Baptism of Infants

A few years ago I was part of a team for a Walk to Emmaus.  I was sitting at the table with some of the pilgrims, discussing baptism.  As I remember the conversation, one of them asked me about my sons’ baptisms.  I explained that they were baptized as infants.  Her response implied not only that they were not “saved,” but also that I had somehow endangered their eternal life with God. A table at a Walk to Emmaus was not the place for me to defend my personal faith, but I remember very much resenting her comments.  I think I responded by saying something  like, “I know my boys are claimed by God.”  Her comments reflected the belief that baptism was both essential and sufficient to salvation and that it is, at heart, an offering of ourselves to God – an act of our own.

 

I treasure the United Methodist Church’s belief in infant baptism.  For me, it is an undeniable illustration of how God works in us and through us.  I think if our beliefs were different, and that we only offered baptism to adults, we could allow the sacramental and grace-filled nature of baptism to become secondary to our own act of acceptance.  It is our nature to think that everything is all about us; it would be easy for us to slip into the idea that we are the major actor in baptism – not God – without the example of an infant brought into God’s family through no act of their own.