The current issue of The Christian Century (November 3, 2009) happens to feature not one but two articles touching on baptism – and especially how it anchors our lives.

Pastor Heidi Neumark’s “Sermon in stone”  tells of her trip to Lubeck, Germany, this past summer to follow up on her recently discovered roots. This Lutheran pastor’s grandparents were Jewish, and so she tells, brought her father as a child to St. Mary’s Church font in Nazi Germany in an “act of desperation, assimilation, or both.” Perhaps baptism would enable their child to escape the fate of other Jews.

As Neumark tells the story of the bronze font dating from 1337, a masterpiece with figures from Adam and Eve to Jesus and the surprise of the wise and foolish maidens along with more predictable apostles, the reader appreciates the both the unique glories of font itself and this pastor’s fascination. Even more surprising to her is that the church’s pastor admitted to never looking at the font and its incredible art. “I just baptize babies here,” he confessed as Neumark pondered “this sermonic lodestone.”

For whatever pastoral riches this font could yield, in the end it’s blessing was personal, earthy, transforming, and touchable as Neumark concludes, “…whatever drew my grandparents there with their son has been transmuted by mercy. My life in Christ began in this indestructible bath, and I am grateful for my place in the dance.”

Neumark’s story is worth a special read, but she shares with all of us the blessing of travel to special places, sacred places where God has worked, in this case, using earth’s water in a font in unique and terrifying wartime circumstances.

In the same issue (pp. 12-13) Miroslav Volf, professor at Yale University, tells of being a “reluctant pilgrim” to the Holy Land with his oldest son. Never one to be into “sacred places,” he really didn’t expect much from “holy sites” in this land where fact and legend were often indistinguishable. But at the baptism site dedicated to John the Baptist, a relatively new place of pilgrimage, he found himself fascinated by the historical and spiritual authenticity.  The Gospel of John (1:28) describes John’s baptisms at “Bethany across the Jordon.” An earlier pilgrim account from 333 A.D. support John’s baptizing there in the Jordan five miles from the Dead Sea near a hill where Elijah was taken up into heaven. Volf admits that suddenly he found himself immersed in the events of Elijah with Ahab and Jezebel and John with Herod and Herodias. It also helped that the souvenir shop was kept at a respectable distance in the visitor’s center.

Again travel connected the believer to story, and the past becomes present and alive. The stories of Jesus, his people, his enemies, his mission, soak deeper into us in the places we can see and feel and meander. That’s appropriate to a baptismal spirituality in which earth and heaven touch.

What did travel to this place do for Volf and his son? “…[I]t turned us into pilgrims because it presented to us a sacred space – a space free of mercantile culture in which we are drenched and space inscribed with sacred narratives that point a person to the spring of living water and the tree of true life.” The bottom line, however, comes in his son’s words, “I felt somehow connected with Jesus.”

As in baptism’s earthiness, we are immersed into the story of Jesus – and God.

For many of us, I suppose, baptism is a scene from a world apart. We watch the pastor or priest pour the “holy water” at a worship service. We remember our own baptism, or more likely, we recall that we were baptized. In “The Forum” of  USA Today’s Monday, October 26 edition, Dean Nelson gives us the larger and livelier picture with his recollection of the movie, “The Shawshank Redemption:”

“…Tim Robbins’ character serves a life sentence for a crime he did not commit, but he eventually escapes through the prison’s sewer system, makes it through the outfall pipe and collapses in a river. He staggers to his feet, and in a deafening downpour, lightning flashing around him, he stumbles through the water from the earth and the sky, takes off his prison clothing and heads toward freedom. When I first saw that scene, all I could think of was one word – baptism. He had just crawled through some of the worst muck imaginable. He had just lived through the worst life imaginable. And now he’s in the water, shedding his old self.”

What a marvelous description! For a long time, The Shawshank Redemption has been at the top of my list of favorite movies, and now writer Dean Nelson has just articulated another reason it appeals so deeply to me.  The spiritual dimension of life itself flows through the movie, even, as Nelson insists, the sacramental character of life. The more-than-mundane in the mundane. The holy in the ordinary.

I found myself considering the baptismal elements in the scene Nelson describes. Here are a few:

• Immersion in the water
• Being washed by the water
• Shedding old garments to receive new
• Leaving behind the old life
• Facing the new with all kinds of emotions: fear, joy, uncertainty, etc.
• Moving into freedom.

Nelson’s article includes the Celtic insight that there are “thin spaces” between this world and the greater unseen world. Ordinary activities have more going on within them than we take in with our senses. We often miss this, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Nelson concludes, “Wearing the lens of the sacraments can show us that it has been there all along, hiding in plain sight.” The title to his recent book  indicates the same, God Hides in Plain Sight: How to See the Sacred in a Chaotic World.

Baptismal spirituality is part of that seeing, a way to know God when God often seems absent. And sacraments like baptism , I would add, help us name our experience as one of “the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  I look forward to reading Nelson’s book to nurture my own spiritual awareness.

Today – sunshine and 70 degrees – my wife and I ate lunch overlooking the waters of that great river, the Mississippi. Sometimes hard to believe we live so close to one of the great playgrounds and workhorses of the world. Today we simply enjoyed its beauty. Its waters inspired me to add this post.

I’ve been thinking of Lent out of season. In fact, I just posted on my book’s website, www.waterforyoursoul.com, information on a Lenten preaching series for pastors to use in 2010. If you’re a pastor, I invite you to give this a look. At the site, just click on “For pastor especially” for the PDF on “The Baptismal Plunge with Christ.” I encourage you to print it out and consider using it for midweek services (or Sundays).

 Lent is the time when, with Christ, the church moves from death to life, from ashes to resurrection. Lent is a powerful time of baptismal spirituality, a time of dying to sin and rising to new life. My book on baptismal spirituality, Water for Your Soul: Living in Baptism Every Day, lends itself to a preaching series to take people deeper into the waters of grace and discipleship.

The PDF (above) and one copy of my book are the basics for the series, but there’s flexibility to go different ways with the materials. In any case, Lent is a great time to learn and experience that baptism’s benefits for our spiritual journey keep going and going. I hope you try the series and are blessed.

This business of dying to sin to which baptism calls us again and again can be pretty heavy duty. But often the spirituality of it all is woven into the everyday fabric of our lives.

Like the article I just read in USA Today: “Uplift in good times shows happy couples….”

Here’s what it tells: when a marriage partner responds with enthusiasm and pride to their mate’s good news – let’s say, for a promotion – the result is more satisfaction and closeness in their relationship. In other words, if the partner can set aside their own needs and just be happy for their mate, their marriage is going to be better than it was before.

The article indicates that a negative or even passive response is destructive to the relationship. In fact, the study apparently indicates that reactions to good news are more indicative of couple break-ups than reactions to bad news. We need to read that again.

The study makes me think of the Bible verse, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep… (Romans 12:10). I think we’ve emphasized the latter but not the former. This study should help us see the benefits of both.

Doesn’t it really require setting ourselves and our needs aside to rejoice with someone? For example, our spouse tells us of the raise received – the second one in a short time – while our own boss may give no hint that we’re even appreciated. Be happy for your spouse! That can be tough. But if in that moment we can be second, putting our own needs and feelings aside, we can improve the depth and the intimacy of our marriage. A blessing! Even more than we might by empathizing with our partner on a bad day.

For the Christian, this can be doing simply what Christ calls us to – loving one another. In another sense it’s also baptismal spirituality – dying to ourselves and rising to new life. That is, saying “no” to our own needs in that moment, and receiving the “yes” of blessing in our marriage.

This is not to say that our own needs aren’t important; but they may not be the most important at that time. It may be more important to live in trust that God is at work even we aren’t the focus. In other words, it’s all right I am second – and that bit of daily dying can bring blessing.

This time a secular study makes the point.

As a pastor I have found one of the great moments of ministry being Easter morning when, as worship begins, I am privileged to say, “Christ is risen!’ And worshipers respond, “He is risen indeed!” My heart thrills to those Easter words – and I hope the same happens for many.

Baptism is another form of that word – the very personal application: this is “for you.” Christ is risen – for you! This happens in a visible way when someone is baptized in an Easter (day or season) service. It happens in the dying to sin and rising to new life of worship’s confession and forgiveness. It also happens in the joyous Easter Sacrament of Holy Communion. All for you.

Our spiritual life as the baptized is anchored in Easter, Jesus Christ’s dying and rising, but it doesn’t end there. Our baptism is Christ-for-us and we receive a spiritual gift that is good for a lifetime and more.

I invite you to see my article in the April 2009 issue of The Lutheran, “Wanted: Sinners Dead And Alive.” Catch a glimpse of what baptism means not only for infants and children but also for adults. Baptismal spirituality is not just for one day but for our whole journey.

In my last post I said would tell about an important ministry in the church designed about marking milestones in people’s lives.

Remember: milestones are those occasions in our lives where something important happens, often meaning a real “before” and “after.” These milestones might include events celebrated in the home; others in the congregation (or community as well). The Christian ministry of milestones takes place in the recognition and the ritual, keeping close the Christ connection: that we are “in Christ” even as we leave behind the old and face the new.

Who among us doesn’t recognize the importance of getting a driver’s license? It’s a teenager’s dream! Of course my beloved aunt found it pretty exciting at 65 years as well. Here’s a definite before and after. A real milestone filled with promise and responsibility. A Milestones Ministry recognizes this – deliberately.

If anyone that deserves credit for lifting up this element of baptismal spirituality, it’s The Youth and Family Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They are at the center of exciting work to pass on the Christian faith especially within families and congregations. Check them out. They say:

A faith milestone is a marker along life’s journey that says, “This is something important and God is here, tool!” It’s time to pause, to share the joys and sorrows, to give and receive support.

As you might guess, some milestones are very public, such as high school graduation, and others more private, such as parents sending their child off to school for the very first time. So they may call for different kinds of celebrations, more public in the congregation or more private in the home. The Youth and Family Institute recognizes the differences, and it works with congregations to find their own pathway into this local ministry.

The opportunities to mark milestones are many. I know a congregation that for many years has given handmade quilts to its high school graduates on a special Sunday. I just served a congregation, Holmen Lutheran, that has been presenting the baptized with faithchests® to keep important mementoes and items for growing in faith through the years. Then there’s my personal experience: when I retired recently, my congregation celebrated, remembered, and did a Ritual for the Closure of a Ministry.

With Milestone Ministry, there’s a real sense of “before” and “after,” as I said, but in the words and the rituals, we realize there God is here too. Over the expanse of time, we truly we grow in faith and experience belonging to God.

My wife and I used to talk about how the birth of our first child changed things in our lives, even little things. We lived in the Twin Cities at the time, she was working and I was at seminary. Money was tight, but occasionally we’d splurge: we’d go to Dunkin’ Donuts for a coffee and taste treat, spontaneously, even at 11:00 o’clock at night or later. You can guess how a baby changed all that! Spontaneous gave way to planning. And if the night was kind, eleven o’clock meant precious sleep.

Having a child is a milestone that changes many things. Carefree, spontaneous times may get sharply curtailed. A door is closed to “the old” life. At the same time another door is opened to life previously unknown. Milestones like having a child are endings and beginnings. And God is there…helping us cope with the loss, giving us eyes to see the grace.

Milestones can be great moments of baptismal spirituality. We can mourn our losses, sometimes so little we hardly notice, other times wrenching. We can open the door of our hearts to the new, often eagerly awaited, still other times dreaded. But the God of death and resurrection who comes as Jesus is in all these milestones; and if we are baptized into Christ Jesus, we are joined to him with his pledge to bring us through the drowning waters, gasping our way into new life.

I remember milestones in my own life; why don’t you do the same as I compile my list:
• the first time I showed a Holstein calf at the Trempealeau county fair,
• going deer hunting with my father
• getting my driver’s license (after failing the test the first time)
• going off to Luther College
• getting married
• sending our five year old off to kindergarten….
• retiring just two weeks ago (I’m just starting to work on this one).

These can be ordinary or powerful moments in our life, fearful or exciting. My personal list is just the beginning of a sampling. How would you add to it? How did you experience God and God’s faithfulness– or not – in those times? In a future post, I’ll point us to a wise and wonderful church ministry that connects with these moments.

“The Gospel of Will Smith” from the December 8 issue of Newsweek is an interview of searcher who is comfortable in his own skin.

His films like “The Pursuit of Happyness,” “I Am Legend,” and “Hancock” are into the tougher side of life. That’s where Smith wants to go. He says that he loves “the nature of humanity’s search for meaning. For me,” he goes on, “I’m certain about my relationship with the model of perfection of human life that’s laid out with the life of Jesus Christ.” Then he goes on to add, that it’s being at home in that basic relationship that takes away his fear of sitting “in a mosque or a synagogue or a Buddhist temple.”

Here’s another way to be a Christian. Be so anchored and secure in your identity as a follower of Christ that you can be open to others and their beliefs. The object is not first to convert them or convince them of your truth, much less put them down, but to listen to them and maybe even learn from them.

As I read the full interview with Will Smith, I admit that I don’t always see life quite like he does. But there’s good stuff here! Like “Life is all about death and rebirth and how do we manage to deal with those things when they happen. And not just death in terms of life. You know when you lose your job or your house – that’s a death of something that is a part of your life. How do you manage that?” Will Smith goes after these things in his films

I found this interview fascinating because it’s filled with baptismal spirituality, especially our dying and rising, as in the last paragraph. It’s also about who we are. In our baptism our identity as a child of God is secured, and when that identity is really lived out, it can – as Will Smith indicates – open us to the world and other human beings without fear and defensiveness. I believe that baptismal spirituality can mean for us both a committed heart and an open mind. Will Smith appears to be a good example. He makes me want to go and see another movie.

Baptismal spirituality is about Christ making us new. Yesterday, the first Sunday in Advent and the first day of the new church year, brought that home to my heart in a couple ways.

Awaking while the world was still dark, I was surprised by a fresh layer of snow on the ground. As daylight arrived, a whole new scene unfolded before us. Some of us were surprised, others almost expecting it. The drab browns and grays of November were gone, replaced by a glistening white that impressed even the winter-haters. But just as the change to snow is not easy, neither is being new in Christ. For one, there is cold and shoveling and layers of clothing; for the other, surprise and shock and accepting this new person we are. Yet how good the new is in our lives. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow” (Isaiah 1:18).

My early morning devotion was a Dietrich Bonhoeffer reading* perfect for the beginning of Advent. Bonhoeffer wrote, “Luther…often said that, next to the Word of God, music is the best thing that human beings have… Luther knew that it has dried an infinite number of tears, made the sad happy, stilled desires, raised up the defeated, strengthened the challenged, and that it has also moved many a stubborn heart to tears and driven many a great sinner to repentance before the goodness of God. ‘O sing to the Lord a new song ‘ (Ps. 98:1).” *from I Want to Live These Days with You, p. 349

What God did in baptism – making us new in Christ – God continues daily in ordinary ways.

Forty years later, the Vatican newspaper announces it’s ready to forgive John Lennon and the Beatles for their boast about being “more popular than Jesus.” The paper has realized that these were just working class lads coping with unexpected success.

Truth is, they probably were more popular than Jesus! After all, “popularity” was never a value Jesus seemed attracted to. If he had, he surely wouldn’t have hung around with poor peasants, or worse, sinners and prostitutes. Nope, the Beatles always had it all over Jesus on the popularity scale.

Maybe Christians shouldn’t have become so worked up over this forty years ago. We should have just paid more attention to what Jesus was about – not popularity but mercy, peace, and hungering for righteousness (Matthew 5). Even John Lennon, it seems, wasn’t really dissing Jesus, just his followers – and that goes on all the time. Christians should be used to it, but we don’t take it well.

If Jesus doesn’t give two hoots about popularity, he does care about following. “Follow me,” he said, and he says to us. Which amounts to leaving behind what we were, and becoming someone new. End of the old, beginning of the new. Drowning our self-centeredness, coming to new life where God and others matter most. Following Jesus is, Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, is the equivalent of being baptized in St. Paul’s New Testament letters. There’s not too much room for popularity where God’s doing a makeover in people.

But Christians get sidetracked too. It’s time to forgive the exaggerations of the Beatles, that’s true, but it’s an even better time for Christian self-examination. Arguments about popularity go nowhere, following Jesus does. That’s a bit of baptismal spirituality – letting go of ourselves to find our true selves. Jesus wants that. That’s where Lennon’s remark should take us too.