When I was 9 days old, my parents brought me to baptism. I couldn't do anything to receive it, earn it, deserve it. Totally by grace, the Triune God washed me in mercy, forgave me utterly, adopted me as His child, took up residency in me, initiated me into His Body and ordained me into the priesthood of all believers. I could never be able to pay God back for all those gifts, nor does God want me to try.
Baptism therefore frees me to respond to the immensity of Trinitarian grace by loving God and loving my neighbors. Because in my baptism I became inhabited by the Spirit and a "priest" in God's service, it orders my life and initiates my commitment to live according to the focal concerns God mandates. Because baptism is not merely a rite, but also includes the whole life inaugurated by that rite, it is a source by which to challenge constantly my involvement in the technologized, commodified society. Daily I renew my baptismal covenant because the Trinity is always faithful to God's side of the relationship. Daily that grace and hope empower me to ask about everything: Is this appropriate to my baptized life?
Baptism thus equips us to engage in other practices that enable us to live as Christians in a technologized, commodofying world.
Marva Dawn, Unfettered Hope: A Call to Faithful Living in an Affluent Society
Order of Worship, February 17 2013
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