Honestly, you turn around and suddenly half a month's gone by!
To be fair to myself, things have been a bit busy, what with my son's baptism and all.
Does anyone draw a distinction between Baptism (of infants) and Christening? We've preferred to say 'Baptism' (though doubtless some Baptists might object on theological grounds) but the term most familiar to those of our family without church connections is Christening - and probably to those with church connections too! It seems to me to be odd to say 'we are Christ-en-ing this baby' i.e. we are making him like Christ, although that's probably what the doctrine of baptism says, among other things. (That's the trouble with me - I'm a theology student whose worst subject is doctrine. Well, second worst, after History of Christianity. Come to think of it, I'm not much cop on Mission Studies either. I'm a Biblical Studies/Practical Theology guy really.) It seems clearer to say, this is his baptism, and ok there is something to be done later on (confirmation, or as our minister described it, 'plumbing yourself back in' to church/Christ) but this is the event to point at in later life.
Personally I struggled as a teenage Christian to connect with my initial Christian experience and baptism, hence why I went through an adult baptism (in the North Sea!) but I've come back to accept and agree with infant baptism. In order that our son doesn't experience this disconnect, we had the service videoed, and we have many things (like baptism certificate, letter from minister, letter from godmother...) to show him later in life to say "look, this is what happened on a sunny August Sunday". We can only pray that he will grow up in the faith, but if I'm a major influence on that, I feel very inadequate to help him.
Next family event is this weekend, granny's birthday (it seems that later in life you only have big celebrations every 10 years - why should that be, when every year's birthday was an exciting event as a child?) so expect another gap before I post again. Hopefully will be able to do some research/family interviews to fill in genealogical info on our family tree...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Very interesting reflections! My older brother was Christ-ened as an infant, but I was not for some reason. I came to faith at 27 and am thankful that with the grace of God, the Holy Spirit is working in my life. Yet my brother does not attend church and (to my knowledge) has no faith in Christ. It is difficult to see our lives travelling in two seemingly different directions. Does this infant baptism mean that he is assured a place in the new creation, despite the way he currently lives his life?
You're not inadequate, you're his Dad and the fact that you're pondering this stuff at all shows that you're a good 'un. Happy Birthday to Granny x
Wa-hey! Gruntlings' first comments - how exciting. Thanks all for your responses.
Nick, I wouldn't point to anyone's infant baptism (nor do I think anyone else should) as a 'magic ticket to heaven' or anything like that. I'm tempted to trundle out a few scriptures and/or clichés at this point, like 'man looks on the outward things but God looks on the heart' and 'we can't judge who will get to heaven and who won't' but the value of infant baptism to me in at least one way is how it is seen in conjunction with the rest of the child's upbringing. If people have their weans "done" just for the sake of it, because it's the done thing or their parents/grannys/aunties want them to do it, then I think 'why bother?', although there might be an argument for communicating the gospel during the service to those who are rarely in church. But if it's an intentional start of a Christian life and upbringing, an outward indication of the parents' recognition of Christ accepting children and of the importance of teaching them about our faith and beliefs, while recognising that they might not accept those beliefs in later life, then surely it's a "good thing"? (Could I 'vague this up' any more? :) )
broth pot, thanks for your encouragement! Always helpful and much appreciated. Sorry I haven't been around this w/end but was somewhere where dial-up was the only option and time was at a premium and being fast consumed by genealogical discussions - watch this space...
Hey jam-zee, appreciate it immensely and glad to have you as part of the 'God-family'! :)
hmm... strange post ))
What talented phrase
top [url=http://www.001casino.com/]casino bonus[/url] check the latest [url=http://www.realcazinoz.com/]online casino[/url] manumitted no consign perk at the chief [url=http://www.baywatchcasino.com/]baywatchcasino
[/url].
Post a Comment