31 July, 2017<\/p>\n
Dear Dale,<\/p>\n
I am offering you some thoughts regarding your “Baptism Sermon” as we might call it – on Sunday.\u00a0 \u00a0I enclose an essay I wrote a long time ago for my SS class at \u00a0a Lutheran Church; \u00a0nothing has changed since then.\u00a0 I appreciate your continued faithfulness in preaching from the Word and submitting yourself to it.\u00a0 A point of order is offered here;\u00a0 you said:<\/p>\n
“You need to repent and be immersed. . . [16:39]. . . ‘Baptism’ . . . I don’t know why, they just didn’t translate it “immerse,”\u00a0 but they didn’t . . .\u00a0 they just transliterated it.\u00a0 So you could just say ‘Repent and be immersed’. . . The word is baptizmo; it means to immerse, to dunk . . . ”<\/p>\n
On this matter of\u00a0 baptism, two viewpoints are under consideration.\u00a0 One regards baptism as a\u00a0 “sacramental” function – a means of grace.\u00a0 The other\u00a0 holds the baptismal event as a mere symbol.\u00a0 Much has been written by many a wise, pious, and educated man. Luther cautions at one point in his writings, “Unless faith is present, or comes to life in baptism, the ceremony is of no avail;\u00a0 indeed it is a stumbling-block not only at the moment we receive baptism but for all our life thereafter.”\u00a0 Kind of a surprise, it would seem, for many Lutheran theologians who uphold a sacramental view and affirm Luther’s Augsburg Confession and its affirmation of paedo-baptism.<\/p>\n
But, indeed, we can never neglect the call for personal obedience. I am aware of that!\u00a0 It takes diligence and discipline and prayer and teaching and example to rear a child well in the Lord.\u00a0 Those who rely on baptism alone – whenever it is administered – belie their own Faith, betray their children, and fail to keep their promise to “bring them up in the Word and in the Life of the Church.”<\/p>\n
Baptism can be under- and over-emphasized, I think (even while, in so saying, hating the use of \u00a0the term “moderation” in asserting matters of truth).\u00a0 We are, indeed to preach the word and baptize converts\u00a0 – and their households<\/u>.\u00a0 (There is the rub!)<\/p>\n
I prefer immersion, although at different times and studies, my affections have been drawn to the Biblical case for affusion and for aspersion:\u00a0 the image of sprinkling that blood from the slain lamb over the waiting recipients is a strong one!\u00a0 Consequently, we have baptized our children – in all three of the modes: I can’t remember which ones where dunked, which sprinkled, and which were “poured-over.”\u00a0 So I can’t offer testimony as to the benefits of one mode over the other.\u00a0\u00a0 Like circumcision, to which Paul compares baptism when instructing the brethren at Corinth, it is a mystery.\u00a0 It is \u00a0the work of the Spirit as we rear our kids in communion with His people and under the Law and with the Grace of the Good News. \u00a0Yes, and how interesting that they circumcised\/initiated\/baptized those helpless, mindless, thoughtless infants<\/u>!<\/p>\n
There is a reason that all those scholars over many years have not <\/em>translated “baptizo” as “immerse.”\u00a0 Best to leave it as it is.<\/p>\n Keep up your excellent words of instruction and exhortation.\u00a0 We are thankful for your ministry.<\/p>\n Love,<\/p>\n Mike and Jayne Bray<\/p>\n [Dale is the beloved preacher at WCC]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 31 July, 2017 Dear Dale, I am offering you some thoughts regarding your “Baptism Sermon” as we might call it – on Sunday.\u00a0 \u00a0I enclose an essay I wrote a long time ago for my SS class at \u00a0a Lutheran Church; \u00a0nothing has changed since then.\u00a0 I appreciate your continued faithfulness in preaching from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-position-papers","category-wilmington-ohio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2681"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2766,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2681\/revisions\/2766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}