In worship, we who are called “Christian” gather to express our unity with God and with each other. We are a community which spans the centuries, bound together by a covenant whose signature is baptism. We have inherited this covenant of baptism from those in ages past who bequeathed to us their faith and their faithfulness.
Sunday, January 13, we will celebrate “The Baptism of the Lord.” The gospel reading for the day is Luke 3:15-17, 21-22.
This is an appropriate occasion for us as a congregation and as individuals to renew our baptismal vows, and we will have a Renewal of Baptism Service at all three worship services that morning. For some of us, this will be a claiming of promises made on our behalf by our parents when we were baptized as infants. For others of us, it will be a renewing of vows we made as adults.
Renewal of Baptism should not be confused with re-baptism. As Reformed Christians, we receive baptism only once. Nor should this service be confused with the Sacrament of Baptism itself. Rather, Renewal of Baptism is an opportunity to acknowledge the grace of God continually at work in and among us, confess our ongoing need of that grace, and pledge anew our obedience to God’s covenant in Christ.