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Preached on 11-14-99

BAPTISM

A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

"Baptism was instituted to be a sign that a man is of the church, and as a memorial that he is to be regenerated; . . . " (HD 202)

ONE DAY YOU WILL BE WALKING along a path. You might not know why you are walking along it: it may just be that you happened to see it and felt like seeing where it led. The sun will be shining. The birds will be singing. Perhaps there will be a gentle breeze stirring the air. As you walk along, you suddenly see something ahead of you. It is a group of houses beautifully built houses. There are people there, and as you come up to them, something strange happens. You have never met them before, but somehow it is as if you have always known them. What is more, it appears that they feel the same about you, for they rush towards you, and greet you like a long-lost friend. And strange as this might sound, it all feels perfectly natural to you. These people are your people, and you belong with them. As you walk through the streets you suddenly see a house. It is your house. Though you have never ever been there before, you know this place is yours -- you know it in the depths of your heart (cf. HH 519).

You have arrived. After a long life in this world, a life which had been filled, perhaps, with all kinds of troubles, you have finally reached your home in heaven. At long last you are in your society.

The thrilling thing about reaching your place in heaven -- and it indeed must be thrilling more so than anything else could be -- is not simply that you are now in heaven, but -- more than this -- you are in your own particular place in heaven. You are in a place, and surrounded by people, where you belong. You are more at home than you could possibly be here on earth.

That this might happen to us is, we are taught, the inmost design of Divine Providence (see DP 67). We know that Providence has as its goal that we might enter heaven after death. But inmostly the Lord leads us, not merely to heaven, but to a particular place, that is, a particular state, in heaven.

We can all see why this must be so. What would heaven be if we were not free there to live a life of use in our own particular way, amongst people whom we closely love and understand -- people who are similar to ourselves. Heaven is a kingdom of uses, a kingdom which is highly and incredibly organized by the Lord so that each angel might perform his own use in his own way, in harmony with others. It is similar to the human body, in which each organ performs its own distinctive use in its own particular way, and in its own special place, so that all these individual uses might be joined together in harmony, to serve the uses of one single united body.

People are, therefore, born to be different. As every person finally occupies his own unique position in heaven, so every person is born with a different heredity, and into different circumstances. And, during the course of life in this world, each person is led by the Lord in a special way, unique to himself. There are as many paths to heaven as there are places there. Each person is regenerated by the Lord in a different way (cf. TCR 580).

Thus it is that though everybody can be saved, different groups of people are saved in different ways, and, in the final analysis, there is a unique path to heaven for every single person. If the Lord did not lead different individuals, and different groups of individuals, in ways designed for them alone, it would not be possible for every single person to have his own place in heaven.

It is within this context that we must come to understand the sacrament of baptism. There are many broad differences between the various peoples of this earth, but one of the most basic of all distinctions is between those who belong to the church, and those who do not belong to it.

In previous churches, many people made the mistake of thinking that the difference between somebody in the church and somebody not in it, was that the former could be saved, whereas the latter could not be. This is completely false, for the Lord loves all the people He has created, whether they belong to the church or not, and He works unceasingly so that all who so desire might enter heaven after death. But though all people, whether they are in the church or outside of it, can be saved, the church is nevertheless vital to salvation.

First of all, the church is essential for the salvation of those who belong to it. A gentile can be saved outside of the church specific, but somebody who does belong to the church cannot be saved outside of it. Because we have the truths of faith, these truths of faith constitute our path and our only path to heaven. Because we have the church, because we have been taught and have come to believe its doctrines, we cannot be saved in any other way. For us to reject the church and to live instead as a gentile would mean that we would have rejected the very means of salvation provided for us by the Lord.

Second, the church is essential also for the salvation of the gentiles. We are told that the reason gentiles also can be saved is that they also have something of spiritual light by virtue of there being a church on earth. For those in the church the path to heaven lies through the truths of the Word. Through this path they gain spiritual light, light which then radiates abroad even to those who do not have the Word, that they also may be enlightened as they walk along their own paths to heaven. In this way even gentiles receive light from the Lord's church -- they have as it were a part in the church, and so are said in the Writings to constitute the church universal.

Thus it is of order, nay, it is of the utmost importance, that on this earth there be some who have the truth, pure unadulterated truth, directly from the Lord's Word itself. The majority of people on this earth are in relative ignorance when it comes to spiritual matters. They can and indeed will be saved if they live according to the best that they know, for after death they can then receive the truth of the Lord's Word (cf. AC 1032). They can be saved after they die. But in the church it is different. Those within the Lord's church can be saved before they die, while they still live on this earth. They don't have to wait until after death to learn the truths of the Lord's Word. They already have the spiritual truth of Divine Revelation. Because of this, their path to heaven lies in learning this truth from the Word, and living according to what it teaches.

The members of the New Church are at this day called upon by the Lord to walk this special path to heaven. The truth within the Writings of the New Church places upon us a special responsibility. Because we have this truth, we can be saved, we can be regenerated, even whilst we still live on this earth (see TCR 607ff, 618ff; cf. AC 1032). Even in this world, we can be blessed with something of heaven itself. But this can only happen if we live the truth. Otherwise we damn ourselves in a way no gentile can. As we read in the Arcana: " . . . purification from . . . filthy loves is necessary most of all within the church, and this for the reason that they who are within the church are able to render holy things themselves impure, which they who are outside the church -- that is, the Gentiles -- cannot do; so that the danger of damnation is greater in the case of the former" (AC 2051).

This we should never forget. Upon us the Lord has placed the special responsibility of removing from our lives evils which would cause us to profane the truth we know. If we fail in this responsibility -- if we, for example, live like those who don't have the truth, then though they may indeed be saved, we will not be. The Lord expects a higher standard of us. If we fail to meet this, we sink lower than those outside of the church could ever sink. Therefore, to remind us of this responsibility, and to help us in it, the Lord has instituted and commanded the sacrament of baptism.

The purpose of baptism is not understood in the world today. Some people view it in almost magical terms -- as something which will automatically bring grace to the one who baptized. Some people view it simply as something which ought to be done, but do not understand why. Others think of it as a nice custom, something traditional. Then again, other people see no real point in it whatsoever.

In the Writings, though, the true purpose of baptism is revealed, in order that the New Church might enter with understanding into the true use of this holy sacrament. Baptism is, to put it simply, the gateway to the Lord's church here on earth. It is the Divinely appointed means through which a person is to pass as he enters into the sphere and uses of the church. The church, as we have said, carries with it certain responsibilities which must not be overlooked. To know the truth brings with it the obligation to obey that truth, so that evils of life might be removed. To know the Lord, to really know Him, from the truths of the Word, carries with it the duty to follow Him in spirit and in life. And thus there is a gateway into the church which has been instituted by the Lord to bear solemn witness to these obligations. When a person enters into the sphere of the New Church, whether as a child or as an adult, he or she is washed. That is what baptism is. To baptize means, literally, to dip in water, or to wash the body. And so the forehead of the person, whether infant or adult, has water applied to it. It is a ceremonial washing. It is an ultimate and vivid reminder of the necessity for that person to be spiritually washed -- to be cleansed of his or her evils -- by spiritual water, that is, by the truths of faith. At the same time, the words of baptism, which include the Lord's name, are pronounced, and the sign of the cross is made on the forehead and breast, to symbolize the fact that this person is now to acknowledge and worship the Lord. Therefore baptism is said to be a memorial -- a solemn reminder -- of the fact that a person entering the church is to be regenerated by the Lord whom he is now to follow.

Baptism, though, is not simply a memorial. It is also a sign, equivalent in function to a badge or a uniform. It marks the person as a member of the church -- so that he might regard himself, and be regarded by others, as someone who has entered into the church of the Lord on earth. At the same time, through the power of correspondences, this sacrament is a sign to all in the other world that this person is now within the sphere of the New Christian Church. Angels, special angels, are assigned to that person by the Lord. Through baptism he is brought under the influence of angelic societies whose special function it is to lead him into the faith of the New Church. And this is most necessary. If a child or adult is to be taught the truths of faith, a great responsibility is placed either upon the parents of the child, or upon the adult himself, and to help in meeting this responsibility, there is provided the strengthening sphere of angels appointed for this task.

Nevertheless, baptism is not a magical thing. Simply applying water to the forehead, and saying certain words, effects nothing. Baptism, simply as an external ritual by itself, has no effect. What does have an effect, is the sphere of faith which is to be present in this ritual. In the case of an adult, it is his desire to be instructed in the truths of the church, which, given expression in this sacrament, introduces him into the sphere of the church. In the case of a child, he is introduced into the sphere of the Lord's church through the sphere of those who surround him, primarily through his parents. Upon the parents, after all, falls the prime responsibility of instructing the child in the truths of the church. Baptism, without the sphere of faith, effects nothing. Baptism is, rather, a means, the Divinely ordained means, by which a sphere of prayerful faith is expressed, focussed, and strengthened, to the point where the one being baptized is surrounded and enveloped by that sphere.

And so it is that by baptism a person is prepared to enter upon the uses and responsibilities of the church -- immediately if he is an adult, later if he is an infant. He is prepared, under the Lord's auspices, to receive instruction in the truths of the Word.

If a person later drifts away from the truth -- ignoring the responsibility to which he has been called by the Lord, then the baptism comes to nothing. But if through the strengthening sphere of this holy sacrament he is led to both learn and to live the truth revealed in the Lord's Word, then its purpose is fulfilled.

Baptism is not the gate to heaven. That is the function of the Holy Supper. Baptism is the gate to the church, and the church is a path, a special path to heaven, along which those are to walk who have been blessed with the truths of the Word. The good gentile walks his path, and is later instructed after death so that he might then enter heaven. We must walk our path, the path of instruction, repentance, reformation and regeneration, and so be prepared here on earth for heaven itself.

There is indeed a place waiting for us in heaven -- a place filled with joys which at present would seem unimaginable -- a place where we can be at home to all eternity. But to get there we must live the life of religion. We must walk the path of life.

This we must not forget. Most of us do not remember our actual baptism. Unless we were baptized as an adult, or in later childhood, we remember nothing. But still, this does not alter the fact that we were baptized, and we know we were baptized. We were brought before the Lord, and we were washed with water, and the Lord's most holy name was pronounced. We have thus been called to learn truth from the Lord's Word, and to fulfill this truth in the way we live. As our forehead was washed, so too must the thoughts and intentions within our heads be washed of those evils which defile us. And the Lord's name, which was pronounced in our presence at the time of our baptism, must take on more and more meaning for us as the years go by, as we seek to follow the Lord by loving Him and doing His commandments. Only then do we become true members of the Lord's church on earth, and are prepared by Him to enter one day His eternal kingdom in the heavens.

Amen.

Lessons: Isa. 1:10-20; Jn. 3:1-8; HD 202-208