A Promise to Keep

 

I tried to find some statistics on what percentage of married people wear wedding bands. It turns out, nobody really knows. I received my ring June 14, 1997, and, and it has never been off. There are many other people can say the same.

The traditional vows, with regards to the exchange of wedding rings, have changed a little over the years in the Book of Common Worship of the PCUSA:

From 1928: With this ring I thee wed, and with all my worldly goods I endow, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,

From 1946: I do promise and covenant; Before God and these witnesses; to be thy loving and faithful (wife or husband); In plenty and want; In joy and in sorrow; In sickness and health as long as we both shall live.

From 2018: By your blessing, O God, may these rings be symbols of unending love and faithfulness and signs of the covenant they have made this day, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

There have been some changes in the last one hundred years. The commitments are more nebulous, the promises leave room for interpretation, and the vows are more hopeful than restrictive. However, we still make promises to one another. We still exchange some symbol of our commitment, but what I want to call to your attention most is the ring on your hand, if you wear one, is not a reminder of your commitment. It is a reminder that there is someone who committed to you! It is a symbol that someone has a claim in you, and that they are counting on you.

Earthly marriages can fail. At times people lose sight of the promises they made. Something, or someone, is more interesting. At times we find we just do not know how to live out those lofty ideals we had on that special day. The commitment can be challenging work.

Despite our failures in our relationships, the favorite Biblical illustration of our relationship with God is still that of a marriage. The Church is often called the Bride of Christ, and Baptism is that “ring” that reminds us that someone now has a claim on us. God is the perfect spouse. He is forgiving. He is steadfast. He will stand by you through all things, for better or worse, in sickness and health, through this life and beyond. When things are difficult, remember your Baptism. Yes, it can be a sign of your promises to God, but beyond that, it is your reminder that God has a claim on you that will not fade.

Craig C. Krueger

Baptism

Q. 94. What is baptism?

 A. Baptism is a sacrament, wherein the washing with water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, doth signify and seal our ingrafting into Christ, and partaking of the benefits of the covenant of grace, and our engagement to be the Lord’s.

                   The Westminster Shorter Catechism

Probably, the majority of people who read this will have been baptized. It would be interesting to ask all of them what actually happened when they were baptized! Some would say that they became a Christian at that moment. Others would comment about it as an entrance ritual for church membership.

In the few lines that follow let me see if I can describe the event. First, Baptism is a sacrament. That means that something takes place during the ceremony besides an individual getting wet. An earlier question of the catechism says by sensible signs, Christ, and the benefits of the new covenant, are represented, sealed, and applied to believers.

Represented: The visible events show us what takes place “behind the scenes.” We use water as a symbol of cleansing. Some denominations use immersion (the person being baptized is put under the water rather than a pouring or sprinkling of water over the individual’s head) to represent a burial and resurrection. The use of water represents a new and righteous life being given to the believer.

Sealed: Something becomes ours that cannot be taken away. In Biblical culture a seal was the consummation of an agreement. In this sense, we give ourselves, or our child to God, and God seals that child as His very own.

Applied: This new life and its benefits mentioned above are applied to us. In a rather irreverent way, compare this to updating your computer. The updates are there. They have been downloaded and installed, but you get little benefit from their presence until they have been applied, until they have been put into practice in the individual’s life.

Most of us understand the part that is represented; we get it. We are assured in our faith when we hear about being sealed. It is a tremendous comfort against our doubtful selves. However, it may be the greatest blessing when these benefits are applied, when we start living as children of our Heavenly Father, knowing that we are citizens of the Kingdom of God.

Pastor Craig

How to Remember Your Baptism

How to Remember Your Baptism

This Sunday, the lectionary passages recount for us the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptizer. It is common on this Sunday that we ask the members of the congregation to remember their baptism, for many Presbyterians a difficult task since it is traditional practice to baptize infants.

Maybe it is more accurate to ask us to live up to our baptism. The Scriptures and the confessions teach us that baptism for us involves the in-grafting of the baptized into the body of Christ. As parents baptizing children, we do this in the same way God commanded the Israelites to circumcise male children on the eighth day of their birth. These children are now a part of the covenant family and members of the Kingdom of God.

This entrance into the covenant is also why we refer to the period of instruction leading up to membership in the visible church as confirmation. The individual is not merely being given instruction regarding the church sacraments and his/her ability to understand what happens through participation in them, nor are they learning about the governmental structures of the church or denomination the person is seeking to join. These persons are confirming the faithfulness of God through his covenant, that they have indeed grown up into their faith, into the promises made on their behalf by their parents years before.

The promises were originally made for you, if you were baptized as an infant, when you were unable to voice your own choices. Your parents made a commitment to pray with you and for you. They promised to live the Christian faith before you in such a way that finding Christ would be as simple as watching them and how they acted, reacted, and treated those around them. So, remembering your baptism means remembering and living out that moment in your life when your parents’ faith became your own faith. This is the time when the covenant became real, when the faithfulness of God came through, when your parents’ prayers for you became reality and you allowed the Holy Spirit to draw you to your Savior, Jesus Christ.

Pastor Craig