Today is the commemoration of Ezekiel.
Today's readings are Psalm 106.1-5, 1 Samuel 4.1-22, and Acts 16.23-40.
I'm often torn on the issue of baptism. When someone comes to believe on the Lord, some of my past training says we want to engage in catechesis - Christian education - for a long time and make sure that the commitment to Christ is sufficiently understanding and firm. Yet another part of me, informed by passages such as this one in Acts 16, says we accept an expression of faith in Christ at face value and we baptize the person and all who are willing to believe with him. Observe that this jailer in Philippi is baptized apparently in the dead of night, along with his whole household. There was no long period of training, there were no interrogations, there was no search for godparents or sponsors, there was no theological examination. Do you believe? We will baptize you.
What about those people who are baptized and then seem to fall away from the faith? Shame on us for not encouraging them in Christ. Do they fall away because baptism wasn't good enough? What about the other command Jesus gives in Matthew 28? Baptize and teach. May the Lord have mercy on us and enable us to teach the saints, raising them up to remember how the Lord Jesus Christ himself has washed them from sin by his blood shed on their behalf. The baptism is all right immediately. The teaching goes on every day for the rest of your life.
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