Lutheran bishop preaches on baptism

The Rev. Dr. Ron Warren, Bishop of the Southeastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and Bishop vonRosenberg entered the convention hall during the Festival Eucharist procession.

Excerpts from the sermon Bishop Warren delivered during the Festival Eucharist Sun., Feb 9, at convention:

Remember that text in Romans that says, “Therefore we have been buried with Him, in baptism, into death so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so we too may walk in newness of life.” Sin, our condition separating us from God, is washed away in baptism. The sinner drowns and dies in baptism. ... We do not and we cannot earn our place in God’s presence in heaven. … The forgiveness of sins … is the glowing core of baptism out of which Christian life is nourished and will grow over a lifetime until we stand together before God in heaven.

... Jesus commanded us to be baptized so that after we experience death by water we can be born again. … We believe baptism should only be done once in the life of a Christian pilgrim. ... Infant baptism is the most graphic illustration... of God’s unconditional love that we have in the church. Long before we learn to pray, long before we can make an intellectual decision … we are showered with God’s holy love in baptism. ... Our God has in baptism adopted us, made us his own, with the word, with the water, and with the cross marked on our foreheads.

... Jesus (also) commanded us to be baptized so that we can be born again daily. ... I was reborn today, this morning when I woke up. I am reborn in this moment. I’m reborn every day in what Martin Luther calls “daily repentance,” a return to my baptism, my adoption by the Lord Jesus Christ.

... The implications for all of us are incredible. We are baptized once, but we born again over and over and over again, day after day, within the faith that God gives us and sustains our lives in Christ Jesus together.

St. Paul refers to the fact that we are baptized “into Christ.” “Into Christ” implies a new order of life, where all human walls … are demolished. Denominations, ethnic backgrounds, social, gender, economic, political walls that we build no longer have any meaning for us. There simply is no power, no nationality, no race, no government greater than this new world order that has been created through Jesus Christ in our baptism.

... I think most of you know that the United States has become the fourth largest mission field in the world, numerically, after India, China and Russia. Believe it or not, the average American has little or no Christian background or memory or vocabulary. Seems to me our marching orders are clear … there are millions in this country who have never stepped foot in a Christian church.

This is an exciting time in history to be the church. May the Holy Spirit continue to bless our full communion agreement, open doors to us we don’t even know about in ways that we can work together, become disciples together and reach out to those who do not know our faith.