A journey with a watery start

I suspect that not many people will remember their baptism.  I was baptised at the age of 16 so I do remember mine – it was a full immersion baptism in a pool that had been erected in the church for that occasion but the water was cold as the heater hadn't worked!  I remember how great it was to be able to affirm my faith publicly in front of my Christian family.

Those who are baptised as infants don't get the chance to affirm their faith for themselves at their baptism, but that is why we have godparents.  In the baptism service the Godparents not only declare that they believe the Christian faith themselves and that they will bring the child up as a Christian (by praying for them, being an example to them and bringing them along to church), but they also declare the faith on behalf of the child.    They answer for themselves and for the child.  In one version of the baptism service the minister says “At baptism we promise to reject the devil and all evil, constantly to believe God's Word, and to obey his commands. Children should make their own response of faith and obedience towards God, but as this child is at present too young to answer for himself it is proper that this commitment be made in his name until he is old enough to take it upon himself.” The rôle of the godparent is to bring the child up in the Christian faith so that the child is able to affirm their faith publicly, usually in the presence of a bishop at the Confirmation service.

It is sometimes said that children should be free to choose the faith for themselves and it is true that no-one is a Christian unless they decide for themselves to repent and to believe and trust in Jesus as their Lord.  However, infant baptism reminds us that Jesus invited children to be brought to him for a blessing and rebuked those who keep them from him.  But it also reminds us that a child is not 'done' when they've been baptised, rather it marks the start of their Christian journey where they will be guided and taught the faith by their parents and godparents, in the hope that one day they will choose it for themselves.  They cannot of course choose it if they have not been taught it!

Lent is a season of reflection in the Church year and those reflections sometimes centre around our identity as baptised Christians.  One of the prayers in our baptism service asks for God's help to “keep us faithful to our baptism” This involves three things: first, repenting of the things we do wrong; secondly, believing all that the Bible teaches about the doctrines of the Christian faith; and thirdly, keeping God's holy will and commandments all the days of our life.

At your baptism, your godparents prayed that Jesus would receive you, forgive you, sanctify you with the Holy Spirit, and make you an heir to heaven and eternal life. They also heard that Jesus promised all these things in his gospel and we know that he keeps his promises.  You started your Christian journey then, perhaps you need to restart that journey now, and if so you're always welcome at church – you are a member of our family after all!!

Dressing up evil

Here's my article for October:

A question that quite often gets asked is “Why is there so much evil in the world?”  As we approach the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War we again focus on the horror of war and “man's inhumanity to man”.  But there is also plenty in the news today that makes us despair about the prevalence of evil in the world.

There is, however, an irony in those who despair about the amount of evil in the world but at the same time take part in Halloween events.  Because despite its 'fun' and 'playful' image, Halloween is in essence a celebration of evil.  In fact it is even more dangerous because it makes evil seem to be fun and playful, and children get rewarded with sweets for being evil. This might seem a bit of a stretch make a link between dressing up as a vampire and acts of atrocity, but the normalising, minimising and rewarding of evil means that we become immune to the seriousness of evil.  If the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, this is true whether the direction is right or wrong!

Now that isn't to say that all those who dress up in Halloween costumes are evil or will commit evil acts, it is merely saying that we need to be careful what we celebrate, encourage and reward, especially in children, because that could set a precedent for future undesirable behaviour.  An example of this might be those who mark Halloween as 'Mischief Night' – a time for pranks such as egging or acts of vandalism.  If you can dress as a devil 'for fun' why can't you act as a devil 'for fun'?  Why is one praised and the other condemned?  Why is one promoted on social media and the other moaned about on that same social media?

The answer would be that it is a matter of moral boundaries, but that raises the question of where those moral boundaries should be set.  Once evil in whatever form is acceptable, when does it become unacceptable?  This then becomes a matter of personal interpretation: what one person calls 'being scary for fun' another might call terrorisation.

In the Christian worldview this confusion is exactly what the “spiritual forces of evil” (Ephesians 6:12) want.  The prophet Isaiah warned “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Isaiah 5:20).  The devil is the 'father of lies' (John 8:44) who masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14) – a bad thing pretending to be good.  By tricking us into thinking that evil is 'just playing' and 'a bit of fun' he sows moral confusion and gets a foothold in our lives.  In the baptism service, after the parents and godparents have said that they reject the devil and all rebellion against God and renounce the deceit and corruption of evil, we exhort the child to “fight valiantly as a disciple of Christ against sin, the world and the devil.”  But they cannot not fight this battle alone; so we ask God to deliver them from the powers of darkness, restore in them the image of his glory, and lead them in the light and obedience of Christ.  Paul reminds us in Ephesians 5:8 “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.”