Today, Pentecost, we had baptisms. They are always wonderful events to witness and to take part it; it is a true privilege of the office to officiate a baptism. This afternoon, I was thinking, “how can I make something so wonderful and powerful dry and academic?” This is what scholars do, right?
A baptism is not something that is personal or individualistic. It is a witness and at the same time a communal experience. Consider this through an apophatic and cataphatic experience. The cataphatic (more or less, a positive view of the event) finds meaning in the symbol of the water, in the full immersion, and in the commitment made by the individual. This is not only symbolic for the individual, but is also symbolic for the community. The water reminds the congregation of the cleansing and commitment they made in their baptism. The immersion reminds the congregation of their own immersion and their new life in Christ. All of the symbols in the service point to something greater than the act, the baptisms that many have encountered in the past, the commitments made, and the life found in Christ.
The apophatic reminds us that baptism is much more than a commitment or an immersion. The water is powerful, but does not capture all that a baptism is about. Even the baptism itself is about more than just a commitment, more than can be articulated. The actions of Christ is greater and beyond what we can know. As the congregation observes a baptism they are reminded that the event as well as their own baptism connects them with something powerful that cannot be articulated.
When looked at in this way baptism is a powerful moment. Even non-sacramental Baptists can be aware of the presence and the power of a baptism; what can be claimed and what cannot because it is greater than that which we can know.
Is that dry enough?
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