TRINITY VI

July 11, 2010

St. Augustine Anglican Church

“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him.”

The Rev. Gerald Parks +

          In today’s Epistle (Rom. 6:3-11), St. Paul speaks of the meaning of  Baptism.  He likens its effects on our souls to an Easter or Resurrection experience, when we are incorporated into the Body of Christ, and with Him have won victory over sin and death, and live in newness of life in fellowship with our Risen Lord.  In other words, it’s a “big deal,” maybe the biggest of deals, because through Baptism all the stains of the first Adam’s sin are removed from us, and we become new, going from death to life in the “second man,” who is “the Lord from heaven.” (1 Cor. 15:47)

          St. Paul asks a question that should be as relevant to us today as it was to the Romans to whom it was written: “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” (Rom. 6:3)  It is not likely that many of us ever consider Baptism to be a kind of “death,” especially when we see an innocent baby being baptized.  Yet, St. Paul tells us that it is: “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism unto death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” (Rom. 6:4)

          The concept of Original Sin is not an easy one for many people to swallow; it is exceptionally difficult when it comes to a little child.  Looking at that innocent baby, we rationalize that surely he can be guilty of nothing worse than keeping his parents awake all night.  And yet, we also know that our Lord told us, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5)  We must be “born again” because of the Original Sin of Adam.  Nowhere is it stated in Holy Scripture that anyone – even an innocent child – is immune from that sin.

          The mystical washing away of sin, which we call Holy Baptism, is one of the two Sacraments instituted by Christ Himself: the other is the Holy Eucharist.  Each of them carries the weight of our Lord’s own authority as Son of the Father, which means that we must do our utmost to observe and to do them, just as they were done in the ancient Church, and for the same reasons.  But, just as there are those who rationalize that no stain of sin could possibly attach to babies, so too are those who rationalize away any need for baptism at all before a child reaches what they call “the age of reason.”  Reason also tells them that the Eucharist is not really a sacrifice where our Lord is somehow mystically present, but only a symbol to be observed occasionally, if at all.

          Reason, it seems, (at least as men possess it) is a poor substitute for faith.  Faith by definition is not rational: it is quite the opposite, because it concerns things that are beyond our abilities to comprehend.  Faith tells us that Jesus was born of a virgin through the power of the Holy Ghost; but reason tells us that is impossible.  By faith we believe that our Lord performed miracles of many kinds: from healing the sick and infirm to raising the dead, and feeding thousands with practically nothing.  And we believe through faith that Christ rose from death and ascended bodily into heaven.  We can’t believe these things because they are reasonable.  In fact it is totally irrational that we do, for such things are impossible in our world: they cannot happen.

Believing in Jesus Christ means taking Him at His word.  That is presumably what one does when one declares himself to be a Christian.  But there is much more to being a Christian than making a simple declaration and associating with others one happens to agree with: one has to believe in something, or rather, in someone.

          When our first child was born, my wife and I decided we needed to find a church to attend.  And since we hadn’t been affiliated with one since college, it was important to find the “right” one for our new family.  I was Roman Catholic and my wife Methodist, but by that time I had had enough of the RCs, and Janet didn’t care; so I set out to find one myself.  It seemed logical at the time to go first to the Methodists, and I made an appointment with the pastor in our little town, and went to see him.  I really wanted to know what the Methodists believe.  What I found out, though, (and this may seem unfair to the Methodists) was that Methodists believe any of a number of things on any given religious topic – none of them designated as the absolute truth, and none of them required for salvation, since that is already assured. 

          This kind of “free form” or (if I may) “pluriform truths” type of religion is not unique to the Methodists: substitute the name of any of a number of “main line” or non-denominational churches, and you will find the same thing.  They are universally nice, kind and generous people, as you would expect Christians to be, but apart from that, there is little effort or desire to teach what our Lord taught, or to live as He commanded that we should.  They are in every aspect what is meant by the term “nominal Christians.”

          What we cannot know by reason, we must know by faith.  What better way for God to teach the truth of His salvation than by the everyday things of human life, such as washing and eating?  That God chose the washing of Holy Baptism to cleanse us from sins and give us new life in Him, and that He gave us His banquet of the Holy Eucharist to sustain us in our new life, is simply an example of His love.  It is the same love for us shown in the death and Resurrection of Jesus; and St. Paul reminds us, “We shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforward we should not serve sin.” (Rom. 6:6)  It may not seem reasonable or rational to those whose faith is limited to what their intellect dictates, but it is the simple truth of Jesus Christ, man and God.