A Note from Pastor

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This Sunday we enter the season of Epiphany and celebrate the Baptism of our Lord.  Jesus’ baptism falls under the heading of Jesus being revealed as the Son of God.  But his baptism often leads us to reflect on our own baptism.  What does our baptism mean?  Well, for one, it means you have been made children of God and adopted as sons and daughters.  It means that through faith your sins have been washed away.  It is a means of grace, God’s great promise attached to something very ordinary: water. 

But since all of this is a free gift and an act of grace, the logical question arises: should we just sin more if it is all washed away in baptism?  The more we sin the more grace we get, right?  By no means! That is the answer in Romans chapter 6.  As we consider the meaning of our baptism there is no better place than Romans 6.  Here we learn that when we were baptized we died together with Christ.  Our old self died.  Our sinful self died.  Sin no longer has power over us, we are no longer a slave to it.  When we were slaves we had no choice but to obey.  But now we are heirs, and not slaves, now we can walk in the newness of life.  So each morning when we wake up we can thank God for our baptism.  We can wake up knowing that we are secure as children through these waters.  Yet also we can remind ourselves that we are now to walk in a newness of life.  That our old self was crucified together with Christ and that we now may walk in the Spirit.  No need for all the junk of our lives - the anger, the lashing out, the revenge seeking, the mistrust or gossip.  We never HAVE TO delve into those things because we are now able to walk in the newness of life in Christ thanks to our baptism.