Last
week started with me flying to Victoria, BC to conduct a funeral
service for a
former member of our congregation.
It
may sound strange to say that a funeral was enjoyable, but, in
many ways, this
one was because it was a celebration of life and faith. There were a few tears, but,
for the most
part, we remembered, laughed and were thankful for a life well
lived.
When
I
returned home, we met at the church building with some good
friends of ours because
their son had decided that he wanted to be baptized. We engage in what is called
“Believer’s
baptism”. In other words,
we baptize
those who are old enough to make the choice for themselves and
this young man
decided that “Good Friday” was the day. Romans
6:1-4 tells us that baptism is a participation in the death,
burial and
resurrection of Christ and so this dad and his son went down into
the water
where the son was immersed and raised to his new life in Christ
(see also Acts
2:38 and Galatians 3:26-29).
Then
came “Easter Sunday”. As a
church, we celebrate
Christ’s death, burial and resurrection every Sunday with the
Lord’s table (or “Communion”
as some call it), but Easter is still special. We know that that since Easter
is tied to the
Jewish celebration of Passover that the resurrection happened
around this time
in the calendar year. While
it is good
to remember the resurrection every day, the promises seem to take
on added
meaning in the spring when we see creation being re-born around
us.
Taken
in reverse order, the events of my week illustrate both the
message and the
importance of the gospel. Christ’s
death, burial and resurrection paid for our sins and opened the
way to our
eternal home. Our
acceptance of that
gift and our reception of God’s Spirit is seen in baptism. Those two truths then allow
us to live with
hope and face everything, even death, in a new way.
In
the
end, real faith is much more practical than most people imagine. In fact, it changes
everything.
“[God’s]
divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life
through our
knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2
Peter 1:3).
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