Nooksack River Baptism

I recently had the honor of baptizing my wife Karla, good friend Melissa, and Melissa's sister, Tiffany, in the Nooksack River in Northwestern Washington State. I wish I had pictures to illustrate the scene, but suffice it to say that the place is beautiful. Melissa's family has long owned this amazing property where she grew up. While I was in graduate school, Karla, Melissa, our friend Adam, and I went up and camped by the river there on the very spot where the baptism took place. For all its beauty and what it means as a symbol of family, cleansing, and spiritual rebirth, it was a perfect place for the occasion.

With a number of family and friends sitting and standing along the hilly slope along the river, I stood by the water and gave what I ended up calling a sermonette. After this brief discourse, I welcomed Karla, Melissa, and Tiffany into the water with me, and proceeded to baptize them, one by one, in the ice cold yet extremely refreshing water. Though a bit tentative about taking the plunge into it, these women braved the river and found in their experience a meaningful testimony of their commitment to Christ. Here is a transcript of my "sermonette" and what followed:


The Saxon Baptism
July 3, 2005

We have gathered today to recognize and affirm in these women a spiritual conversion to a life of faith in Jesus Christ. We are recognizing in them a putting away of an old nature and an embrace of a new nature, which is not their own but Christ’s. Therefore, baptism is a recognition and testimony of a joining to Christ; first, a confession of sin, then forgiveness and grace and transformation… a personal death, burial, and resurrection.

There are two central elements of baptism: first, spiritual baptism is a cleansing of sin. One aspect of our fallen nature is a continual digression into boastful self-centered pride, on the one hand, and neurotic self-centered pity on the other. Today, the image of death and resurrection will be for you a symbol of the way you will need to continually submit your spirit to Christ on the journey of sanctification, which is a putting to death of your old fallen nature that Christ may live in and through you. As John the Baptist stated, "He must increase, and I must decrease" (John 3:30).

The second element is that spiritual baptism is the only way into the kingdom of God. In these ways, you will be joining yourself to the Bride of Christ, the Church (not to one religious sect or denomination but to all the children of God). Paul wrote that Christ would be joined to a Bride that would be without any spot or blemish. And so Christ died that the sin that binds us in this life would die with Him; and yet both we and the world are still full of sin! This is because in order to be cleansed from our sin we must choose Christ ourselves. And, recognizing our sin and the futility of living apart from Christ, we die a spiritual death and the full weight of our sins are passed to Him.

In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul wrote, "For we die and are buried with Christ in baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Since we have been united with Him in His death, we will also be raised as He was" (Romans 6:4-5). In this life, you will continue to struggle both with sin and with Christ; in this struggle, you will find discipleship, which is a continual dying to self and joining with Christ. For in this life, in the words of Paul, "We see as in a mirror, dimly. But then [in the Kingdom of God], we shall see face to face" (I Corinthians 13:12).

And so, in this life, we must continually look to the next. In this way, the Christian life is first one of grace, or cleansing, and then one of hope. Today, you are confessing your sin, and you are joining the Church, with all its spots and blemishes, so that you might be made new through Christ. As Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:4-5, "We are all one Body, we have the same Spirit, and we have all been called to the same glorious future. There is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism."

…[Instructions to the crowd before entering the river...]

Our Judeo-Christian heritage has passed down to us a meaningful word for times like this, which is "Amen." It means, "Agreed." We read in the New Testament that with the tongue, we have the power to bless or curse, to affirm or ridicule. As each of these women is raised up from their baptism, you may feel free to join together with them in affirmation of their joining with Christ by speaking or even yelling "Amen!"

…[And then, in the river...]

Therefore, (Melissa, Karla, Tiffany), because of your confession of sin and profession of faith in Jesus Christ, I baptize you my sister in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And so now you are buried with water in baptism and raised to walk with Christ in a new life. Amen!