This morning Sarah and I went back to the Lutheran church we were married in 14 years ago.  The occasion was a baptism for a family member's two week old daughter.  I was struck with the simlarities in the occurrences.  It was actually the same pastor who performed both set of ceremonies.  Both times he performed a ceremony for a "group of kids" who had (in my opinion) had no idea of the true significance behind the ceremony.  And both times it was for people who at the time had no home church of their own.

As I sat and watched and listened I wondered how as a pastor one could deal with someone who asked for a ceremony to be performed without having the real idea behind why they were asking.  And I remember thinking "Boy, in my case am I glad he did".

A lot has changed in the 14 years since, not the least of which are my beliefs on baptism.  I was raised in the Lutheran church.  I was baptized as a baby.  I grew up thinking that's what you were supposed to do and that if it didn't, your kids were going to Hell if they died before making their own choice.  And really unless you were a new believer (meaning someone who had never been baptized before), you would never need to get baptized again.  I'm not sure that's exactly what I thought, because I think the reality of it was I never thought about it.  However that's the way my life was lived.  Tyler was baptized shortly after his birth.

In the four years between the first and second child, Sarah and I began attending a Covenant church in Mankato.  I still remember sitting in the newcomers class (for church membership) at the point where they said they didn't believe in infant baptism, but believed it was a choice.  They would still perform the ceremony for parents who wanted their children's baptized, but that it was just that, a ceremony.   Although I heard that, Nathan was baptized partially for the same reason Tyler was and partially because I wanted to appease parents.

In the years since then, more changes.  Sarah and I stopped attending church again for a while, before returning to the Covenant church in Mankato.  We then switched for about a year to an Alliance church before moving over to where we are now (again a Covenant church).  During that time there has been much more thinking on our part about the idea of baptism.  Rachael was not baptized but rather was dedicated.

It's interesting that at a time where I believe less in the need for baptism by water for salvation, that it's the very time I'm thinking I need to be baptized (as an adult) to show my public confession of Jesus as Lord of lords, King of kings.

About that time, I realized I had been "daydreaming".  So while I may have been on time for church, my brain was elsewhere.  However I was glad to have been reminded the necessity to think about the why behind the ceremony.