BSM is having its first ever class on baptism and my (Bill's) thoughts were sought on death's relationship to baptism. I thought I would post. Now I only need to do one more in 2009! I love blogging~!
Read Romans 6:1-11
When a faithful preacher was asked by a reporter, “What is a summation of the Good News of the Gospel in your own words?” he responded, “You don’t have to be as you are.” Through Christ’s death which Christ claims for us in his baptism and in ours—we are set free to choose to die. Why would we want to do that? Because before we can ever choose to live in Christ…we must first die. Die to the notion that our waywardness, our disobedience, our diminished selves are Lord of our lives. We must first die to everything that invites us to place our trust in it that isn’t God.
Some examples of what can be put to death in baptism are:
Worldly ambitions and assignations
Status and approval-seeking as well as apathy and cynicism
Vengefulness and victimization—retaliation and rigidity
Addictions to self-reliance, self-sabotage, self-aggrandizement and self-loathing
In their place, the new life-in Christ and with Christ and through Christ—new life can begin and take hold. We can cease to be as we are. In the place of these things that must die, new places in our souls and lives can be discovered. God will reveal where we can rise with him and love with him both within the community of the faithful and far-far-far beyond it—into the darkest parts of the creation. Places that appear to be God-forsaken but we know are not—for nowhere is. But before we can love and live in this way…we must first choose to die. First in our baptism and as we remember our baptism—we must continue to die. Die to things that lead us to trust in anything but Jesus Christ—our strength and our redeemer. As well as die to anything that we would put in his place—fame, regret, fear or adulation.
~Bill Golderer, convening minister of BSM
For information about attending the baptism class at BSM, email us at info@broadstreetministry.org or call us at 215 735 4847
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