Then and Now

Today I spent a few hours reading church history. I learned a few interesting things I do not remember knowing. I read that Augustine and many others believed in infant baptism because they believed it washed off “original sin” (the sin of Adam the child had supposedly been born with). I read how many others believed baptism cleansed one of all of their sins up to the point of baptism, and then once you were baptized it was expected that you would not sin. Christians in this era and particular group of followers were allowed only one egregious sin after baptism if they wanted to remain in the local body of believers. It sounds crazy to me, but it is not that far off from the old holiness school of thought that believed that once you were sanctified you did not sin. Augustine, and many others, believed baptism and the Lord’s Supper were requirements for salvation. Probably the most interesting thing I read was that some churches baptized people naked. Wow – baptisms would be down at our church if that were the requirement, and yet somehow attendance might trend upward :-)

The rituals I read about were vital to their faith and practice. They sound strange to me, but to them they were earnest attempts to live the life they felt Christ had called them to. They were well thought out and were practiced intentionally. I believe most of my fellow church attendees are sincere in our desire to come together as a community to worship God and to strengthen our relationship with Christ, but reading about the early church does makes me wonder what it is in our church services or in our forms of worship that will seem unreal to Christians of the distant future? I also wonder what it is we have given up by moving so far from our roots? I am most appreciative of the dynamicism of Christianity that allows us to change the way we practice our faith while maintaining the substance of our faith and belief.

I also wonder what a balanced, and or correct view of baptism is. Baptism was so essential to the church fathers. I don’t have any idea of how baptism is viewed by the American evangelical church as a whole, but in my little corner of the world baptism seems to be an opportunity to share our story of what God has done for us, and an opportunity for us to show God our willingness to submit to His request that we be baptized. It is a rich experience, but far from essential. Can you imagine what the church fathers would think of a) my perception of the value of baptism and b) the actual baptisms in my church? About five years ago I called my church and told them I was ready to be baptized after years of having been a Christian. We set a date for me to come in and film my testimony, and then on a scheduled Sunday morning I stood in the baptismal in front of thousands as my story was shared on big screens in the auditorium and I was formally baptized via immersion. In so many ways, that experience would not be something the early church could possibly have imagined.

Lauren Winner’s, “Girl Meets God” opened my eyes to the fact that the community and age in which I practice my faith is relatively devoid of rich, meaningful rituals. Ignorantly, I had thought rituals were mind numbed, memorized, and institutional performances. I now see there is another side to that coin. I, personally, am content to be in a denomination (or lack there of) that does not emphasize formal rites of worship, but I can see how more traditional ceremonies and acts of worship could be extremely meaningful to others in their walk with Christ. It is interesting to think of the different roles customs have played in past and current communities of faith, and interesting to ponder what that may look like in future generations.