The King is Coming: An Advent Reflection

Advent is here: a time of eager anticipation for the coming of the fullness of God through the awaited Messiah of Israel.  And whenever someone important is coming, we must prepare.  When family comes to visit we don't leave the house unkept but make special effort to have it be an extension of our welcome and an overflow of our love for those we expect.  And the guest we expect this advent isn't just any ole body. No - it is the king of the ages, the Alpha and the Omega, The Lord of all creation.  How do we prepare for such royal arrival?!

We are in luck because the prophets have foretold before hand what we should expect when this king arrives.  He will bring shalom/peace/wholeness like the world has never known.  Through his righteous reign, justice will be reality on earth. No longer will the fat and powerful devour the meek and lowly.  No, the tables are being turned upside down (or maybe even back right-side up). The way we've been taught to understand the world will be no more.  In this kingdom, the lamb need not fear the wolf, nor the calf fear the mighty lion.  In this kingdom the cow and the bear now graze together in perpetual celebration of creation once marred by human sin now freed to flourish through the glory of God that will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. In this kingdom, power isn't defined by who has the most money, the most land, the biggest guns, the most destructive weapons. In Gods kingdom, true power is revealed and true power rest in the vulnerable trust of a child who knows and understands utter dependence and relationship for life. For indeed, "a little child shall lead these all."

As we wait patiently and expectantly for such a king who will bring to fruition such a kingdom, may we find ourselves making this future world present in the here-and-now by the power of God's spirit engendering love and righteousness among us as God's precious and chosen people. This world God has created, blessed, and named as good, very good, is beloved by its Creator: our king will not give up on us / on it.  He will restore it, renew it and transform everything that is contrary to His rule and His way. His glory will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

A challenge for us this Advent: How can God use me/us to be a living sacrament (a tangible and visible expression) of this future alternative kingdom in my/our present context?

No More "Us vs. Them"

Tommy Thompson
St. Thomas' Episcopal Church, Whitemarsh
16th Sunday after Penteocst

No More “Us vs. Them”

For audio go to:  http://stthomaswhitemarsh.com/no-more-us-vs-them/

His name meant “God-helps” yet he was thrown at a rich man’s gate and offered no help. Body covered in sores, stomach constantly moaning due to starvation, dogs gathered around waiting for the right chance...where is God’s help in this!? Was his help intended to be only a few feet away? Just beyond the gate where a nameless rich man feasts magnificently at his table day in and day out.

To understand what Jesus is trying to get across through this parable, we must keep in mind what Jesus has been doing in the Gospel of Luke up to this point. If we listen closely, we'll see a common thread woven throughout Luke that gets more obvious the more we read...

We see it in the beginning of Luke’s Gospel when the Blessed Virgin sings the ushering in of the fullness of time with the arrival of her holy Son:

He has shown the strength of his arm, *
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, * and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, *
and the rich he has sent away empty.

Luke continues emphasizing the turning of the tables as the everliving Son of God finds himself among poor shepherds in Bethlehem's cave. As Jesus walks through Galilee calling unlikely candidates to be his disciples. As Jesus touches those who religion has named as untouchable and as Jesus is accused of being a glutton and drunkard because of the company he kept. The thread continues to weave itself throughout Luke as Jesus allows a woman with a reputation to anoint his feet with her tears and dry them with her hair, and as Jesus journeys with women who once had evil spirits and infirmities. As Jesus goes to the other side of the sea where one does not go to heal a demon possessed man. Luke really intensifies things when after a Samaritan village refuses to receive Jesus, Jesus tells a story naming a Samaritan of all people as the model neighbor who demonstrates what it means to love God and love your neighbor as yourself fulfilling the whole of the law. And just before we get to today's lesson, we have to get through Luke 15 where all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus, causing the Pharisees, again, to accuse Jesus of “welcoming sinners and even eating with them!”

By the time we get to the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus, the stage has been set. Jesus has been destroying the man-made walls that separate us, that enslave us, that oppress and degrade. He is trying to get through to the religious ‘faithful.’ God has arrived on earth and is breaking down all our barriers that keep his help from reaching all of his precious children. He has come to break down the dichotomy of dichotomies -- US vs. THEM! Jesus intentionally crosses the border and eats and drinks with “them,” inviting “them” into the new and all-inclusive “us -- God’s redeemed and restored children!”

But the Rich Man in Jesus’ parable represents the stiff-necked, hard-headed and heartedness of the pharisees who simply can’t see what God is doing even when his work is right in front of their faces. A man with a name -- Lazarus (meaning “God helps”) has been tossed by his gate. But Lazarus is an untouchable. He has sores all over his body...he is cut off from his family, his kin, his community. He is one of them! Lazarus is really close by the house of the rich man...so close he savors the bread that falls from the rich man’s table (as it was custom for the rich to wipe their mouths with a certain kind of bread and then toss it out the window). But the barriers created would not allow him even a morsel. The rich man offers no help to the one whose name is God helps.

Eventually both the rich man and lazarus die. Finally a similarity in a story full of contrasts! Both find themselves in Hades -- the place of the dead according to first century Hellenestic Jewish worldview. But here’s where the similarities end and the contrasts are picked back up but with a twist -- the tables are now turned. Jesus’ hearers would’ve expected that the rich man would be the one sitting in the bosom of Abraham...a picture of “belonging as one of the people of God -- as the seed of Abraham.” But no -- it is the one the rich man ignored -- the one cut off -- the outcast! The religious misfit! He is sitting in the bosom of Abraham -- he is revealed as an heir of God’s promise to Abraham. And NOT the rich man. Now Lazarus (God -helps) is rich, receiving help and comfort and the rich man is now the one in agony in a place of torment receiving no help.

The Virgin’s song rings true!

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, * and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, *
and the rich he has sent away empty.

Yet the man who was formerly rich still doesn’t get it! In his poor excuse for an attempt at repentance, he continues to live out the same old dichotomy as before. He sees Lazarus only as a means to his own end and not as an equal. “Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue...” “Send Lazarus to my father’s house so they don’t end up in the same predicament I’m in...” But Abraham would have none of it. It was too late for the man who was formerly rich. The mighty are being knocked off their thrones and the lowly are being raised up. The dichotomy of US vs. THEM is being broken down with the arrival of Jesus’ kingdom and the matter is urgent.

This parable truly gets at the heart of the matter. Everyone is lazarus. We all are broken in one way or another. We are sorely mistaken when we somehow think we are well and those other people are the broken ones. That’s when we commit the sin of the rich man...we don’t realize that we all bear the name of Lazarus -- God helps...meaning God helps through me and God helps me through others...we’re all in this together -- there is no Us Vs. Them. So open your eyes -- notice the one who has been tossed at your gate. Share your resources with your brother. Allow your sister to share her

resources with you...whatever it is that will contribute toward healing your brokenness -- whatever will make your sister or brother whole.

This summer our youth heeded Jesus’ words so beautifully. They embraced their inner lazarus -- God helps -- and went out in faith to be the hands and feet of Christ, breaking down barriers, providing help and relief to sisters and brothers here at home through the our barn ministry, Summer Camp, Harvest Fest and Be An Angel Party and abroad by cooking for Church of the Advocate and serving folks there in the soup kitchen, packing food for Stop Hunger Now in the Pac-A-Thon, Singing Xmas carols to shut-ins to lift their spirits, contributing toward Hurricane Sandy relief in Mastic Beach, NY and building relationships with wonderful children at Our Little Roses in Honduras.

It’s not US vs. THEM. It’s us -- all of us -- God’s children...regardless of ethnicity, gender, age, geographical location, socio-economic status, sexual orientation or any other identifying markers that may be attached to us...we are God’s children plainly and simply. And we all carry the name Lazarus in some way -- God helps.

I hope you’ll come to the forum today to hear how God has helped through our youth’s faithful response to God’s gracious call through missions this summer. They’ve set a fine example of the stewardship of both time and talents.

And may we go forth today from worship and forum renewed to be and receive God’s help in radical ways that continue to tear down the barriers that we have erected to strengthen false dichotomies -- especially those built in the name of the body of Christ so that folks don’t have to wait for the help they deserve like Lazarus did but may receive it now because we chose to cooperate with God’s grace being his loving and comforting hands and feet.

Amen.

"Urgent! Strive for the Kingdom"

Proper 13C, 11th Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 12:13-31

4 August 2013

St. Thomas' Episcopal Church, Whitemarsh

“Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”  

With these words Jesus was interrupted.  Interrupted in the middle of fine teaching on striving for God’s kingdom in the midst of a fallen world...teaching his disciples and any who would hear and take heed -- that God’s kingdom has broken into the present and this means that when your life aligns with the purposes of this inaugurated kingdom, persecution is sure to follow.  But don’t be afraid, take heart -- God is not finished.  In the end, as Hillary’s bumper sticker assures us -- Love wins!” 

Jesus spends a lot of time in the Gospels preparing disciples and would-be disciples to “be alert -- stay awake -- take heart -- take care - be ready!”  The Gospels were written and shared in a time of much tension.  Jesus had come, lived full and abundant life in the midst of them, was crucified and buried, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven from whence the Holy Spirit was lavished upon His disciples.  The stories of their lives were written into an old story making new and unexpected twists.  What were they to do with this new kingdom -- this new way of life -- inaugurated in Jesus of Nazareth?  The world was still hostile.  The Roman Empire had a way of proving it was still in charge -- most especially to those who claimed anyone but Caesar was king.  The earliest Christians lived with much tension.

Jesus knew they would...he knew because he experienced it firsthand.  We would hope that God would just turn the world back right-side up through Jesus resurrection and that be the end of the story.  But that’s not the way God’s plan unfolded.  But we really should’ve seen it coming.  From the beginning God has chosen to cooperate with human beings in creation.  He made us His image and likeness in the world, making us co-creators with him, inviting us to rule and subdue the creation, being fruitful and multiplying in it.  It only makes sense that God would choose to invite us to cooperate with Him in the restoration and renewal of the creation as part of our healing of the sin-marred image deep within us.  Thus, instead of the immediate excision of all that is evil from the good Kingdom of God and fulfillment, we got Pentecost -- power to become citizens of an already but not yet kingdom.  A kingdom that came in Jesus Christ, is present as the church lives as the body of Jesus Christ in the world, but still awaits future consummation when the Son of God reappears to rid the world of evil, darkness, and death and make it shine with the splendor of his glorious resurrection.  

One thing was clear in the first century world -- the church expected the future consummation to happen sooner rather than later.  There was an urgency to faith in the meantime.  Most Christians believed that Jesus would re-appear to consummate the inaugurated kingdom in their lifetime, as early as days, weeks, months even.

Jesus spends a lot of time in the Gospels preparing the church for “the urgency of the meantime.”  The Gospel is presented as “we have no time to waste -- get to work striving for the kingdom of God above all else, because it is what’s in -- and it’s not a new fad...it’s not a new world power that will rise up and eventually be the stuff of world history -- this kingdom is here to stay....so don’t be caught sleeping or even worse -- blending in with powers and dominions that are fading away -- when it’s king returns to claim everything for His own, be among the faithful!”  

For the early Christians, it was this sense of urgency that sparked faithfulness that became fruitfulness for the Kingdom of God.  When you really believe that the ruler of the entire kosmos might re-appear to take his throne and make all things new, say .... tomorrow!...your life takes on new meaning and everything in life is put into perspective.  Your priorities are completely re-ordered with “striving for the kingdom” being the ultimate aim of each priority.

But days turned into weeks...weeks into months...months into years...years into decades and centuries...and Christ did not reappear to banish evil, death and darkness and make the entire creation radiate with everlasting life.  As time progressed, the church had it’s moments shining with the splendor of the future kingdom...but it also became very complacent, getting itself so entangled in the affairs of a fallen world that it lost it’s sense of the urgency.  The cry of the Gospel-- to stay alert! Be on Guard! Keep watch! for the new and enduring act that God is going to accomplish for the life of the world -- became for us only a faint whisper in the background of a noisy room.

That’s why I think I, at least, identify more with this anonymous man in our Gospel reading for today.  I am part of a church 2000 years separated from that original sense of urgent mission to and for the world.  Jesus hasn't come back in 2,000 years, so surely I don’t have to take the Gospel that seriously today -- there’s always tomorrow.  And the world we live in doesn’t make it any easier...each empire or government that has existed since then, in the words of Walter Brueggemann, “has established itself as absolute, wanting the present arrangement to appear eternal in the past as well in the future, so that after a while, one cannot remember when it was different from this, which means having a available to our imagination no real alternative.”  In other words, as with the character in Jesus’ parable, the world we live in is happy for us to live as if it is our only hope. So we learn to be successful in it so that we may join him in saying to ourselves, “Today is just like yesterday -- great beyond measure!  Eat, drink, and be merry!”  

It is even easier for us to settle in the present arrangement and loose focus of the urgency of God’s kingdom than it was for the anonymous man in Luke’s gospel.  Jesus teaches us about urgency and we too respond with an interruption -- “Good teacher!  Could you please stop rambling on and help me secure my future in this world?!”  

But what if we were to recover that sense of urgency that propelled the church to mission in the first century world?  How would our priorities be re-ordered?  What are the things that we spend such time and energy on now that wouldn’t matter so much if Jesus is right and the kingdom is in fact coming in fullness and it very well could happen in days, weeks, or months?  

It’s the words that Jesus shares just after the Gospel reading for this week that invite us to return to that sense of urgency: 

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear (or plug in whatever it is you spend such time and energy securing for yourself...).  For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing... [more than whatever you filled in the blank with.]  Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them.  Of how much more value are you than the birds!  And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?  If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest?  Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown in the the oven, how much more will he clothe you -- you of little faith!  And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink [or whatever it is you are spending such time and energy striving for] and do not keep worrying.  For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows you need them.  Instead, strive for the kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.  

Jesus invites us to a relationship of trust.  We don’t understand why the meantime is so difficult or why it is taking so long for Jesus to return...it’s not for us to figure that out even though we could talk about all the possibilities...Trust God with your life...don’t try to take it your own hands.  Don’t burn yourself out with anxiety...don’t work so hard for that which will pass away.  Strive for the kingdom that has come, is present and is coming.  When that is priority number 1 and the goal of every priority, everything else will fall into place.  

Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again -- so strive for what He is bringing with Him.  Amen.

Not Your ‘Divine Genie-in-The-Bottle’

Tommy Thompson

Exodus 3:1-15

Lent 3C, Family Worship Sunday

3 March 2013

In the Name of God: + the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

As most of you know, my name is Tommy and I am minister to youth and children here at St. Thomas.  Now, my colleagues here would try and argue this point, I am sure, but I want you to know, that I have the funnest job here.  I get to play and have fun all the time -- it’s part of what we do.  So, why not today, during the sermon.

Today I brought something with me...here it is.  My genie in the bottle.  It has a little dust on it, as i don’t play with it very often.  It stays on my bookshelf until i really need something.  But today I thought I would do a bit of “show-and-tell” with it...

Did anyone else bring their genie in an oil lamp or genie in the bottle?  Very good.

As you know, depending on the genie, there are different rituals one must perform in order to get the genie out and at your beckon call.  For me, since my genie is “Genie” from the movie Aladdin, all I have to do is rub, because as he once said, “I got a powerful urge to help you out, so what you wish I really wanna know, You got a list that's 3 miles long, no doubt, so I'll you gotta do is rub like so, and ohhh..."

And once he comes out of the bottle he says to me,

"Mr. Thompson, Sir, have a wish or 2 or 3. I'm on the job, you big nabob, you ain't never had friend like me."

Isn’t that fantastic!?  This genie is here to serve ME!  Whenever i’m in a rut and I need some help, i just blow of the dust, rub it just right and out comes my servant Genie -- whatever I need.

You know, the more I think about it, I think, if we aren’t careful, our relationship with God can begin to look a lot like my silly made-up relationship with this genie in the bottle?

There have been times in my life where my journey with God was almost identical to this...

God is safe and secure on my shelf, collecting dust...he never hears from me...my footsteps are not falling in line right behind his...I ignore God in my daily life...don’t have much use for him until it happens...

I find myself in a rut.  Maybe it is a financial rut, maybe a medical rut...it doesn’t really matter...all of the sudden God becomes my favorite contact.  I dust the bottle off, say the right words, and bam! I expect God to do whatever I need God to do because I need to get out of this rut, thank you very much.

If we aren't careful, God can become nothing more to us than a divine genie-in-the-bottle.  There when we need that “A” on that test we just so happened to FORGET to study for...There to somehow persuade that lovely young lady or that handsome young man to go out with me...there to somehow get me out of the speeding ticket that that officer behind me should be writing...there to get me that promotion...there to get me the new job...to get me out of the mess I just put myself in...but that’s it...nothing more and nothing less -- God is that divine genie in the bottle.

And it’s not necessarily bad to bring any of these things to God through Jesus...he told us to...but is this all God is to us?  Our divine-genie-in-the-bottle?  Called on when we’re in a rut but largely forgotten about in our everyday lives? 

Sometimes it is as if we are on the throne and God is the servant...  the genie in the bottle says to his master, "What wouldst thou have? I am ready to obey thee as thy slave, and the slave of all those who have that lamp in their hands; I and the other slaves of the lamp.”  What scares me is how many times it would be accurate of me to have this become God’s speech rather than a genies, “What wouldst thou have?  I am ready to obey thee as thy slave and the salve of all who hold this divine lamp in their hands...

In our Old Testament Lesson for this morning, God reveals to us the proper relationship and it isn’t one where I am the master and God is the slave in a bottle, contained and controlled ready to serve whenever I call. 

In that all-too-familiar lesson that we read just a few moments ago, God appeared to Moses through a burning yet never consumed bush as he was tending his flock near the mountain of God, Mount Horeb.  God appeared with a vocation for Moses: “Come, follow me, I’m going to lead you to Pharaoh so that we might lead my people out of Egypt.”  To this news, Moses appears to be in utter shock.  He responds with excuses as to why he doesn’t qualify for the job...But God will have none of it. God is like, “Of course you’re not qualified...and as long as you remember that you’ll do quite well. Never forget, I am with you...that’s the only way your gonna lead my people out of bondage and into freedom -- by taking heart that I am with you and will never leave you.” 

But then Moses asks a bizarre question.  “But what if ... I come to the Israelites and tell them about this new vocation you’ve given me and they then ask me, “What is his name...this God who sent you?”  What should I tell them then? 

And the response that God gives to Moses is one of the most fascinating responses from God in all of Scripture. 

There’s a lot to a name you know...Names aren’t just for the sake of identifying this person over and against that person...there’s a lot to a Name and in the world of Moses, there was even more to a name than there is today.  In Moses day, to name someone or to name something meant that you were sovereign over that thing or person or entity you have named. And the meaning of the name you gave to that person thing or entity had everything to do with that person’s fate, etc. 

In Genesis, God speaks and that which he names comes into existence.  God is sovereign, then, over all that which he has named into existence.

Now Moses asks for God’s Name.  But God will not be named.  He will not be controlled. He will not be easily undesrtood.  He cannot be contained.  He will never become anyone’s genie-in-the bottle.  God’s response is at the same time a refusal to respond, as he says to Moses, “I will be/become whoever/whatever I will be/become.”  Many translations simply say “I Am,” as if God were saying, “No problem, “The Great I Am” is my name... but the hebrew clearly reads, “I will become whomoever or whatever I will become.” 

This is the invitation God gives to all his would be disciples at the outset...way back when God first called Moses.  And this is the invitation God gives us today as we walk the lenten journey towards new life and new creation.  Repent of the illusionary divine “genie-in-the-bottle”--the domesticated and tamed God that collects dust on the shelf until it’s time for him to serve us according to our desires....   God will not be contained.  Step down from your illusionary throne and be the servant...the servant who follows the elusive God, as Terrance Freitheim calls him, who refuses to be contained or controlled by anyone or anything. 

Now, That is risky business...there is no telling where such faith will lead you.  It is a journey always filled with mystery and awe.  If the journey lacks mystery and awe for any of us, it is time to repent because the domesticated god we’ve been controlling is not the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob and most certainly isn’t the Jesus whose journey always leads to a cross before an empty tomb. 

But always remember, there is one thing God does choose to reveal to Moses -- the one thing Moses needs to remember and that we need to remember.  It won’t always make sense, and it most definitely won’t always be easy, but God will be with you and he will never leave you. And that assurance of his presence daily in our lives is enough.

Thanks be to God.  Amen.

Following in The Footsteps of the Forerunner

Below is a devotional I submitted for our parish's 2013 Lenten Devotional booklet.  It will be the devotional for the first Friday in Lent.  I thought I'd post it on here in the event it might prove helpful for someone.  

"Following in The Footsteps of the Forerunner"

John 1:35-42

The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”

The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).

__________________

I’ve always been intrigued by John the Baptizer.  (More for his faithfulness in salvation history than for his unique lifestyle or sense for fashion).  I like the title the Eastern church uses to identify John -- the Forerunner.  John’s purpose in life was to prepare the Way for the Messiah; to point others away from himself and toward the fulfillment of all creation.

In this passage, John demonstrates his faithfulness to his unique role in salvation history.  Note the setting:  John was standing with two of his disciples when he noticed Jesus walk by.  What did John do when he saw Jesus -- the One for whom he had been sent to prepare the way?  He shouted, “Behold! The Lamb of God!”  Then John’s disciples did exactly what John prepared them to do -- they experienced an “exchange of overlords.”  From the moment of John’s announcement, John’s disciples began following Jesus: John’s disciples became Jesus’ disciples. 

This exchange of overlords is simply astonishing. In the first century world, it was a dishonor for one teacher’s disciples to walk away from him to begin following a new master! In fact, many masters have persecuted their former followers for this very thing.  But for John, the Forerunner, this was his hope.  He came to become lesser in order that Jesus might be exalted through his own humility.  John came to point others away from himself and toward the One that he was born to proclaim; he never got off task!  When Jesus showed up, the Forerunner humbled himself, teaching his disciples, “I am not He, but there He is -- this is the Lamb of God, the ultimate Passover Lamb!”  And the disciples were taught well.  They immediately left their master and began to follow Jesus, their new master.

Food for the Journey:

1.  What master(s) is God inviting you to leave behind so that you can more faithfully serve the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world?  What might this kind of repentance look like this lent?

2.  Who are the forerunners in your life?  Who are those people who selflessly point you away from themselves and towards God? Give God thanks for them.

3.  How might you follow in the Forerunner’s footsteps by pointing others to Jesus - the Passover Lamb - this Lent?

A Concise Theology of Holy Baptism

Sacrament, generally speaking, means that the Holy Spirit conveys & reveals the life of God through ordinary means to give visible & tangible expression to the unseen life of God. The Catechism of the Episcopal Church defines it as follows "The sacraments are outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace, given by Christ as sure and certain means by which we receive that grace" (BCP, 857).

Baptism is one of two of the chief or "dominical" sacraments (meaning Christ has instituted them) of the church.  The other is the sacrament of Holy Eucharist.  (There are seven sacraments total, though the other five are referred to as "lesser sacraments" by the Anglican tradition).

The Book of Common Prayer says the following about Baptism in it’s liturgy (299):  “Holy Baptism is full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ's Body the Church. The bond which God establishes in Baptism is indissoluble.”  Here is what the Catechism says concerning baptism (BCP, 857):

  

Q.            What is Holy Baptism?

A.            Holy Baptism is the sacrament by which God adopts us as his children and makes us members of Christ's Body, the Church, and inheritors of the kingdom of God.

Q.            What is the outward and visible sign in Baptism?

A.            The outward and visible sign in Baptism is water, in which the person is baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Q.            What is the inward and spiritual grace in Baptism?

A.            The inward and spiritual grace in Baptism is union with Christ in his death and resurrection, birth into God's family the Church, forgiveness of sins, and new life in the Holy Spirit.

Q.            What is required of us at Baptism?

A.            It is required that we renounce Satan, repent of our sins, and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

Q.            Why then are infants baptized?

A.            Infants are baptized so that they can share citizenship in the Covenant, membership in Christ, and redemption by God.

Q.            How are the promises for infants made and carried out?

A.            Promises are made for them by their parents and sponsors, who guarantee that the infants will be brought up within the Church, to know Christ and be able to follow him.

Based on the above, it is clear that the sacrament of baptism is multi-faceted in meaning.  This is due to the nature of baptism as “sacrament.”  Sacrament is always mysterious; it’s meaning cannot be exhausted.  Thus there is no one exhaustive meaning of baptism—it has many layers. (Most of the trouble we find ourselves in sacramentally is when we attempt to exhaust the meaning of the sacrament.  I believe we must recover the Eastern understanding of sacrament as primarily 'holy mystery.)

Here are three ways Lester Ruth (professor of Liturgy at Duke Divinity School) talks about the meaning of holy baptism:

Instrumental:  baptism as a hammer:  it does something.

Revelatory:  baptism as a window:  it reveals something.

Commemorative:  baptism as a string around the finger:  it reminds us of something.

What baptism does: Through baptism, we are re-born by water and the Spirit.  This is also known as baptismal regeneration.  We are forgiven of sin and receive the gift of the Spirit who begins the life-long process of healing our sin-diseased nature, renewing us in the image and likeness of God.  We are forgiven, cleansed, and empowered in baptism because it is a participation in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  As St. Paul says in Romans 6, in baptism we die with Christ and rise to newness of life with Him.  When the waters go over us, we die to old humanity by virtue of Jesus’ death on the cross. When we come out of the waters, it is a participation in the resurrection, where we are empowered by the Spirit to live in the new era Jesus’ resurrection has opened even as we anticipate its consummation.  I like the way St. Augustine of Hippo puts it chapter 52 of his Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, & Love:  “baptism in Christ is nothing else than a similitude of the death of Christ, and that the death of Christ on the cross is nothing but a similitude of the pardon of sin: so that just as real as is His death, so real is the remission of our sins; and just as real as is His resurrection, so real is our justification.” 

What baptism reveals: When Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, it gave us a foretaste of our baptism.  In His baptism, the voice of the Father was heard, and the Spirit of God descended upon the Son of God like a dove.  In baptism, the triune God is revealed.  Not only is God revealed, but true humanity is revealed in baptism.  Jesus went to the Jordan river as the God-man (fully God and fully human).  As the representative of all humanity, Jesus was baptized by John.  When he was baptized, the Spirit descended and the voice of the Father was heard saying, “This is my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

In baptism, we, who were once one with the age of darkness that is passing away are revealed to be children of God, beloved, ones with whom the Father is well pleased.  In Christ, the baptized are adopted as children of God.  We who were alienated in sin are now friends of God called to keep covenant and continue, with the whole church, Jesus’ mission to the world.

What baptism commemorates:  Baptism commemorates the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh.  While it is commemorated, those past events of God’s mighty acts are made present to us in the here-and-now by the power of the Spirit.

Why do we baptize infants?  We believe that the scope of the atonement is wide and includes all people of all nations, ethnicities, and genders.  Baptism is the gift of God for all peoples.  We cannot earn good standing with God.  That has been given to us freely through the saving activity of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Christ died for infants, youth, adults, and senior adults; none are left out of God’s saving embrace.

When an adult is baptized, the church usually prepares that person through catechism before the baptism takes place.  When a child is baptized, the formation received is in reverse order.  The child is baptized and then, when the child is older, he or she participates in catechism.  As the child grows in baptism by the church’s faithfulness to the baptismal covenant, the child’s faith is confirmed.  The child who has demonstrated personal faith now receives the faith of the church more fully and strives, by the power of the Holy Spirit, for the rest of his or her life to grow into that rich life of faith in communion with the church.

The church and the family both covenant to raise the child in such a way that she or he is constantly reminded of her/his baptism and taught to live into this reality. Baptism is a covenant made between the individual/family, the church, and God.

If we believed baptism was about us, we could not baptize infants. But, indeed, we believe baptism is fully about what God has done for us and for our salvation. 

N.T. Wright talks about infant baptism to who argued, “an infant cannot relate to God – why would we baptize them!”  Wright reminded his opponents how beautiful the relationship between a mother and child is while the infant feeds at the breast.  There is real relationship, nurture, communication, and love happening there…how much more can that baby’s creator and redeemer relate to him or her?