Baptism
Baptism is how we are welcomed into God’s world-wide family. It’s an important step on our journey of faith. But, how to help people grasp something of that at a baptism service is something of a challenge! This is my latest attempt.
Baptism is how we are welcomed into God’s world-wide family. It’s an important step on our journey of faith. But, how to help people grasp something of that at a baptism service is something of a challenge! This is my latest attempt.
How do you speak about God? What does that mean? What does it look like? How can we and how can we fail to speak about God?
What does the faith of Simeon and Anna have to teach us? They watched, waited and looked forward to the new things that God was promising. This was part of a service where we also renewed our baptismal vows as a way of looking forward to the new things that God is doing.
We are all saints! So, what does that mean? What difference should that make? We thought about this on Sunday, when we celebrated All Saints Day, including with a baptism.
What does childlike faith look like? What did Jesus mean when he told his hearers to “let the little children come to me … for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”? How can we, as adults, have a childlike faith? This is the talk I gave on childlike faith, for an all-age…
How do we follow God? During the 14th century, Dante Alighieri wrote The Divine Comedy as one way of exploring that. It’s a fascinating imaginative journey through the afterlife, following Dante as he descends to hell, then goes through purgatory and up into heaven.
Sermons for baptism services are a challenge; trying to explain something about baptism, be welcoming and challenging, and say something for people who have been committed Christians for many years isn’t always the easiest balancing act! (For me anyway; I’m sure that there are people who do it much better!).
How do you explain the importance of baptism? Let alone all the symbolism that is involved in the service? (At least in the C of E service; no bad thing!). This was my attempt for an all-age service using the baptism of the Ethiopian as its starting point.