Our Only Comfort: 52 Reflections on the Heidelberg Catechism by Neal D. Presa

Author:Neal D. Presa
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781611645620
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Published: 2015-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

“The one who believes and is baptized will be saved;

but the one who does not believe will be condemned.”2

This promise is repeated when Scripture calls baptism

“the water of rebirth”3 and

the washing away of sins.4

1Matt. 28:19

2Mark 16:16

3Titus 3:5

4Acts 22:16

Holy Movement, Wholly Moves

The late S. Anita Stauffer, Lutheran scholar of liturgy, specialized in the study of baptism, specifically, baptismal fonts. In contrast to many of the baptismal fonts in our sanctuaries that look like ashtrays or birdbaths on a pedestal, many ancient fonts were pools, inground pools. They were circular (symbolizing the fullness of God’s love, the community), octagonal (symbolizing that Christ’s rising occurred on the eighth day, which is also the first day of the week, thereby meaning that that day was both creation and new creation), and cross-shaped.

The cross-shaped fonts had steps on the transepts. In one scenario of certain Christian communities, the ones being baptized would descend one set of steps to the bottom of the font, where the bishop/priest/pastor would meet them. The water would be up to the waist, and they would be submerged or effused with copious amounts of water, baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and given the name and identity of a child of God redeemed in Jesus Christ. They then ascended the opposite steps, where waiting elders and deacons would cover them with aromatic oil, anointing them with the Holy Spirit, a new scent to signal to the baptized and the gathered community the new reality that had been sealed, and then the baptized would be clothed with a white garment, signifying being clothed in and with Christ.

What we see in such a ritual act is both mortification and vivification—dying and living; descending into the waters into Christ’s death, rising from the waters into Christ’s resurrection life.

The sixteenth-century Reformers said that the Lord Jesus Christ’s work in his life, death, and resurrection (the Good News) resulted in the duplex beneficium, the two or double benefits: namely, justification and sanctification. This means that by the triune God’s work in the agency of Jesus Christ’s unique, distinct, and radical life, in Jesus’ decisive and final death, and in the power and revolutionary resurrection, we have been embraced by God and set on a path to live a life worthy of the calling we have been given—to live as ones redeemed by Christ through His Spirit.

It was exciting to purchase our first home; it was even greater to move in and make it our own, decorating it the way we like, having parts renovated, and learning the difficult craft of maintaining it. I can tell you of many trips to the hardware store, mowing the lawn, raking leaves, cleaning the pool, shoveling snow. The title deed of the house is in our name. We pay the mortgage, we pay the taxes. Yet the bank holds the title until we fully pay off the mortgage. It’s both a done deal, and it’s not yet.

Baptism by water tells us it’s a done deal; the mortgage of life, death, and new life is done.

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