Monday, November 19, 2018
627 - What Was I Thinking...
Spirituality Column #627
November 20, 2018
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
What Was I Thinking …
By Bob Walters
“I have decided … to
follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back…” Gospel hymn
November is
a major month in my personal faith history, with no date I can think of more
“major” than Sunday, Nov. 18, 2001: the day – evening, really – I was baptized.
Christian
doctrines being diverse as they are, “Baptism” means different things to
different churches and to different people.
Sprinkled as babies or dunked (or sprinkled) as adults, the meaning of Christian
baptism is universally understood to be a declaration and signal of new life, ownership,
protection, and salvation in Jesus Christ – none of which means anything to the
secular and non-Christian world.
And that
was pretty much my world until September of 2001 at age 47 when I first showed
up in church as an adult. Growing up in
the 1950s and 60s in America, I like most people went to church because it was
just a thing you did. Back then it was
weird if you didn’t go to church. Today,
culture insists it’s weird if you go.
But I’ll take God’s truth over an errant view of weirdness any day, and
I’ll take eternal faith in Jesus Christ over momentary fashion every day. I’ve learned to do that the past 17 years.
On baptism,
it is critical to note a couple of things.
One, “being baptized” only truly counts if it is accepted with sentient
free will, which is how it is always represented in the Bible. Infant christenings and baby dedications are
wonderful ways for parents and the church body to prayerfully declare their
intentions for a child to live a life with Jesus, but that child is going to
grow up and have to make a decision about that.
And while I believe He does, I do not understand how God intercedes with
children and the mentally infirm except that He does it with love.
Two, the New Testament mentions
baptism in a couple different ways – with water and with the Spirit: “baptized
in John” (the Baptist) and “baptized in Christ.” Water baptism is an ancient ceremonial
cleansing common to many religions and cultures prior to Christ. Baptism in the
Spirit is only in Christ, and was brand new with Jesus. The water was the same, but the effect is dramatically
different; the first was mere cleansing, while baptism “in the spirit” was and is the presence of God.
I believe
God loves each one of us. I pray each
human being would be accepting of baptism.
Exactly how God is going to sort us all out – the Bible is pretty clear
in some aspects and utterly opaque in others – isn’t something that I give much
thought to. Jesus tells us to trust Him,
not to judge for Him, and I’m OK with that.
Baptism for
me wasn’t a “beginning,” any more than a wedding is the “beginning” of a
relationship. I felt – solemnly – that I
“met” Jesus for the first time sitting in that September 2001 church
service. I didn’t know much about Jesus,
but God showed me a way to learn.
Then-senior minister Dave Faust at East 91st St. Christian
Church in Indianapolis taught a “Walking with Christ” class over four Sunday
evenings beginning in mid-October. Dave
led, the Spirit showed up, and suddenly the Bible – for the first time in my
life – was making sense to me. The spiritual
and intellectual depth of Christ was at once obvious, riveting, unfathomable, compelling,
and … really, really important.
It wasn’t
fear or greed or guilt or needing to belong or any other common and
overly-preached sermon point that made me raise my hand and “go forward” to be
baptized. I’d thought about the
decision, wasn’t sure if it was the right time or not, but when the time came –
Dave had told us there would be an opportunity “to come forward” at the end of
the last class and be baptized later – for me there was just no point in waiting.
It was about 8 p.m. Sunday and three of
us had stood up in the class of 20 or so.
To schedule the baptisms Dave asked, “When?” and I said, “How about
right now?” He laughed and said, “OK!”
Next thing you know we three, Dave,
and most of the class (including table discussion leaders) hiked down to the
church sanctuary where Dave turned on the lights, opened the baptistery, and
into the water we went. I’ll never, ever
forget the calm, joyous, thankful, and spirit-rich feeling of coming back up into
life with Christ.
What was I thinking? I didn’t imagine that I was sin-free or a
better person or part of some club. No;
I was smiling, was profoundly at peace, and was very much in a moment of
profound gratitude, not thinking about what I would “become” as a Christian. But the baptism stuck, and every Nov. 18 I
say a prayer of remembrance and thanks to God – with a nod to the ministry of
Dave Faust – for the magnificent, mysterious gift we have in Jesus.
And I think what I realized most in
that baptismal moment was that a gift is not a gift until you open it.
Walters
(rlwcom@aol.com) writes a personal and probably too-long
letter to Dave Faust every year on this baptismal anniversary that is equal
parts faith inventory, new stuff learned, books read, people encountered,
challenges faced … and the deepest thanks for his ministry. If you’ve been reading these “thankful”
columns the past few weeks, Dave and Russ Blowers (it was Russ’s 50th
anniversary at E91) preached together on that first Sunday I was at church,
Sept. 2, 2001. In 2002 Faust left E91 to
become president of Cincinnati Christian University, and returned to the E91
staff as Associate Minister in 2014.
Walters also thanks Corey and Christy Falink who shepherded Bob’s study
table at Dave 2001 class. Corey is
currently an elder at E91. And speaking
of thanks, Happy Thanksgiving to all!
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