by Chris Jacobsen

Today I am beginning a sermon series on the sacraments. We’ll be examining baptism this week and next week, and then we’ll spend two weeks on the Lord’s Supper.

Preaching on the subject of baptism has me thinking about my own baptism. I’ve seen a picture of the event. I was just a baby. Maybe if I underwent some hypno-therapy I could remember it. Otherwise, that picture—along with the remembrance of family members—is the only thing I have to go on.

In the end, it doesn’t really matter whether or not I have memories of my own baptism. I know that God remembers! And in case I ever forget, I have the wonderful, rich words from our liturgy: “Christopher, for you Jesus came into the world; for you he died and conquered death. All this he did for you, little one, though you know nothing of it as yet. We love because God first loved us.”

We spend a lot of time worrying about our actions around baptism:

Sprinkle? Pour? Immersion?
Infants? Adults?
Godparents? Sponsors?

But the liturgy is a good reminder that what God does in our lives is so much more important. And I need that reminder most days, especially when I take the things that I do more seriously than I ought to. It’s God who does the work! It’s Jesus’ death that I’m baptized into. I am able to love only because God first loved me.

Every time I feel the cool touch of the water in the baptismal font, I remember my baptism.

Chris Jacobsen is lead pastor of Abundant Life Reformed Church in Wyckhoff, New Jersey.