BEING CHRISTIAN - BAPTISM - Part 3

"In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh has been put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through your faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead."

(Colossians 2:11-12)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus

In the series, 'Being Christian' I am trying to share with you the activities that signify a Christian essence in the life of the faithful and what kind of people we might hope to become in a community where these activities are practices. With this hope in mind, we started with the most important sacrament (or a rite) by which an individual is brought to the Christian family - the Baptism.

In the previous post we tried to understand that God intended for us to grow in such love for Him and in such confidence in Him that we could rightly be called as God's sons & daughters. And Jesus Christ came down to our level so that we could be restored to the humanity that God intended, by being able to work in places where humanity is most at risk, most disordered, disfigured and needy. Christians who are meant to be in the neighborhood of Jesus, will also be found in the neighborhood of human confusion and suffering, alongside those in need. We ended with learning that baptism means being with Jesus 'in the depths': the depths of human need, including the depths of our own selves in their need - but also in the depths of God's love; in the depths where the Spirit is re-creating and refreshing human life as God meant it to be.

Sharing in the life and death of Jesus

If we believe the previous beliefs as true, baptism does not confer on us a status that marks us off from everybody else. To be able to say, 'I am baptized' is not to claim an extra dignity, let alone a sort of privilege that keeps one separate from and superior to the rest of the human race, but to claim a new level of solidarity with other people, It is to accept that to be a Christian is to be affected - one can also say contaminated - by the mess of humanity. 

It is very much a paradox. Baptism is a ceremony in which we are washed, cleansed and re-created. It is also a ceremony in which we are pushed into the middle of a human situation that may hurt us, and that will not leave us untouched or unsullied. And the gathering of the baptized people is therefore not a convocation of those who are privileged, elite and separate, but of those who have accepted what it means to be in the heart of a needy, contaminated and messy world. To put it another way, one does not go down into the waters of the Jordan without stirring up a great deal of mud!

When we are brought to be where Jesus is in baptism, we let our defenses down so as to be where He is, in the depths of human chaos. And that means letting our defenses down before God. Openness to the Spirit comes as we go with Jesus to take this risk of love and solidarity. And that is why, as we come up out of the waters of baptism with Jesus, we hear what He hears: 'This is my son, this is my daughter, this is the one who has the right to call me Father'. The Holy Spirit, says St. Paul, is always giving us the power to call God Father, and to pray Jesus' prayer (Galatians 4:6). And the baptized are those who, going with Jesus into the risk and darkness, open themselves up to receive the Spirit that allows them to call God Father. 

What else can we expect to see in the baptized? Along with an openness to human need, we will also see a corresponding openness to the Holy Spirit. In the life of the baptized people, there is a constant rediscovering, re-enacting of the Father's embrace of Jesus in the Holy Spirit. The baptized person is not only in the middle of the human suffering and muddle but also in the middle of the love and delight of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. That surely is one of the most extraordinary mysteries of being a Christian. We are in the middle of two things that are very much contradictory to each other: in the middle of the heart of God, the ecstatic joy of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; and in the middle of a world of threat, suffering, sin and pain. And because Jesus has taken his stand right in the middle of those two realities, that is where we take ours as well. As He says, 'Where I am, there will my servant be also' (John 12:26)

To recap, in this blog we tried to understand that just as Jesus was acknowledged in the waters of Jordan as God's son, we too are given an opportunity to be acknowledged as God sons & daughters. And in opening ourselves to the Holy Spirit, we also are to open up to the needs and requirements of the people around us. We who are baptized are to be found in the middle of the love that God has for us and in the middle of the human suffering showing to the world Gods love for them as well. In the next blog we will continue on what else do we expect to see in a baptized person.

In the meantime, do keep me and my family in your prayers.

The blog is based on the book - "Being Christian" by Rowan Williams

BEING CHRISTIAN - BAPTISM - Part 2

"Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life." 

(Romans 6:3-4)

 

Dear brothers & sisters in Christ Jesus

In the series, 'Being Christian' I am trying to share with you the activities that signify a Christian essence in the life of the faithful and what kind of people we might hope to become in a community where these activities are practices. With this hope in mind, we started with the most important sacrament (or a rite) by which an individual is brought to the Christian family - the Baptism.

 

To recap, in the previous blog we understood that baptism is one of the most essential signs of being a Christian. We also understood that from early Christian years, baptism has been related to the Crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ and also how it was related to the creation history in Genesis. And through it all, we understood that baptism is a means to overcome the chaos of this life, leading to rebirth as a son or daughter of Go, just as Jesus is a son.

We stopped at a point where the ancient Church brought together powerful symbols towards baptism. Where water symbolizes rebirth: rebirth as a son or daughter of God, as Jesus himself is a son. So when the Church reflected on what baptism means, it came to view it as a kind of restoration of what it is truly to be a human. To be baptized is to recover the humanity that God first intended.

WHAT DID GOD INTEND? He intended that human beings should grow into such love for Him and such confidence in Him that they could rightly be called God's sons and daughters. We human beings have let go of that identity, abandoned it, forgotten it and corrupted it and stamped it under our very feet. 

But when Jesus arrives on the scene He restores humanity to where it should be. But that in itself means that Jesus, as He restores humanity 'from within', has to come down into the chaos of the human world. Jesus has to come down fully to our level, to where things are shapeless and meaningless, in a state of vulnerability and unprotectedness, if real humanity is to come to birth.

This suggests that the new humanity that is created around Jesus is not a humanity that we are familiar with, that is a humanity that is successful and is in control of things, but a humanity that can reach out its hand from the depths of chaos, to be touched by the hand of God. And that means that if we ask the question 'Where might you expect to find the baptized?' one possible answer is, 'In the neighborhood of chaos'. It means you might expect to find Christian people near to those places where humanity is most at risk, where humanity is most disordered, disfigured and needy. Christians will be found in the neighborhood of Jesus - but Jesus is found in the neighborhood of human confusion and suffering, defenselessly alongside those in need. If baptized is being led to where Jesus is, then being baptized is being led towards the chaos and the neediness of a humanity that has forgotten its own destiny.

We might also add that we may also expect the baptized Christian to be somewhere near, somewhere in touch with, the chaos in his or her own life - because we all of us live not just with a chaos outside ourselves but with a quite a lot of inhumanity and muddle inside us. A baptized Christian ought to be somebody who is not afraid of looking with honesty at that chaos inside, as well as being where humanity is at risk, outside.

So baptism means being with Jesus 'in the depths': the depths of human need, including the depths of our own selves in their need - but also in the depths of God's love; in the depths where the Spirit is re-creating and refreshing human life as God meant it to be.

As we stop here for today, let is reflect in what it means to be a baptized Christian. In the Orthodox tradition, the days before trimphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and Good Friday is marked by events where Jesus heals a lot of people around Him. He is also found at a graveside resurrecting His friend Lazarus. Through my walk in the Great Lent, this is a question that kept me thinking, where am I in this fallen humanity and what is my role. As we look towards the Ascension and the Pentecost, where do we want to be found? To be in the midst of success or in the midst of human chaos?

 

The blog was written on the basis of the book "Being Christian" written by Rowan Williams. 

Do keep me and my family in your prayers.

 

BEING CHRISTIAN -- BAPTISM - Part 1

"Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life." 

(Romans 6:3-4)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus

Wishing you all a blessed feast of Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ

We have now completed one week after the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord and defeating death on the cross (many of my Orthodox brethren around the world are right now preparing for the same), and during this blessed period while I was reminiscing on the reason for baptism and its importance in the Christian life, I was struck by the similarity it bears to the death of Jesus Christ and His resurrection. 

Jesus speaks of the suffering and death that lies ahead of him as a 'baptism' he is going to endure (Mark 10:38). That is, He speaks as if His going towards suffering and death were a kind of immersion in something, being drowned or swamped in something. He says that he has an 'immersion' to go through, and until it is completed he will be frustrated and his work will be incomplete (Luke 12:50). So it seems that from the very beginning, baptism as a ritual for joining the Christian community was associated with the idea of going down into the darkness of Jesus' suffering and death, being 'swamped' by the reality of what Jesus endured. St. Paul speaks of being baptized 'into' the death of Christ (Romans 6:3). 

We are, so to speak, 'dropped' into that mysterious event which Christians commemorate on Good Friday, and more regularly, in the breaking of bread at every Holy Eucharist.

Out of the depths

As the ancient Church began to reflect more on this in the early Christian centuries, as it began to shape its liturgy and art, another set of association were developed.

In the story of Jesus' baptism, He goes down into the water of the river Jordan, and as He comes up out of the water the Holy Spirit descends upon Him in the form of a dove and a voice speaks from heaven: 'You are my Son' (Luke 3:22). Reflecting on that incident, the early Christians soon began to make connections with another story involving water and the Spirit. In the book of Genesis, at the very beginning of creation, we read that there was a watery chaos. And over that watery chaos there was the Holy Spirit hovering or a great wind blowing.

First there is chaos, then there is the wind of God's Spirit; and out of the watery chaos comes the world. And God says, 'This is good.' The water and the Spirit and the voice: we can see why the early Christian fathers began to associate the event of baptism with exactly that image which St. Paul uses for the Christian life - new creation.

So the beginning of Christian life is a new beginning of God's creative work. And just as Jesus came up out of the water, receiving the Holy Spirit and hearing the voice of the Father, so for the newly baptized Christian the voice of God says, 'You are my son/daughter', as that individual begins his or her new life in association with Jesus.

In the icons reflecting the baptism of Jesus, we can usually see Jesus up to His neck in the water, while below, sitting under the waves, are the river gods of the old world, representing the chaos that is being overcome. So from early on baptism has been bringing powerful symbols around itself. Water and rebirth: rebirth as a son or daughter of God, as Jesus Himself is a son; chaos moving into order as the wind of God blows upon it.

As the Church reflected on what baptism means, it is not surprising when it came to view baptism as a restoration of what it is to be truly human. To be baptized is to recover the humanity that God first intended. What did God intend?

To understand what did God intend from his most prized creation, stay tuned to the blogs.

To do a brief recap, we understand that baptism is one of the most essential signs of being a Christian. We understood that from early Christian years, baptism has been related to the Crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ and also how it was related to the creation history in Genesis. And through it all, we understood that baptism is a means to overcome the chaos of this life, leading to rebirth as a son or daughter of Go, just as Jesus is a son.

The above blog has been taken from the book - "Being Christian" by Rowan Williams

Being Christian - Introduction

Christ is risen! Indeed, He is risen! (Khristós Anésti! Alithós Anésti!)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus
A very blessed season of Resurrection of our Lord Jesus greetings to one and all.
As I was pondering on the topic that I would like to take up as blog post, I thought it would be best to learn the essential elements of any Christian life. The thoughts that I'll be sharing as blogs will be representations from a recent book that I have been reading - "Being Christian" by Rowan Williams. Hoping that these thoughts will be helpful for you as it has been for me.
What are the essential elements of the Christian life? I'm not thinking of in terms of individuals leading wonderful lives, but just in terms of those simple and recognizable things that make us realize that we are a part of Christian community. The blogs are written to help us think about four of the most obvious of these things: baptism, Bible, Eucharist and prayer.

Christians are received into full membership of the Church by having water poured or sprinkled over them (or, in some traditions, being fully immersed); Christians read the Bible; Christians gather to share bread and wine in memory of the death and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth; and Christians pray. Though there is a huge and bewildering variety in Christian thinking and practice about all kinds of things, these four basic activities have remained constant and indispensable for majority of those who call themselves Christians.
In the following blogs, we shall be looking at what those activities tell us about the essence of Christian life, and what kind of people we might hope to become in a community where these things are done.
Kindly keep me and my family and our ministry in your prayers.