Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Titus 3:4-5 God our Savior … saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior ...
THE BAPTISMAL FONT: SIGN OF LIFE
Was there a baptism last Sunday morning in the service at your church? No? And yet, the baptismal font was still right out there in the front of the church -- and not in the sacristy in storage. And don't tell me the little room where the pastor puts on his gown has too much stored in it already. There is a much more important reason for the baptismal font being kept before our eyes whenever we gather for services.
As the hymn writer notes:
Here stands the font before our eyes
Telling how God did receive us.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 467:6)
The message of the baptismal font begins with its reminder that at our baptism it was God who acted on our behalf and not we ourselves. It was the word of promise and salvation of God that made ordinary water a means of grace -- the sign and seal of God's application of Jesus' redeeming love to our needy sinful hearts.
Most of us did not come to the font as an act of faith on our part, but left that little bowl of water with new spiritual life, with faith in Christ in our hearts -- the creation of our Savior-God working through the gospel He connected with the water of baptism.
Finally, as Luther reminds us, God who gave us this sacrament makes baptism -- and the font in the front -- an object lesson as well, a reminder that every day we are to:
"drown the old Adam in us by daily contrition and repentance ... and that a new man should daily appear and arise, to live before God in righteousness and purity forever."
(Luther's Small Catechism, Baptism Part 4)
