The Sacraments

The following are notes I'm using tonight to lead the CLM class.

A. What is a Sacrament? 

 The word sacrament comes from a Latin word that means pledge or oath. In this case, it is a pledge from God of God’s continued presence in our lives. In the sacraments, God works invisibly in us, quickening, strengthening and confirming our faith. It emphasizes God’s actions in and through the sacrament.

As United Methodists (along with most protestants) we have two rituals we call sacraments – baptism and communion. Just FYI, the Catholic church practices seven sacraments – baptism, confirmation, eucharist, reconciliation (confession), anointing of the sick, holy orders, and matrimony. We call sacraments those that it is believed Christ instituted explicitly. If you look at the list, you will see that our faith includes all of the others, but not as sacraments.

B. Methodism and the Sacraments

Remember, the Methodist denomination did not begin as a new denomination. It was begun by Wesley as a way to bring Anglican parishioners to a deeper faith. In the book Sacraments and Discipleship by Mark W. Stamm, the author writes that Wesley was working against two barriers to deeper discipleship:

1. Structural – the Anglican church was set up in Parishes – the Parish system was designed for a rural church and didn’t fit the needs of the working poor who lived in the emerging industrial centers. Wesley and Methodist preachers met the people where they were and when they could be there – even in fields.
2. Theological – There was a Calvinistic belief of unconditional election – God has already chosen who will be saved (and who will be condemned) and that the person cannot change this pre-election. Wesley believed that everyone should hear the Gospel in order to repent and believe.

Wesley gathered new and existing believers into disciplined, supportive communities called societies and classes The only requirement for admission into these groups was to desire to seek the work of God. Wesley believed that discipleship and faith were not private matters and that a community was required.

In the classes, “they helped one another embody the terms of their baptismal covenant. They also committed themselves to receive Communion as often as they could.” Understand that the sacraments were not usually part of the classes – these were led by lay people – but were a way to live out the sacraments.

Another quote by Stamm: “According to a Wesleyan understanding of the church, sacramental practice is (and should be) a the living center of communities where people watch over one another in love, communities where people under that the church’s primary task is disciple making, communities where people seek to become the body of Christ in mission.”

It’s important to remember that for Wesley, the sacraments were not ends in themselves, but were a means to an end, and that end is love – love God with all we are, and love our neighbors as ourselves (also from Stamm).

C. Grace and the Sacraments (much of this is from an article on UMC Resources) For John Wesley and for the Anglican church of which he was a part, the sacraments were instituted as a means of grace. We’ve talked about the means of grace before – According to Wesley, these are “outward signs, words, or actions ordained by God, and appointed for this end, to be the ordinary channels whereby God might convey to us, preventing (or prevenient), justifying, or sanctifying grace.”

And a quick review of the three “types” of grace…

1. Prevenient grace (or the grace that comes before) is part of baptism – bringing us into the body of Christ – God at work initiating us into a relationship with Godself.
2. Justifying grace – the grace of responding to God into relationship – is also part of baptism. We are cleansed from sin and brought into relationship.
3. And that leads to sanctifying grace – the work of the Holy Spirit to bring us to perfection. How does that work? Wesley doesn’t try to explain it – we just trust in God’s promises that it does.

In the article, the author quotes Stamm: “Jesus’ command was to ‘do this’ in the sacrament of Holy Communion. Experiencing God’s grace during this sacrament is a matter of trust. Luke 24: “Christ is made known to us in the breaking of the bread; the risen Christ shows up in the eucharist. You can’t control the risen Christ – just follow him"

The grace in communion moves Christians to act on their faith. We just talked about that when we were exploring the Methodist outlook on the sacraments. Remember that those actions are motivated by grace – it is grace that reaches towards us in communion – it is grace that moves us to reach out towards others. Love divine.

One other thing about grace and sacraments – “grace given in sacraments is not irresistible; God’s work there can be frustrated and even blocked by human rebellion, stubbornness, and apathy.” We have free will, and we can ignore grace.

Perspectives: My Baptism

Have I posted this before? This is me on the day I was baptized.  I'm the younger one in the white dress, standing with my mother. 

Infant Baptism

Name some arguments for and against infant baptism.  Do you agree that "the baptism of children should be limited to those who are likely to be nurtured in the church?"  Why or why not?

Wesley, in his Treatise on Baptism, sets forth several arguments for infant baptism including the belief that infants are guilty of original sin (as we all are), and that infants are capable of making a covenant, as we see in the Hebrew Bible.  In addition, that baptism is a successor to circumcision as a sign of the covenant, and that infants were circumcised, so then they were to be baptized, and that infants are capable of coming to Christ and of admission to the church.  Acts provides historical evidence that infants were baptized by the early church.

 

Arguments against infant baptism include the idea that infants are incapable to making a mature response of faith to baptism. There is no opportunity to teach infants about Christ or for infants to repent of sins prior to baptism.

 

For me, the question of whether or not to baptize infants who are unlikely to be nurtured in the church is where the evangelical and sacramental tensions in our beliefs about baptism are at their highest. If baptism is a sacrament and the work of God (not of ourselves), then why would be deny children baptism? I also think there could be situations where it is difficult to assess if a child will be nurture in the faith in the church. However, I also see the need for nurture in order that the child will experience the grace of sanctification. It is in Christian Community where we learn to practice the means of grace that will help us to mature in our faith, and a child who does not have the nurturing experience of community could miss that.

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.

 

Individuality

One of the topics discussed in the Come to the Waters course was the idea of individuality.  The course material says:

We need to remember that in the culture of biblical times, people virtually never considered themselves as individuals, but as members of a tribe, family, or household. Individual identity was almost unheard of. If one member of the family was honored, the whole family rose in status; if one did something shameful, the whole family was shamed; if one killed someone, vendetta between the families was nearly inevitable.

We have a framed scripture hanging in our family room that was a gift from Steve’s (my husband’s) mother that quotes the second part of Joshua 24:15 – “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  While I like the declaration and commitment of it, I’ve always wondered how Joshua could make a statement of commitment for his entire household.  I was reminded of this when I read the portion of the assignment that discussed the culture of the time in which no one considered themselves as individuals, but as members of a group.  I was also interested in how this changed through history, so that the idea of individual baptism was born.

In our United States culture today, individuality is very important.  We value our ability to make decisions on our own, and we don't always consider the impact our decisions have on our family or our community.  We would rarely make a decision for another person if that person is capable of making a decision for him or herself.  In fact, when someone does substitute their choices for someone else's choice, we declare it to be a wrong thing to do. It is interesting to me to see this different way of living in the ancient world and the early church.

 

Individuals vs Groups

We have a framed scripture hanging in our family room that was a gift from Steve’s (my husband’s) mother that quotes the second part of Joshua 24:15 – “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  While I like the declaration and commitment of it, I’ve always wondered how Joshua could make a statement of commitment for his entire household.

Some of the assignment material in the Come to the Water course talked about the idea that in the time of Christ, people did not think of themselves as individuals, but as a member of a group.  Whole households were baptized - this was the way of things.

As the Church expanded, this changed.  For example, have you heard of Perpetua?  She was a believer who was arrested for her faith.  She was in a three year preparation time for baptism and had not completed it, but was baptized because she was headed to martyrdom.  Her father came three times to try to convince her to renounce Jesus (she did not).  She was executed in March of 203 "by the beasts on the arena at Carthage.  Terrible story, but certainly one that demonstrates how individualism was replacing the idea of household membership in the church.

Two questions come to mind:

1. What if we considered baptism so important that we required a 3-year preparation time for it?  What would the church be like?
2. How is the church different because we see ourselves as individuals instead of members of a group or tribe in our faith?

 

Baptism Images

During our second session for Come to the Water (an advanced course about baptism on BeADisciple), we read through a large list of scriptures concerning water imagery and stories.  In the lesson material, the leader made a statement that relates Christian baptism to the idea that it is “more about the meaning of the water, and passing safely through the water.” (emphasis mine).  The immediate image in my mind was from Exodus – God bringing the Israelites safely through the water in Egypt.  Safely from slavery to freedom, from their old life to a newly created one.  It was surprising because such an iconic Hebrew Bible image could bring me (an unintended) new understanding of baptism.

 

She also made a connection between baptism and circumcision.  Circumcision was the primary ritual that initiated a Hebrew male into the Covenant (not a ritual bath).  Have you ever considered the idea that baptism is a replacement for circumcision?  I hadn't.  In fact, I read that and thought, “huh?”  I can certainly see the connection through the idea of covenant.  Considering the idea, I like the replacement!  Baptism is open to all – not just to most men.  Baptism, to me, feels like an act of God (not of humans); that may be my United Methodist beliefs coming through.  I compare that to circumcision, which seems to be an act of man.  Paul saw it as adherence to the law (and worked hard to make sure new gentile Christians did not have to adhere to laws such as circumcision.  

 

Course Review: Come to the Waters

Information about the Course

This is an advanced Lay Ministry course offered by BeADisiciple.com called Come to the Waters.  It is taught by Rev. Beth Galbreath, and United Methodist Deacon.  Steve and I completed the course in September of 2022.  It is a two week course with daily assignments for 12 days (Sunday is a sabbath, so no coursework).  It involves some reading (although not an overwhelming amount) and daily contribution  to a Discussion board where you post answers to questions and response to other people's posts.  Completing the course results in credit for an advanced lay ministry course.

Summary

Description from the website:  Deepen your congregation’s experience of baptism, confirmation and reaffirmation of baptism through this wide-ranging study of By Water and the Spirit, Scripture, Church history and United Methodist theology and practice of the sacrament. This course will reference, but go beyond, the official United Methodist teaching document on baptism. The course considers preparation of adults for baptism and the unique challenges of the digital – and pandemic – age.

Impressions

I found the information presented to be very good.  My knowledge base concerning baptism increased because of the course.  I found the study of baptism in the early church to be very interesting.  Discussion with other students was interesting and helpful.

During the time of the course, my mother was spending several days in the hospital.  The pressure of her hospital visit and this course were a difficult combination.  I was very glad to complete the course.  I was also happy that Steve took it with me.  We each completed our work separately and then shared it prior to posting - not to change it, but just to share it. 

Also, it was helpful to complete an advanced course on my own schedule and to be able to choose a topic that particularly interested me.  I like in person classes, but this online course met our needs in a way the current in person ones could not.

Posts about the Class

Posts about the class will have the tag cometowaters

 

Means of Grace

From Rachel Held Evans book, Searching for Sunday:

“I was always denied baptism and communion growing up,” Andrew said. “My dad told me I wasn’t manifesting enough fruits of the Spirit in my life. He wanted me to wait until I was good enough, holy enough.”

One of the gifts I received from my Walk to Emmaus is the concept of means of grace (it’s Wesley – taught by Emmaus). There are ways that God has established that help us to know and accept grace. Sacraments are means of grace (although there are countless others). Baptism and communion are ways that God has created as guideposts for us to recognize – to notice – God’s grace.

I was speaking with a woman who was baptized as a child – forced to do so by her parents. She is a woman of faith, but she is uncertain whether the baptism “took.” I want her to have confidence in the presence of God in her life, and who am I to argue with what she feels, but I want to tell her that God is who act through baptism – not us. It isn’t magic – it’s a symbol that God has accepted – adopted – us as children of his own. We can do nothing to change that.

I remember that my grandmother wouldn’t participate in communion because she was angry with a neighbor. The thing is that communion isn’t offered to anyone who is free of sin. If it were, then Jesus would not have offered it to the disciples. It is a means of grace – a way for God to help us remember that we are forgiven, accepted and loved.

There isn’t a magic line we have to reach in order to receive grace. There is a test we have to pass. There is only us and only God. God invites; we accept. We (not me, not you, not Andrew, not his father) are never “good enough.” That’s WHY there is baptism; why there is communion. Because we need it.

Andrew continued, “’I put off baptism because I felt like I was in a state of sin, like I wasn’t good enough or fit enough to be baptized. But then I realized that baptism is done at the beginning of your faith journey, not the middle or the end You don’t have to have everything together to be baptized…You just have to grasp God’s grace. God’s grace is enough.”

Breathe Again

I'm currently reading Frederick Buechner's Wishful Thinking: A Seeker's ABC as my daily devotional source.  It has 26 "chapters," each with words starting with a different letter of the alphabet. I'm on B.

Baptism: "Going under symbolizes the end of everything about your life that is less than human. Coming up again symbolized the beginning in you of something strange and new and hopeful.  You can breathe again."

A few phrases in that quote made me stop and read it again.  First, that "going under" symbolizes the end of everything about your life that is less than human." We say things like, "I"m only human" as if that is an excuse for the errors and sins we commit. This phrase speaks beyond that. God created us to be human, and baptism doesn't erase that. Baptism frees that - frees our humanness from what is less than human. The sanctifying grace of God doesn't transform us away from our humanity; it transforms us into our humanity.

We come up out of the waters of baptism beginning something strange and new and hopeful - we continue on our journey toward what God created us to be. Fully human. Coming up out of the waters, we "can breathe again." That is my favorite image from the quote. We come into the fresh and breathable air of God. Have you been swimming and been underwater too long? Have you experienced the relief of rushing to the surface and breathing again? That's the relief of baptism. We can breath again because we have been released from that which is less than human.

Does that mean we are sin-free? That we are completely transformed? That the work is done? No, not at all. You know that; I know that. But we can breathe again because God is moving us, through grace, to what we were created to be - human.

Baptized with Christ into Death

Years ago, Heather Murray Elkins was the presenter for Johnson Memorial UMC's second convocation. Her theme was "Descended into Hell," and she focused on that line from the Apostle's creed - a line that some of us include and some of us exclude.

Her teaching came to mind as my Sunday school class looked at Romans 6:

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Fahter, so we to might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3-4)

Heather related the idea of Jesus descending into Hell to the idea that he came to our world, full of suffering and pain. In our baptism, we are called to follow Jesus into his death - into the hell of this world. The image that comes to mind when I think of this analogy (and it may be the one that Heather used) is Jesus being immersed into the water of baptism - buried into death - and rising again. We follow Christ into those waters as we find Christ in the lives of those who are suffering - those who are in pain. Christ came to serve those, and we are called to follow, into the suffering and death of others.

Think then of the flooding that happened in West Virginia in June. Consider all of those who have followed Christ into the suffering of others - into the mud and muck. Into the pain of others. They who are serving to provide flood relief are living examples, to me, of this idea of being baptism into death with Christ, and rising again with Christ.

It is our calling.

Not alone in our Baptism

Think back to either when you were baptized, or to a baptism you remember.

I can remember my own.  I was seven, and I wore a white dress.  I remember standing in front of the congregation at the Presbyterian church near where we lived.

Among the other baptisms I can remember are those of my two sons.  I remember family joining us in church.  I remember all of us sitting together, and I remember standing up with our sons as either Dr. Wood or Rev. Campbell (depending on the son) baptized the boys.  I remember the congregation's responses in the liturgy, and I know that many of those who sat in the congregation are the same people who taught their Sunday school classes, who watched them in plays at Christmas, who gave money so that they could go on mission trips and experience the joy of youth groups.  These were the same people who hug them when they come back from college, and they are the same people who help to model for them what it means to be a believer.  These people are the body of Christ for them.

The devotional I read this morning said this, "...baptism is a community experience through baptism, the Holy Spirit creates community.  There are no individual believers; we're all communal believers held together by One who transcends all time and place through eternity and grace."  (Myron Wingfield; Disciplines 2015)

We can certainly have experiences of God's nearness and revelation in solitude, but we are made to be community.  We are created to be part of the body of Christ, and that creation is seen in our baptism.

Child of God

Yesterday I talked about Wading in the Water.  Check out that chorus again:

Wade in the WaterWater in the Water, children.Wade in the Water,God's a-gonna trouble the water.

I was at a meeting last night.  The leader of the committee said that, "It is easy to be a child of God."  Is that really true?

It has been said that when my older sons prays, it is as if he his crawling into God's lap and talking to him. To me, that is a great image of one of the aspects of being a child of God.  We are pulled into the Creator's "lap" and loved.  That aspect might have been what the leader of the committee was talking about last night.

But consider again the verse from yesterday's post:

Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  (Romans 6:3-4).  

We are children of God - we are children who have been buried with Christ and have been baptized not only into new life, but into Christ's death - into the suffering of Christ.

To be a child of God isn't just the time spent in God's lap, loved.  It is also the time spent seeing other children of God with the Father's eyes.  Our lives are not made easy by our adoption.  God stirs up the water and as God's children, we are called to wade in.  To be a child means that, like Jesus' disciples after the Transfiguration, we have to leave the mountain.

Kermit says, "It's not easy being green."  Kermit can't escape being green - he IS green, and it's not easy. We can't escape being children of God (if we would want to), and I don't think it's easy.

Wade in the Water

Wade in the waterWade in the water, children,Wade in the waterGod's a-going to trouble the water

On the Sunday when we remembered the Baptism of the Lord, we sang the song Wade in the Water during our early service.  I really like it.

Think about the words in light of baptism.  We are the children claimed by God.

Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  (Romans 6:3-4).  

As Christ is baptized, so are we.  We sink into the water with Christ, into death, and we rise with Christ.  Consider that for a moment.  Consider what it means to "wade into the water."  Baptism isn't just a statement of faith on our part, and it isn't just a claiming by God.  Through Baptism, or through our response to our baptism, we wade into the water.  We wade into not only eternal life, but also into suffering.  As Christ walked among those who were in pain and who were oppressed, so do we.  As Christ walked among the sick and lonely, so do we.

Wading into the water is risky.  It's not a walk on the beach.  God's a-going to trouble the water. We won't be in a peaceful, placid place.  We'll be in the troublesome water that is the place where Christ would have us to follow.

Wade in the water, children.

Joy of the Father

Matthew 3:13-17

It was a day like any other day,
When John stood at the River Jordon,
Baptizing those who would come.
He felt the gift of baptism,
The urgency to reach each person,
The rush of the water
Making each one clean and whole.

Amid the crowds came a man from Galilee:
From out of the crowds walked Jesus,
Lord of Lords, Emmanuel.
“Baptize me.”

Every bone in John’s body rejected the idea.
How could he be asked to do this?
Thoughts ran through is mind:
 “I am not worthy,
I am not ready,
I am not the one to do this.”
And he fought to speak,
“I’m the one who needs to be baptized,
Not you.”

Jesus insisted.
Sometimes when Jesus insists,
All we can do is obey,
So John did what he was told to do.

He baptized the Son of God.

Water ran over Jesus’ head,
Soaking his face,
Dripping in tiny droplets from his eyelashes,
Mixing with his tears.

John, who had been sent to prepare the way,
Saw God coming from heaven like a dove.
John, who had spoken to so many people
Urging them to repentance,
Now heard the voice of God,
 “This is my son,
Marked by my love.
With whom I am well pleased.”

John knew God spoke of Jesus,
But in his heart a flame lept,
He prayed God could say the same about him,
Even just a whisper,
That what he was doing was pleasing to God
That what he had done was God’s will.

John and Jesus looked at each other
John with eyes of uncertainty,
Jesus with a responding smile.
And they both laughed
In the wonderful pleasure of their Father.

Water

The word for today is water.

This was a tough choice.  I have tons of pictures of water -- ocean, river, puddle, baptismal -- I love to photograph water.

There was something about this one, though, that caught my eye this morning.  It's precarious.  Balanced.  It feels like an entire world could be in that drop of water.

Scientifically, the surface of water has tension.  Molecules of water are polar -- one end has a negative charge and the other has a positive charge, so they stick together.  You've probably seen the surface tension of water if you have filled a glass up past its brim.  The water might dome up, ever so slightly.  It sticks together.

Water is cleansing.  It washes away the dirt and grime in our lives.  We need to be cleansed.

Water is necessary for life.  Our body runs on water, and without it, our entire system becomes non-functional.  Dehydration is a real danger.

Is it any wonder then that baptism is a sacrament?  The life-giving, cleansing, sticky water of baptism marks us as children of God, claimed by him.

Water

Now when all thepeople were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized..."  Luke 3:21a

I was reading a devotional from Daily Feast this morning.  The author asks us to picture what it was like when Jesus was baptized.  Everyone was gathered around, waiting to be baptized.  Jesus joined the crowd in line.  Those around him were like us -- sinners in need of grace, the lost in need of forgiveness.  Jesus wasn't either one of those, and yet he joins those there in solidarity.

Lo, I am with you always.

That doesn't just mean that Jesus stands with us, protected and observing.  It means that Jesus -- God -- is with us.  Experiencing what we experience.  Feeling our pain.  Knowing our suffering. 

Isaiah 42:2 says, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you."

Jesus passed through the waters of baptism with us, and we with him.

Baptism

In Sunday school yesterday, a member of the class said that in order to be saved, one must pray a particular prayer.  I know there are people who believe that, but I'm not one of them.

I know there are people who can point to a specific moment in time when they accepted Christ as savior and knew that they were saved.

I have always believed in God, I have always believed in Christ, and I can't point to a particular point in my life -- a particular moment -- when I went from lost to saved.

The devotional today is written by a man who was raised Jewish, but is now Christian.  He is often asked how that change came to be, and when he was baptized.  He says it is a difficult question to answer.  So many events in his life were the workings of God.  He describes the wind that "blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes" (John 3:8).

I have an Emmaus reunion group meeting tonight, and one of the questions we ask each other is "when this week were you closest to God?"  Was reading this devotional my closest moment to God?  It might be.  Reading of this man's experience of "trying to sum up a lifetime of accepting the word of God" felt like God reminding me of his loving presence in my life.  Always.

When was I baptized?  When I was seven, in a white dress standing in a Presbyterian Church.  When was I baptized?  God is at work every day, and the spirit blows where it will.  That experience of God seems more monumental in my life than the work of one day, as grateful as I am for it.

Walk in the Way that Leads to Life

This is the devotional I sent out to our devotional ministry this week.  Sorry for the late post -- no internet last night at home.

A couple of weeks ago, Jack asked us to touch the water in the baptismal font and to “remember our baptism.” We came toward the altar, dipped our hands into the water, and remembered that we are claimed by God, beautiful in his sight, and loved beyond measure.

I was seven when I was baptized, and I can remember it, but on that day two weeks ago, it wasn’t my baptism I was remembering. I watched my 17-year-old son walk down the aisle, touch the water, and I remembered his baptism. He was not quite one year old when we brought him to the altar at Johnson Memorial. Our family sat together in two front pews and brought this new human being forward to the altar rail. I listened as the choir sang the responses in the liturgy, and as the congregation promised to surround our son with love and forgiveness and to pray for him, so that he would become a disciple of Christ, and walk in the way that leads to life. On that day, and on every day before and since, God has reached down, touched our son, and claimed him as His own.

Grant is now 17. His thoughts and ours are turning to “What’s next?” He’s sitting for college entrance exams, filling out college applications and thinking about his future. What’s next?

I hear the echoes of Grant’s Church family promising to love him and pray for him. I’m grateful for how the Body of Christ has embraced him as he has grown from a toddler to a teenager. I pray that we have given him a firm foundation for whatever comes next.

In the Gospel lectionary reading for the week, James and John are working with their father, Zebedee. All three of them are in a boat, mending nets. Jesus approaches them, and he calls the two brothers into discipleship. James and John immediately leave their nets and follow Christ.

I wonder what Zebedee thought as his sons left. Had he spent a lifetime wondering “What’s next” for these two men? Did he worry about them? I’m certain that as they walked away from him, following Christ, his thoughts followed them, asking “What’s next?” for his two sons.

It’s an important question for our son, for these two young men, and it’s an important question for us. We are claimed by God – what’s next?

Do we hear the call of Christ? Are we willing to drop everything and follow him? Will we do it immediately?

How are we preparing the way for those who come after us? Are we teaching about Christ? Are we helping to build the faith of others – our sons, our daughters in the faith? Are we paving the way so that others can walk in the way that leads to life?

What's next?

Last week in church we were encouraged to “remember our baptism.” At my church, our pastor, Jack, stood by the baptismal font and spoke about the water, picking it up in cupped hands and letting it fall back into the font as he reminded us of all the ways God has delivered us through water. He encouraged us to step forward and touch the water, remembering our baptism.


We did as he asked, dipping our hands into the water, and then kneeling at the altar rail in prayer. I can remember my own baptism, but it wasn’t my baptism that came to mind last Sunday. I had returned to my seat and watched our older son, Grant, come forward, dip his hand into the water, and kneel at the altar rail. I remembered when he was baptized. He was almost a year old, crawling but not yet quite walking. We dressed him all in white, from his shoes, to tiny white slacks, to a double-vested sweater and brought him to church. Our family came and stood with us as God reached down, touched our son through the waters of baptism, and said, “He is mine; I claim this child.” The congregation promised to surround our son with love and forgiveness and to pray for him, so that he would become a disciple of Christ, and walk in the way that leads to life.

Now our son is 17 years old. He’s a senior in High School. He’s taking college entrance exams, apply to schools, and planning his future. On Sunday, as he touched the water, I remembered his baptism. The question on his mind, and on our minds as we help him, is “What’s next?”

It’s not just a question for a 17 year old, it’s a question for all of us. We are claimed by God; now what?

What's next?