Yesterday was a special day for me as a pastor of our church. We are
currently going through a series on being The People of God. It is
basically a series on what a missional church is. The series is
downloadable at the resources section of the church website...
camberwellbaptist.org
Anyway we are looking at the nature of the
church as a body. This is one of Paul's dominant metaphors for the
church and is often used today when we say 'The Body of Christ'.
That, as I explained, is drawing on ancient understandings and values
for the body (think ancient Greece think Olympics, think Plato); on the
incarnate and eventually crucified body of our Lord; and highlited in
the eating of the bread in communion.
This is the context for
the passage that we looked at (1 Cor 12: 12-14) which refers back to 1
Cor 10:17 where the word loaf is used. A part of the message about a
body is unity in diversity... you know... hands need feet, feet need
eyes, etc. And they all make up a whole, unified body. And then in
12:13 there is this literary parallell that uses an interplay on the
words drink and baptism. It is referring to our
imersion into Christ by our baptism which is marked by the Spirit (who
is the only one who really knows our inclusion or otherwise in Christ).
So that is all standard, orthodox Christian biblical stuff.
But
what do you say when you are a Baptist church that draws it's very name
from this subject? Therefore baptism is an important subject to us
that refers to what is sometimes called a sacrament. It is also
referring to our identity. Our forebears' sometimes died for this
conviction... an adult believer's baptism by full imersion in water.
But what if there are many members of your congregation who were
christened as children or infants or sprinkled as believing adults?
Should/can they be members of the local Baptist church?
Well
this was opened up for us yesterday by me! I didn't want to go there
but this passage clearly calls us to be united in our baptism so we have
to look at it. There are people in our church from Presbyterian,
Methodist, Anglican and Catholic traditions. Can they become members of
our church? Do they have to be baptised 'our way'? Sounds a bit
arrogant to deny many of their previous baptisms, especially if their
conscience is asking them not to be what would be for the a
're-baptism'. Second baptisms are not kosher in Christian doctrine. Is
it right for them to be involved, giving and loved parts of our church
but not allowed to vote at member's meetings just because of the
tradition from which they came?
Anyway the day was special
because some of the older members of our church who have been life
members of the Baptist tradition came up to me one by one and
independantly encouraged me for sticking to the scriptures above even
Baptist tradition! Good on em! Their passion for God's Word and for
the mission of the Gospel in today's changing world was a great
encouragement to me. I hope I'm like that if I get to their age and
stage.
But what do you think about this passage and baptismal
traditions? My message fleshes this out a lot more if you wanted some
background on this.
shalom,
Andrew
No comments:
Post a Comment