a two-for-one on my Kalendar! I get to celebrate The Beheading of John the Baptist and the feast day for John Bunyan, poor country boy, Reformed Baptist, and author of Pilgrims’ Progress (and many other books).
John Bunyan was a mystic, experiencing voices and visions as did great saints like St. Teresa of Avila and St. Julian of Norwich. He was open to all who have faith in the trinitarian God of the bible, and he preached in challenge of those who cause divisions in Christ’s Body, particularly over how baptism is performed.
Oh yeah, and he was a world-class speaker of profanity. So there is hope yet for the salvation of your Undercover Nun!
God of peace,
you called John Bunyan to be valiant for truth:
Grant that as strangers and pilgrims
we may at the last rejoice with all the faithful in your heavenly city;
through Jesus Christ our Savior,
who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
From the Baptismal Covenant, on page 304 of the Book of Common Prayer, 1979:
Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?
I will, with God’s help.
Facts don't matter (if you already made up your mind)
Interesting article about the lengths people will go to avoid cognitive dissonance. It is not about religion per se, but it certainly applies to things like seven day creationism. Certainly can apply to just about anyone though. It turns out if facts prove your idea is wrong (or at least would to a purely rational person) people just invent increasingly elaborate mechanisms to explain the evidence and not face the possibility that they are wrong. Since who likes being wrong?
It’s not just creationism. Try pointing out to “Bible believing” Christians that their “all-loving” “God” created people knowing in advance almost all of them would be tortured eternally for having the “wrong religion”. Watch their heads spin on their shoulders. Doesn’t stop them believing tho.
Seriously, people, is the notion of a psycho God really better than no God at all!?
Undercover Nun says unequivocably: NO!
If I truly believed that God could or would condemn God’s beloved children to eternal damnation and torment, then I would choose not to be a Christian.
A story from my past…
When my two children were infants, my then-husband and I had kind of drifted apart from the church. Life was busy, we needed some down-time, all the usual stuff. We both struggled with whether to have the little ones baptized, and we agreed that if baptism is nothing but inoculation from Original Sin, then we wanted no part of it. My grandparents clucked their tongues at us, telling us what a terrible risk we were taking with our babies’ souls. This only strengthened our sense that such a baptism, such a church, such a God was something we would never accept, much less worship.
A year later, a nephew was born, and with my husband’s siblings, we decided to go ahead and have the five cousins (of six) who had not been baptized “done” in church. The baptism was scheduled for the lightly-attended Eucharist on Christmas morning, and we set up our preparation session with the priest. I will never forget the words he said to us that day, because they have been so foundational to my understanding of God and God’s relationship with us. He was talking about what happens to an unbaptized infant (or really, an unbaptized person of any age), and he said this:
If I truly believed that God would condemn a perfect and beautiful baby — child, anyone! — to hell because it hadn’t been baptized, well then I would choose not to be a Christian.
He said it twice, and then he repeated that last part: I would choose not to be a Christian.
I was floored. Here was a priest in God’s Church who knew where we were coming from — and not only did he agree with us, but he acknowledged that we have the ability to choose something other than this terrible avenging monster god who has been set up and worshiped by so many.
My God does not burn babies. My God does not burn anyone, not even Hitler, Stalin, or Saddam Hussein.
My God is bigger than any human activity.
My God is so incredibly big that even I can’t wrap my mind around how big God is.
And if someone else’s god can be comprehended by a mere person? Then they are worshiping a man-made idol, and most like, they are worshiping themselves.
A “psycho god” is far, far worse than no god at all. And I want no part of that god.
LOS ANGELES: Private Christian school teachers say baptism cost them their jobs
[Episcopal News Service] Some teachers at a private Christian school in Corona, California, say they lost their jobs because school officials didn’t consider their baptisms adequate.
Crossroads Christian Schools, a K-10th grade institution located in but not affiliated with the Southern California Diocese of Los Angeles, did not renew the contracts of at least nine staff, because they were not baptized as adults by full immersion, the teachers contend.
Crossroads also operates a preschool; it is unclear how many preschool employees were impacted by what the teachers describe as a recent school policy change.
“In January, we had a teacher’s meeting and they started talking about level-4 Christian living,” recalled Marylou Goodman, who taught for a year at Crossroads.
“Afterwards I met with Chuck” Booher, the senior pastor at Crossroads Christian Church, a nondenominational evangelical church with about 8,000 members. The school is considered a ministry of the church.
“He told me at that meeting that the only biblical way to be baptized is by full immersion, that it’s in the Bible and that’s it,” said Goodman. “He said he was requiring all teachers to have been baptized by immersion.” …
Booher, who did not return Episcopal News Service calls, alluded to “a controversy” at the school in remarks prior to a Feb. 7 sermon posted on the church website. “We are making sure our staff at Crossroads Christian School is 100 percent Christian, that they are born again … [and are] level 4 Christians,” he told those in attendance.
“If you have a child at the school I want to assure you we are going to make sure your child is only surrounded by a staff that loves Jesus with their heart and soul and mind and is just like what you experience with us at church,” he added.
School Superintendent Beth Frobisher, in a letter to parents posted on the school website, echoed a mission statement document called “The Level 4 Living Standard.” That document outlines six criteria: worship, service, giving, prayer and study, community and evangelism.
In her website statement Frobisher added that the living standard includes “weekly attendance at a Bible-believing church that shares the values of Crossroads Christian Church.” She declined to be interviewed and referred calls to associate church pastor Mike Long. He did not respond to ENS requests for an interview. …
At a meeting last August, Fitzgerald said Booher listed about six local churches he considered acceptable for school personnel to attend — none of them Catholic or Protestant. “I walked right up to him and said … I’ve been teaching here 14 years and I’m Catholic. And he said ‘well, you can’t be. You will not be able to teach here unless you change.’”
She was told she could keep her job if she presented a letter from her priest, denouncing her religion, she said. …
Robin Rezner said she removed her four children from the school after learning by word of mouth about curriculum and staff changes.
“My fourth-grade daughter came home one day and said a girl at school told her she’s going to hell because she’s Catholic,” she said. “This little girl’s mother told me her daughter had come home three Friday nights in a row from a [Crossroads Church] youth group called Impact where they’ve been telling the kids that Catholics are not following the right path to heaven.”
Rezner, a stay-at-home mother, said a similar message has replaced formerly simple daily chapel Bible lessons. Staff members lead, using “the same message of intolerance” even at times performing skits in costumes depicting other faith traditions that are labeled as doomed because their beliefs are different, she said.
“One little girl put on huge sunglasses and said ‘this is the blind Christian. They think they know Jesus, but they don’t.’ Some of the mothers left chapel crying,” she said. “They call it evangelism. The kids got the message that there’s something wrong with them.” …
Jesus weeps. Undercover Nun weeps with him.
Let Undercover Nun set some things straight about Christianity.
Number one: there are no levels to Christianity. There are no Level One, Level Two, Level Four, or Level Three Thousand Seventy-Three Christians. We are all the brothers and sisters of Jesus, who became a person just like us.
Number two, in general, baptism is baptism. Most mainline denominations will “accept” any baptism that is made in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as described in the gospel. While there is room to discuss infant baptism vs. a mature commitment to the faith, baptism is baptism. It is a one-time sacramental event, an outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual grace. The outward sign and the inward grace don’t necessarily arrive at the same point in linear time; that’s perfect okay — why would God be bound by something as silly as linear time? In fact, Roman Catholic tradition provides for baptism by water, baptism by fire (martyrdom), and baptism by desire. A baptism by desire is known only by the individual person and God, providing salvation for any person who hasn’t been killed or made wet.
Third, the action of telling any human being that he or she will be condemned to hell is prideful in the extreme. This usurps God’s role and denies any opportunity for the work of God’s grace upon us. And if your Statement of Faith contains this (We Believe our salvation comes only through Jesus Christ and cannot be earned. It is a gift of God. (John 3:16-19, 5:24; Romans 3:23, 5:8-9; Ephesians 2:9-10; Titus 3:5).), and you claim that others are condemned to hell because of their form of baptism or the church they attend, then you are a hypocrite.
Fourth, it is even more reprehensible to say these things to a child. The damage that Crossroads Christian School has done to these children may be lifelong. It is a grave abuse of power to tell a child that his or her parents are going to hell because they practice Christianity differently than you do. Jesus warned about causing any of his little children to stumble.
Finally, if you encounter a “church” that makes claims like this: RUN! Not for your life, but for your immortal soul. You’ve stumbled on a cult, a brood of vipers, a band of false prophets. Pray for them, pray for all whom they have damaged in God’s name, and find a place of genuine love and health.
Wes Simmons, Chuck Booher, Beth Frobisher, Mike Long: Shame on you, brood of vipers! You draw God’s precious children away from God’s kingdom! Undercover Nun prays that God may have mercy on your immortal souls.
