Baptism this Sunday

This Sunday at the 10:00 Eucharist we'll baptize Andrew and his infant daughter Erin. Baptism is always the occasion for great joy (as in the photo above of a baptism I did a few years ago).

⁴It just so happens that in the Epistle reading for Sunday, Paul talks about baptism. He writes, "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life."

Baptism is a sign of the new life we have in Christ. When we are baptized, we enter into a new way of life that is open to the Spirit of God. This doesn't mean we suddenly stop sinning and become perfect beings, but it does mean that we open ourselves to the working of the Spirit.

I look at it this way. If we want to become a better person, we start associating with better people and we start new habits that will lead to better attitudes and behaviors. That's essentially what we're doing in baptism: we're associating ourselves with Jesus and the community of the Church, and in doing so we believe that we'll become a better person.

Andrew and his daughter Erin will be joined with Christ in baptism this Sunday and they become members of the believing family of St. Antony's. Welcome!
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