" There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all."
(Ephesians 4:4-6, NRSV)
In the Reformed Tradition, we hold that baptism signifies a union with Christ for the baptized believer. In entering the waters of baptism, symbolically, we enter into Christ's death. In rising from the waters, we rise with Christ into eternal life and the promises of Christ's kingdom. The time between our baptism and our earthly death, the death of our body, is guided by a covenantal agreement between God and Human. God's grace through Christ Jesus is shown forth in the life of the baptized; the baptized child of God is dead to sin and the desires of the flesh in response to God's grace.
Among the troubling trends in today's modern American evangelical movement is the notion of being 're-baptized' or baptized a second, third, fifteenth time. A quick Google or YouTube search will result in thousands of differing ideas about this notion. For some, this act is a formal initiation rite, performed in a denomination that does not recognize the believer's previous baptism for doctrinal reasons. For others, this is a personal decision and an opportunity to publicly witness to the transformation they have undergone in their spiritual growth. In either case, the idea of being baptized more than once misses the point of baptism altogether.
In baptism, one does not take an action which sets in motion one's destiny. Baptism is not a one-sided operation - God is at the very center of this act. By God's grace you were called into baptism, and by God's grace you have been made worthy of this calling. Your own action has little effect on the claim that God makes on you through baptism. Your life will either be lived in response to this amazing grace, or you will miss the meaning and significance of being called into this life by God and turn astray. Through Christ's death and resurrection, you are forgiven of your straying ways and ever invited back to your life of response to God's grace. In Baptism, God takes the important actions. Our important actions come in response.
Why then do we make this sacrament a public ordeal? In our tradition of worship and holy living, the congregation and family of the baptized believer make covenants as well. And often we are asked at another's baptism to 'remember your own baptism.' For those of us baptized as infants, this may seem silly, or at least impossible. This would be the short-view of what baptism is and does. It is not a one-time ceremonial event. Baptism is a lifelong commitment. In being called by God to the waters, we pass through them changed forever. We can remember our baptism clearly because it's lived in every moment of our earthly lives.
The harm in multiple baptisms is really in this misreading of what baptism truly means. If we live as if we can be re-baptized, are we not allowing ourselves a season or more of 'vacation' from our covenantal response to God's grace? Are we deciding in some implicit way that we can make the decision to end our relationship with God and 'renew our membership' when it's more convenient?
The harm in not allowing multiple baptisms is in not honoring the person's decision to repent and turn back to God. For some traditions and some people, this seems to be a really big part of the baptismal experience, that they publicly re-enter this relationship with God. It can seem to those who practice a theology other than our own like we are cheapening the personal experience of baptism by limiting it to once per lifetime and primarily at infancy. But again, this is a misunderstanding of the act itself.
As Jesus was being tried and tortured and hung on a cross, he asked several times for his Father to take the cup from him, to show him mercy, if it be God's will. The Son of Man, the very Son of God did not take the responsibility of the act of his death on the cross without giving credit to the One from which He was sent. God's will be done. If baptism is for us a reminder, a symbol of our joining Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection, then we must remember to honor this act as God's decision. God makes a claim on our lives. It is a high calling and one that comes with great responsibility, and God knows we fail. We fail often. God is always waiting for us to repent, remember our baptism, and reclaim the waters and the promises through our living response to God's grace.
This Sunday we will all be invited to remember our own baptisms, our daily living response to God's grace, as we witness our two confirmands reaffirm their baptismal covenant with God. They will be confirmed into a congregation, a body of believers, who have all forgotten their covenant at one point or another, but who have all made it back to the waters again and again, countlessly recommitting themselves to the lives to which they've been called.
Here's the takeaway: We all are called to re-evaluate, re-commit, re-member, and re-affirm our covenant with God every minute of every day. That is what it means to be living into our baptism, dying with Christ ever and always. But we must never forget the teaching of the Apostle Paul, " there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all." (Ephesians 4:4-6, NRSV)
In Christ,
J.M.D.