“In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh has been put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through your faith in the working of God, who…
In the life of the baptized people, there is a constant rediscovering, re-enacting of the Father’s embrace of Jesus in the Holy Spirit. The baptized person is not only in the middle of the human suffering and muddle but also in the middle of the love and delight of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Christians will be found in the neighborhood of Jesus – but Jesus is found in the neighborhood of human confusion and suffering, defenselessly alongside those in need. If baptized is being led to where Jesus is, then being baptized is being led towards the chaos and the neediness of a humanity that has forgotten its own destiny.
The beginning of Christian life is a new beginning of God’s creative work. And just as Jesus came up out of the water, receiving the Holy Spirit and hearing the voice of the Father, so for the newly baptized Christian the voice of God says, ‘You are my son/daughter’, as that individual begins his or her new life in association with Jesus.
Christians are received into full membership of the Church by having water poured or sprinkled over them (or, in some traditions, being fully immersed); Christians read the Bible; Christians gather to share bread and wine in memory of the death and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth; and Christians pray. Though there is a huge and bewildering variety in Christian thinking and practice about all kinds of things, these four basic activities have remained constant and indispensable for majority of those who call themselves Christians.
