Acts of the Apostles 10:34-38
2020 is a very special
year for me. I will be celebrating my 50th anniversary as a
priest. I was ordained right here in this Cathedral at the hands of Archbishop
McDonough fifty years ago this coming May 16. (Yes, we will have a celebration
here at the Cathedral that weekend and you are invited.)
As important as that
ordination is for me, it is not as important as this year’s 76th anniversary
of my baptism at the hands of my country midwife grandmother, right there is
the bed a few minutes after she helped me come into this world on April 28,
1944. This year is also the 66th anniversary of my
Confirmation at the hands of Bishop Maloney, down in my home parish in Rhodelia in 1956. Here, I am reminded of something Bishop Maloney used to say all the
time. “My baptism was more important than my ordination as a
bishop!”
What is so special about
my own special three days, is that they are the days when I committed myself to
“going about doing good” and “healing those oppressed by evil,” as the Acts of
the Apostles said about Jesus. Let me be clear! These three
anniversaries are not some personal sentimental nostalgic moments, they are
days when I made serious commitments that I plan to keep, for better or worse,
in sickness and in health, till death do I part – the commitments to “go about
doing good” as an ambassador of Christ! In the same sense, your baptisms are
more important than your marriages!
In a few minutes, I will
baptize another beautiful baby. Today this baby will commit to be a
partner with Jesus in “going about doing good” and “healing those oppressed by
evil.” The baby’s parents and godparents will speak for this child and teach
this child to honor this commitment until Confirmation when she will
personally take over the responsibility to live out this commitment.
Why do we baptize
infants? We baptize infants because the practice of infant baptism has
been a consistent tradition in the Church, both in the East and in the West,
since the very beginning. It was challenged, of course, during the Protestant
Reformation of the 16th century when the practice of adult or
“believer baptism only” was adopted. That was just 400 years
ago. The practice of infant baptism precedes that by about 1500 years.
The Scriptures, of course, say very little about infant baptism because the New Testament Scriptures were written at a time when adult Jews and Gentiles were being
converted to Christianity. However, there are several passages in Scripture
where we are told that “whole households” were baptized. The stories
about Stephanas, Cornelius, Lydia and the Philippian jailer are cases in point.
The language of the New Testament was Greek and the word used when “whole
households” were baptized is oikos which has traditionally
included infants. There are no examples in secular or Biblical Greek of the
word oikos being used which would restrict its meaning only to
adults.
Even more amazing are some of the extent writings outside the
Scriptures. Hippolytus, in his manuscript “Tradition of the Apostles,” writing
1800 years ago, only about 100 years after the Gospel of John was written,
describes, in detail, a typical baptism in 215 AD. It is amazingly
close in detail to what we will do here again today. Listen to his 1800 year
old description of a baptism.
At dawn a prayer shall be offered over the water. Where there is
no scarcity of water the stream shall flow through the baptismal font or
pour into it from above. If water is scarce, then use whatever water is
available. Baptize the children first; and if they can speak for themselves, let them do so. Otherwise,
let their parents or other relatives speak for them. Next baptize the
men and last of all the women.
It goes on to describe the anointings, the rejection of Satan and
the profession of the Creed. Remember, he is describing the
way baptisms were celebrated in the church 1800 years ago!
Writing a few years later, Origen wrote this:“The
Church received from the Apostles the tradition of giving baptism even
to infants.” For the Apostles…knew that there is in everyone the innate
stains of sin, which must be washed away through water and the Spirit.”
What we do here today is not very much different from what was
done at baptisms very, very early in the church: rejection of sin, profession
of faith, the pouring of water, anointings for men, women and children
in the presence of a congregation!
Let me point out a couple of things that are especially important
in the baptismal ritual. (1) Even though parents and godparents “speak for the
child” in infant baptisms, they are asked point blank, “Do you accept the
responsibility of training the child in the practice of the faith?” The
emphasis is on training the child in the practice of
the faith! How sad it is when parents and godparents bring their children for
baptism without themselves practicing the faith or being
seriously committed to training the child they present for
baptism in the practice of that faith! It can be a lie of sorts, especially
when they stand there holding that baby while they publicly renew their own
baptismal vows! (2) We do this baptism in public, in the presence of the whole
community, because we are all responsible to be that
supporting community where the Christian ideal is lived out and in which this
child will be raised. In that sense, there is no such thing as a “private”
baptism.
(3) When the child is anointed on the top of the head with the
perfumed oil called chrism, the same oil used in the coronation of
kings and queens of old and used even today to anoint the hands of priests when
they are ordained, poured on the heads of bishops when they are consecrated and used to anoint the baptized at Confirmation,
they are designated as royal children of God and royal heirs to his
kingdom.
(4) The words used when a lighted candle, taken from the big
Christ candle, is handed to the parents is quite pointed. “Your child has been
enlighted by Christ. He or she is to walk always as a child of light. This
light is temporarily entrusted to you to be kept burning brightly. We pray
that, someday, he or she will still be carrying that light when they go out to meet Christ along
with all the saints.”
Finally, my fellow baptized
members of the church, as we bring yet another member into the church through
baptism, please pay attention to the questions I asked the parents and
godparents. Think of your own baptisms. Think of the times you have served as
godparents. Was it just a cute ceremony or was it a real commitment to “go
about doing good” and “heal those oppressed by evil” as our second reading
today put it? Let’s use this day, and this occasion, to recommit ourselves to
“go about doing good” and “healing those oppressed by evil” realizing that in Baptism “God is with us!”
