Baptism, Chapel, and God's Humor

Every week at ABCCA, we have a chapel for the upper school kids. This year, we have decided to focus on the covenants God made with His people throughout Scripture. (I know, I know, how very Presbyterian. But I swear, I just signed off on the idea, it wasn't mine!!) Well it turned out that they didn't have anyone to teach on the Covenant of Grace in Genesis 17. Or at least when they asked me to teach about the covenant in the home I thought of Genesis 17.

It was kind of a last minute thing, leaving me with about two days to prep. However it went really well. I was super nervous, and only had some handwritten notes I had scratched out the night before. My main point was just this: just as Eli's identity, comfort and direction is completely shaped (at least at the moment) by his belonging to Bethany and I, so we are to be shaped by God's promise to be our God and never leave us or forsake us. God promises Abraham, in the face of old age, death, failure (Hagar and Ishmael), homelessness, that Abraham and Abraham's children will be His special possession amidst the world. Obviously this is loaded with implications for the upper schoolers (6th grade through 12th) and I think it even resonated with a few. (As well there are the sad implications of the covenant as well; we all end up telling the same cheezy jokes our parents did, and wearing the same dorky white tennis shoes with pleated shorts our parents do. Even some of the quirky things that our parents have show up in us later......just wait Eli!).


Whats funny about all this is that about 6 years ago I was on the other side of the fence. I still remember mocking my good friend Luke Morton for holding to the ridiculous belief of paedobaptism since the Scripture was so clear otherwise. Really the only thing I made clear was that I was a jerk, not because I didn't hold to paedobaptism, but because of my militance in opposition to it. I have since come to see that the context the NT is to be read in is the OT, and so the OT has the final word on the issue. That aside, I am now preaching and doing the very thing I mocked. I just have to laugh at all of it, because it seems that the Lord is showing me to not take my self so seriously. God's glory is great in my own shaming of myself.

Even better is that this summer, we had our dear pastor friend Rev. Eric Irwin baptize Elijah. It was really great, to see our little boy be formally brought into the covenant community. And that is just what infant baptism is, the seal of membership in the covenant. It doesn't mean that Eli WILL grow up to be a godly man, or that he even believes right now. Rather it means that he is a partaker of God's promises just as Isaac was, because Bethany and I believe. Of course if he grows up to be a delinquent like me it'll be a different story (better to have not heard the word, than to have heard it and rejected it!)

It is a beautiful promise; the Lord is my God and Eli's God as well.

So the Lord's humor has come full circle once again. In one summer I had my son baptized and preached on infant baptism after ruthlessly mocking it 6 years earlier! (Sorry Luke!) Of course, those who know me have learned to not take me seriously. I swore I would never own a cell phone since they disrupt the way relationships are meant to be in creation; I got my first cell phone in January 2005. I swore I would never start a blog since everyone who has one is just desperate to be published in some setting; I have not just one blog but TWO....the joke is definitely on me!

The joy is that the same Lord who has promised to be faithful to me my whole life, and to my children, is the same God who has saved me to demonstrate his perfect patience (I Tim 1:16). All in all, I welcome the embarrassment if that means that I can be a partaker of His promises!