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Redeemer The Scrutinies #3 2019

A Ritual Journey: The Stage of Inquiry

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As I indicated last week faith formation is structured on two paths: the Ritual path and the Catechetical path. The catechetical path is less structured than the ritual path since it is dependent upon the degree of faith formation of each individual catechumen. The ritual path is more structured since rites punctuate ones process through the catechumenate. These rites mark the transitions from one stage of the catechumenate to the next. Acceptance into the Order of Catechumens/Welcome of Inquirers to the Catechumenate marks the transition from the period of Inquiry to the Catechumenate proper. The Rite of Election for Initiation/Enrollment of Candidates for Baptism marks the transition into preparation for the Rites of Initiation/Baptism and joining the assembly of faith. The Rites of Initiation (usually at the Easter Vigil) mark the transition to being a child of God. There is no formal rite that marks entry into this first stage: The period of Evangelization and Precatechumenate or Inquiry.

This first stage of Inquiry is a very open-ended period because it is the opportunity for the seeker to begin exploring Christianity and for the church to introduce the seeker to Christianity. It is an informal time of questioning and probing for those curious about the Christian faith. Central to this period are three elements: introduction to the living God in Jesus Christ, to the Word that bears witness to the Triune God, and the life of faith, all three of which are experienced within the life of the local Lutheran congregation. This period attends to the encounter with the Faith on the seeker’s terms. It is a period of focused listening on the part of the assembly and the catechumenal leaders. What are they seeking? What questions do the seekers have? What has their spiritual journey looked like? What encounters have they had with the church before this? The period allows those questions to be engaged in encounter with Christ through the Word. Primary biblical narratives are read and discussed, focused especially on the Gospel accounts such as the readings for each Sunday, and the seekers are asked to reflect on what they have heard. This allows the catechumenal leaders to actively listen to and then bear witness to Christ in relationship to the seekers’ response to what they have heard. The experience of the liturgy and the community in action also allow opportunities for reflection. What have they seen and experience in the liturgy and in the community’s life together? What sense do they make of it? How does it influence what they are seeking? What does it tell them about God for this community? What questions do they have?

While there are no formal rituals associated with this stage, it is important to mark it in various ways. Prayer and the sign of the cross are two primary rituals that can mark the stage of inquiry. Praying for the seekers while meeting together and also each Sunday in worship marks their importance to the community and the attention the community gives to their walk into inquiry. The sign of the cross, at an appropriate point in the biblical narratives discussed and the personal progression of each individual, can also mark progress through the period of inquiry and the reception of the seeker to what they are hearing and experiencing. It marks the Spirit’s ongoing work of conversion to a life of faith.

That is a brief description of the Stage of Inquiry and the rites that may mark the journey through it. If you are interested in further resources regarding the Stage of Inquiry email me either through FormingLutherans.org or at burresonk@csl.edu. Next week we’ll turn to the Stage of the Catechumenate and the Rite of Acceptance or Welcome.

 

Redeemer Giving of Candle at Baptism 2019

A Ritual Journey: The Rites of Faith Formation

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This week I am beginning an ongoing exploration of the rites of faith formation. In order to explore the rites that can be used as a central experience of faith formation, I need to outline the structural process of the catechumenate. So, for those for whom this may be an elementary review, my apologies. As a holistic experience of faith formation, the catechumenate employs a variety of things to facilitate conversion and form the life of faith, all of them experiential in nature: individual mentoring, small group discussion, acts of service, lecture, reflection, journaling, corporate and personal prayer, fellowship (especially over meals), shadowing the baptized, preaching, and ritual action. Of the liturgical rites Roman Catholic priest Ronald Lewinski says, “These liturgical rites flow naturally from the spiritual formation and catechesis that is offered…. [They] are integral to the whole process of conversion and initiation” (An Introduction to the RCIA, Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 2017, 21). The liturgical rites mark a catechumen’s journey through faith formation as they gradually cross the threshold into life in Christ within the assembly of God’s people.

As I noted in a previous post, Diana Macalintal outlines two catechetical paths in faith formation that are interdependent but distinct: the Ritual path and the Catechetical path. The Ritual path is the formation that happens through the crossing of the various ritual stages that the catechumen experiences. They focus on the gradual transition of the person in terms of their order/place within the Christian community: from inquirer to catechumen to neophyte. Formation happens through the Word and ritual action in the liturgies of the church. The second path she labels the Catechetical path. This path is less structured and attends to the level of faith instruction in the Word that the individual person has received. A congregation ideally nurtures both paths in order to have a vibrant catechumenate.

The Ritual path is composed of four periods and three transitions between those periods. [Welcome to Christ adds one additional transitional rite near the end of the post-baptismal mystagogy]. I’ll use the terminology of both the Roman Catholic Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) and the Lutheran Welcome to Christ: Lutheran Rites for the Catechumenate (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1997), divided by a slash.

  • Period #1: Evangelization and Precatechumenate/Inquiry
    • Transition #1: Acceptance into the Order of Catechumens/Welcome of Inquirers to the Catechumenate
  • Period #2: Catechumenate/Inquiry [Welcome to Christ doesn’t distinguish precatechumenate and catechumenate periods]
    • Transition #2: Rite of Election for Initiation/Enrollment of Candidates for Baptism
  • Period #3: Purification and Enlightenment/Preparation for Baptism
    • Transition #3: Rites of Initiation at Easter Vigil: Baptism, Sealing (Chrismation/Confirmation), Lord’s Supper/Baptism and Communion at the Vigil of Easter
  • Period 4: Post-Baptismal Mystagogy/Baptismal Living
    • Transition #4: Affirmation of the Vocation of the Baptized in the World

That is the basic outline of the Ritual Path. In coming weeks I will examine the rites associated with each of these periods and rituals. If you are interested in a copy of a particular rite from one of the resources email me either through FormingLutherans.org or at burresonk@csl.edu.

Redeemer Elevation

Being with Christ Jesus (That’s Catechesis)

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In the last two chapters of Your Parish is the Curriculum Diana Macalintal explores the shape of teaching or catechesis in faith formation. At its essence the catechesis is all about the experience of being with Christ Jesus through Word and Sacraments in the Christian community and reflection upon that experience. It is catechesis that focuses on conversion, being brought to faith. This is what Aidan Kavanagh and others have referred to as primary theology. Faith seeking understanding, or secondary theology, follows upon the primary catechesis and is part of lifelong discipleship. All Christians are theologians because they are believers in God and they have journeyed through that primary catechesis at the catechumenate’s center. Macalintal has an effective description of baptized theologians as they serve to expose catechumens to the life of faith: they are translators. She says, they “stand on the boundary between our profound experience of the mystery of God and the real-life human situation in which we live. The theologian stands in the middle to ‘co-relate’ the border between the divine and all of humanity’s deepest questions” (98). All the baptized are mystagogues facilitating the catechumens reflections on the mysteries, that is, the experience of God’s self-revelation in promise, grace and mercy through His Son Jesus Christ by the Spirit. All the baptized encourage the catechumens’ reflection on what they have heard and seen, but especially the team (which she discusses in chapter two) involved in faith formation: sponsors, catechists, pastors, etc…

In this catechetical reflection, questions allow inquirers and catechumens to explore what they are hearing and seeing as God reveals himself in Christ in the church’s life. Questions such as: “How have you encountered Christ in the Word this week? In the liturgy this week? How has God been present in your life this week?” Questions such as these allow a deeper exploration of faith itself, or of coming to faith in God through Christ. Guiding these experiences and reflections is the proclaimed and written Word of God. Macalintal helpfully outlines a process of reflection for the catechumens with six parts: Encounter (participating in worship and the parish’s life); Recollection (recalling how one encountered Christ in that event); Reflection (How did the encounter make one feel? Think?); Catechesis (Catechists and sponsors bring the Word and theological reflection to bear on the experience); Connection (How does this experience foster reflection on what is going on in the world around us and shape our witness?); Conversion (In light of this experience and reflection, “How will I commit to living as a disciple of Christ this week in the world?” [104]). What Lutherans might traditionally consider the “meat” of the teaching is that catechetical section. But it is still milk! No solid theological foods yet. It is still reflection on faith itself and the implications of conversion to the life of faith for the catechumen. It is still a very initial encounter with the Word.

In chapter seven Macalintal turns toward the need for customizing catechesis to the individual catechumen. Sponsors and catechists play a primary role here because they know the individual catechumens best. One of the most helpful (among many) parts of the book comes at this point. Macalintal outlines two catechetical paths that are interdependent but distinct: the Ritual path and the Catechetical path. The Ritual path is the formation that happens through the crossing of the various ritual stages that the catechumen experiences. They focus on the gradual transition of the person in terms of their order/place within the Christian community: from inquirer to catechumen to neophyte. Formation happens through the Word and ritual action in the liturgies of the church. The second path she labels the Catechetical path. This path is less structured and attends to the level of faith instruction in the Word that the individual person has received. For example, those who have not been baptized are at the beginning of the Ritual path, but they may have extensive knowledge about the Christian faith and so would be further along the Catechetical path. On the other hand, another person may have been baptized and so has already moved through the entire Ritual path, but has little knowledge of the Christian faith and so is at a very elementary stage in the Catechetical path. Most often Lutheran congregations give strong attention to the Catechetical path, but fail to give sufficient attention to the Ritual path. In addition, it is vital on the Catechetical path to remember that that is still introductory Christian teaching (primary proclamation and initiatory catechesis), not the depth of formation (including Scripture study, theological/confessional study, spiritual formation, etc…) that will come after they are baptized. Because people are at various places on these two paths our faith formation practices need to shape their formation experience according to where they are at.

In conclusion Macalintal asks, “What if? What would happen if we made the RCIA a process that really took place within the community of the faithful?” (130) And so I put the same question to us Lutherans: What if we actually use the formation practices of the catechumenate? Perhaps, as Macalintal indicates, “We will find our way together to a door that can change everything” (131).

              

Palm Sunday 2019 (219)

Lifelong Disciples: The Congregation Training Ground

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Throughout her book Your Parish is the Curriculum Diana Macalintal has emphasized that formation of the catechumens through the catechumenate happens in the life of the parish. In chapter 3 she discussed the ways that the assembly is involved in the rites of the catechumenate. In chapters 4 and 5 she turns toward the “The Curriculum for Making Disciples” and how “Parish Life is the Syllabus.” If it hasn’t been clear, it is now apparent that the catechumenate is focused on creating lifelong disciples, people who live by faith and show forth the fruits of faith. And the best way to learn to live that life is by watching, hearing, and doing that life with the congregation as it lives it. That’s why apprenticeship is the primary model for formation in the catechumenate. It is an apprenticeship with Jesus through his body, the church. The congregation is the training ground for new disciples, disciples making disciples. The catechumenate is not only about knowledge of the faith, but also about the living of that faith. It trains disciples in the Christian life.

In order to learn the church’s lifestyle (and each congregation has a unique way of living the faith, which is why it is important for everyone who wants to be a disciple in that congregation journey through the catechumenate), the Roman Catholic RCIA outlines four disciplines that are the curriculum:  Word, Community, Worship, and Witness. I believe all four are central to a Lutheran conceptualization of the life of faith. The Word (Incarnate, proclaimed, and written) is at the center of the apprenticeship. It is the opportunity, as Macalintal puts it, “to meet Christ and his friends” (75). Catechumens (along with their sponsors) should gather at the divine service every Sunday to hear the Word, and also attend other opportunities to explore the Word such as Bible studies, devotional experiences, etc… This encounter with the Word entails breaking it open for the catechumens so that they see their daily lives through the Word. Macalintal provides the outline of such faith sharing through the Scriptures (75-77). Other forms of breaking open the Word include the African Bible study method, lectionary-based discernment, ritual-based discernment, and visualization discernment.

Encountering the Word takes place within the Community. Arthur Carl Piepkorn referred to this as the Life of God in the Life of the Parish (a seminal article in The Church: Selected Writings of Arthur Carl Piepkorn). Meeting Christians in the community is the second part of the curriculum. Thus it is incumbent that the parish be a hospitable place, welcoming inquirers and catechumens into its life together. Only by interacting with the members of the parish do the catechumens learn how to live in hope and how to forgive.

The third component of the curriculum is Worship, both the Sunday assembly and the other opportunities for worship in a parish throughout the week. Only through attending these do the catechumens learn to pray and worship. The dismissals in the Sunday gathering, after the service of the Word, are continuations of worship (not primarily instructional times). They allow members of the parish to lead the catechumens into breaking open the Word through faith-sharing that flows from the Word.

The last component of the curriculum is Witness. By joining the parish’s events and activities the catechumens learn how to witness, to proclaim the gospel in words and actions. Hopefully, they learn the priority of bearing witness to a life of faith and hope in Christ Jesus toward the poor and those at the edges of the assembly and society.

When a catechumenate immerses the catechumens in the parish’s life, then parish life becomes the syllabus for the catechumenate. It is a hands-on course as the catechumens do what Christians do day-in and day-out, week-in and week-out. Macalintal refers to this as Upside-Down catechumenate. In other words, it’s not the usual way that the catechumenate is done. The usual way entails trying to recruit volunteers to enact the activities of the RCIA which are all focused in the RCIA itself. In the Upside-Down catechumenate, catechumenate meetings are less frequent, but sponsors are immersing the catechumens in parish activities on a weekly basis. Through this the catechumens meet the assembly and learn how they believe and live the faith. Macaltinal examines bulletins from large and small Roman Catholic parishes to demonstrate the myriad of activities in a parish on a weekly basis, aligning with the four disciplines, in which catechumens might immerse themselves (even in small parishes).

If we want catechumens to become lifelong disciples, then they need to be incorporated into the faith community. The best way to do that is let the congregation’s life be their training ground in the faith.

Easter Vigil 2019 (25)

Going Outside the Doors

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The title for this week’s blog is admittedly unusual. Going outside the doors where and for what reason? In chapter 3 of Your Parish Is the Curriculum, Diana Macalintal tells the story of Jeff, an inquirer/seeker who was preparing to enter the catechumenate. Her story is not so much about Jeff but about the RCIA team’s preparation of the congregation for the rite of acceptance (when the seekers/inquirers cross the threshold into the formation process of the catechumenate). For several weeks she prepared the assembly by indicating how Jeff was identifying with the congregation’s mission and identity, particularly care for those in need in the community. She encouraged them to pray for him. And then on the Sunday of acceptance she invited them to do something they had never done before. The inquirers, including Jeff, and their sponsors were outside the doors of the church and she invited the assembly to get out of their pews “and go and pray for him and bring him into the church so that he can learn to hear and follow Jesus” (58). She didn’t know how the assembly would respond, but to their great surprise almost everyone followed them out the doors to surround the inquirers. As she notes, the parish “felt invested in making sure Jeff was welcomed well and began his formation supported by the community” (58). This kind of preparation of the assembly for its role takes planning and commitment in order to build a relationship between the inquirers/catechumens and the congregation. They went outside the doors to welcome them across the threshold toward following Jesus in this congregation.

That is the role of the baptized in faith formation. In Macalintal’s words, they are “to be a shining, clear example of a people of faith and a community of conversion” (49). The team involved in the catechumenal process should aim to coach the congregation to play this hospitable, modeling role vis-à-vis the seekers/catechumens. This conviction is born of the recognition that the baptized are agents of God’s mission in Christ toward the world. They engage in “wordless witness, explicit witness, and community witness” (50). The assembly’s relationship to the seekers/catechumens in the rites of faith formation is a demonstration of community witness, a ministry of hospitality and relationship-building.

In the remainder of chapter three Macalintal outlines the assembly’s role in the primary periods of the catechumenate process. First, in the period of evangelization and precatechumenate they primarily show hospitality. One way to do so would be through inviting seekers/catechumens into their homes to eat with them in order to get to know them better and for them to get to know the baptized better. Second, during the catechumenate stage the assembly should foster in the divine service an encounter with Christ and training for the Christian life among the catechumens. For those involved in facilitating faith formation this means preparing the assembly for the rite of acceptance. The assembly needss to be aware of the purpose, primary symbols, and subjects of the rite of acceptance into the catechumenate. They also need to be spiritually prepared to foster the encounter with Christ. Such preparation can include sharing a question with the assembly, often based on the Gospel reading for that week, such as, “In your life right now, what are you looking for from Jesus?” (55). Lastly, as in Jeff’s story, it includes preparing the assembly to go outside to greet and pray for the catechumens.

Third, during the rite of election into the period of preparation for baptism, the assembly’s primary role is to give testimony to the life of Christ in their midst. Since this is a “no-turning-back” moment for the catechumens that testimony helps to affirm and strengthen them for the journey to baptism during Lent. Macalintal offers twenty suggestions for how the assembly might give testimony. I’ll highlight a few:

  • Write a letter to the pastor about the catechumen and what God has done in their life
  • Provide cards for the baptized to write words testifying to the candidates’ progress or giving thanks to God for that progress
  • Ask sponsors to keep a journal indicating how God has been at work in the lives of the catechumens
  • Invite the elderly and homebound of the parish to pray for the catechumens (pp. 61-62)

Throughout Lent the assembly is encouraged to be present at the Scrutiny rites (rites of exorcistic prayer) and the rites presenting the Creed and Lord’s Prayer to the catechumens. They are also to be encouraged to participate in and model for the catechumens the Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. They are to be examples of a penitential lifestyle.

Fourth, in the postbaptismal period of mystagogy (reflection on the experience of initiation into the church through baptism and the Lord’s Supper), the goals for the neophytes are that they live within the congregation, meditate on the Gospel, partake of the Lord’s Supper, and actively support those in need. The assembly should be doing the same things and modeling it for the newly baptized in their worship and in their common life. In this way, the encounter with the living Lord is fostered.

Thus Macalintal describes the congregation’s role in the catechumenal process. How might your parish go out the doors and build relationships with your seekers/inquirers and catechumens?   

Redeemer Rite of Election with Sponsor 2019

An Apprenticeship in Faith

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As we saw in our last post, Diana Macalintal in Your Parish is the Curriculum explores the optimal ways in which the Roman Catholic catechumenate—Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA)—functions. That entails the Christian community serving as God’s premier agent of fostering conversion and incorporating new Christians into the community’s life together. In chapters 1 and 2 she expands on that theme by exploring how faith formation matters to the entire community (chapter 1) and how the RCIA is the responsibility of the entire parish.

One of the challenges for the Roman Catholic catechumenate, and a potential challenge for faith formation among Lutherans, is that it will be seen as only “for” the catechumens and that the primary agent of formation is the RCIA group, the RCIA leaders, or even just the pastor. Macalintal seeks to debunk this notion by arguing compellingly that faith formation matters for all Christians because baptism is at the center of the catechumenate and baptism matters to all Christians. Baptism changes whose we are, who we are, and how we live. As a result of baptism all Christians are in mission. In other words, we are called upon daily to discern how we are to live in response to our baptism. She encourages asking the following questions out of our baptismal identity: “How am I responding to God’s gift and living out the mission this gift gives me? How can we strengthen our faith as a response to God’s call? And how do we teach others to respond by faith and take on the mission of Christ in the world?” (Your Parish is the Curriculum, 18)

Formation to live out this baptismal identity comes not primarily through “head” knowledge but through experiential knowledge. As she says, “We learn by doing, especially by praying” (18). This experiential learning comes through participation in the community of Christ, especially through the assembly’s gathering for worship. Through the corporate liturgical experience catechumens and neophytes are drawn into life with Christ. They receive the eyes needed to see the world as God sees it and perceive the Triune God’s story as being brought to completion for and in His creation. Everything that the church does flows from its corporate worship and catechizes everyone in the body of Christ. As Macalintal indicates, “Catechesis is helping believers open their hearts to encounter the living Christ active in the church” (21). When baptism matters in this way then the baptismal community—the parish—matters, because it immerses all into Christian life within the community. In this way the catechumenate is an apprenticeship in faith and in the life of faith led by the parish that responds to God’s living voice; encounters Christ’s mercy among those who receive and offer forgiveness; turns to the Father in prayer; walks with and serves those in need (27).

Since faith formation is such an apprenticeship, faith formation IS the responsibility of the entire parish, as Macalintal argues in chapter 2. This doesn’t require any special expertise or involvement on the part of members of the parish. They just do what they normally do as Christians, but recognize that they are witnessing at all times to the catechumens and neophytes. They are asked to give attention to how they live as Christians so as to best model a life of faith that flows from the gospel. In this sense, as Macalntal notes, the catechumenate is not a program, but a family. Catechumens are becoming part of this family. The church, by conducting a faith formation apprenticeship, is incorporating them into this way of conversion and faith. They learn to love Jesus through the love of Jesus’ family and learn to love Jesus’ family from the love of Jesus which they experience. Through the congregation God is drawing the catechumens into a community of love and forgiveness (38). In a traditional Roman RCIA there are many who can and do take on particular, intentional roles in faith formation: Pastors, a Catechumenate Director, Ambassadors of Welcome, Coordinator of Sponsors, Sponsors/Mentors, Catechists, Meal Coordinators, and others. But ultimately all of these people serve to connect catechumens to the people of God. That is the primary encounter through which they are formed for Christian life. The entire Christian (Lutheran!) parish apprentices catechumens, the newly baptized and confirmed, and one another into being disciples of the Lord Jesus.

Redeemer The Scrutinies #1 2019

Your Parish IS the Curriculum

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That’s the title of a book by Diana Macalintal published by Liturgical Press in Collegeville, Minnesota. Macalintal is one of the founders, along with her husband Nick, of TeamRCIA.com, A Roman Catholic group promoting best practices in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults or RCIA. The RCIA, for those who may be unfamiliar, is the restored faith formation/catechumenate following on Vatican II. So, in these blog pages over the coming weeks we’ll turn from Paul Galbreath’s consideration of Baptism at the center of the church’s life to Macalintal’s practically-focused consideration of how the life of a parish is the curriculum for the catechumenate, or, as the subtitle says, RCIA in the Midst of Community.

Affirming that your parish is the curriculum grounds the basic recognition of why there is faith formation at all: it is for incorporating a person into the life of the Body of Christ. And that person is incorporated into a specific Christian community that lives together in a particular place at a particular time. The person being incorporated comes to know Christ in and through the life of that community gathered around Word and sacraments. But it is the community that mediates that relationship to the neophyte (whether unbaptized, baptized, or confirmed). Thus, the parish IS the curriculum.

That’s why the catechumenate/faith formation/RCIA is not a program. It is the facilitator of budding relationships in the Body of Christ. It births the incorporation of new people into the community. It is saying yes to a lifelong new relationship between the Body and this new person on the threshold of the church.

That’s why Macalintal begins her introduction with a story about Rocio, who “stumbles” onto the steps of their Newman Center, and how relationship with her transforms both her and those involved in the RCIA. Questions exchanged between them—from Rocio: What does it mean when you put your hand in that water and touch your forehead? From the RCIA folk: What do you hope for? Long for?—led to gradual change on Rocio’s part so that she became a catechumen, continuing to ask discerning questions: Who is Jesus for you and why does he matter to you? (4). And all that led to Rocio’s ultimate change: Baptism. As Macalintal, says at the Easter Vigil “the new Rocio standing before us, drenched with life and gleaming with light, was a completely brand new creation” (6).

But, because the catechumenate births new relationships, Rocio was not the only one changed. She changed the members of the RCIA team and the Newman Center parish. “[They] had become more faithful and true as Christians…had become more attentive to the Spirit’s work…had grown deeper in their love for one another and in their faith in Christ…In that font [they], too, with Rocio had been recreated into a more visible and merciful face of Christ” (6).

All that happened not because of the programmatic or catechetical elements of the RCIA, as important as those were. It didn’t happen because the teaching was utterly compelling, even though it often was. It happened because Rocio “was consistently embedded (a good description for a neophyte, or “new plant) into the ongoing life of the community beyond the RCIA group” (8). It happened because the Holy Spirit was at work through the Word in relationship with the entire Body of Christ incorporating Rocio into the life of the community. Rocio had planted roots beyond the RCIA. The catechumenate “enhanced the deeper learning of the Christian way of life that she was already living with her friends within the Christian community” (8). For us Lutherans that means our catechumenal practices, catechesis and forms are not the end, but simply part of the broader incorporation of a person into the life of our Christian community.

That is why the parish Is the curriculum. What the hoped-for new member of the Christian community is learning is the life of Christ within the life of the parish. Not an introductory class, not a catechetical program, not an introduction to the community’s structure and programs. They are learning to live in Christ as Christ lives in the life of this community.

Thus, all the members of the parish, all the baptized, are teaching the catechumens and neophytes. Their words and actions model living life in Christ. The catechumenate simply seeks to immerse them in that life, to birth relationships, to lead them to Jesus alive in their midst. In the rest of the book Macalintal will give a vision for how to do just that.

For the catechumenate, your parish is the curriculum. Faith formation opens the doors and the windows so that the neophyte can see and enter into that life.

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A Well-Watered Life

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Have you ever considered your life, at whatever age you find yourself now, as a well-watered life? Paul certainly conceives of the Christian life in this way in 1 Corinthians 3:6-7, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” He uses the metaphor of the watered, growing plant to convey the nature of Christian discipleship. A life well-watered is a life lived by faith in the Triune God who causes our growth into being daughters and sons of God.

Throughout the entirety of one’s life the hope is that we can see, at the end, that it was well-watered. And that watering begins in the baptismal pool. This is why Paul Galbreath says in his final chapter of Leading through the Water, “The baptismal waters trace across the arc of our lives to mark us as God’s own” (113). It is a beautiful image. Your baptismal waters trace across the arc of your entire life. That tracing that threads throughout your life begins at baptism—in the catechumenate—and ends at the completion of your baptism, in your final death and resurrection.

The images of baptism—such as death and resurrection, new birth, sealing in the Spirit—are the stencils that trace the baptismal waters across our lives. Every time you see those images in your life of faith you return to their source: the ritual act of God in baptism. Part of God’s act is to bring the sinful human to new birth (John 3), linking baptism to the Creator who is in His Son re-creating and renewing all things: including you, the baptized. God gives life through the mothers that bear us and He rebirths our lives through the womb of the baptismal font. God not only is our spiritual Father, but also is like our ideal spiritual mother, nurturing us throughout life from the baptismal font to the eschatological end.

Just as He nurtures us, he nurtures all waters and all of creation. Through baptism God invites us to care for these waters He created. In Galbreath’s words, “The water we use in baptism is a part of the water in the world around us. As we pass through this water, we take our place in caring for the world around us.” And for the water around us, too. We desire for all to have access to clean, drinkable water because we are washed at the font in the waters of the earth that God created. Thus Galbreath invokes as a model the pastor who invites his assembly, when visiting other places with other bodies of water, to bring water back from those places and pour it into the font, linking the assembly in its baptisms to all the earth’s waters.

The comprehensive nature of baptism is apparent. It is as Galbreath indicates “a lifelong journey of call, discernment, and service” (119). It was a lifelong journey for Jesus from His baptism to his death and resurrection and so it is for those invited to come and follow Him—to live a new life in the Christian community. It is “a lifelong journey in which our lives take on the sign of Christ” (120). And through this well-watered life we witness to the hope-filled baptismal journey we are on, a journey toward the fulfillment of baptism’s promise.

This is one of the reasons it is so important to keep baptismal imagery and practices embedded in the assembly’s rites, memories, and life. The catechumenate is one way of keeping the baptismal images front and center. By doing so the community is led to live to the end of the journey

As Galbreath concludes, based upon Revelation 22, “In John’s vision, the living water is the source for the healing of the nations. It also nourishes the fruit of the trees that provide sustenance for all who dwell in this new creation. Here the imagery of the waters of baptism in the river of life is linked to the food from the tree of life what we will share together. Baptism and Eucharist are held together in one scene as the source and summit of new life” (123). That eschatological vision is the goal and the catechumenate keeps our eyes always focused on that baptismal promise in Jesus.

Redeemer Post-Baptismal Anointing #2 2019

Overflowing Gifts: The Spirit’s Baptismal Outpouring

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Leading through the Water, as Paul Galbreath indicates in chapter 7, leads not to baptism as an end, but to life in view of baptism: the baptismal life. That baptismal life is fed by an overflowing stream of baptismal gifts that sustain the church’s life and bear witness to Christ in the world. Those gifts come from the Holy Spirit’s outpouring in baptism (see Galatians 5:22 and other passages). The gifts that the Spirit brings to flourishing are summarized in the chrismation anointing text (not in LSB): “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, the spirit of joy in God’s presence.” The church’s task throughout the catechumenate, but especially in the post-baptismal mystagogy, is to guide the neophytes (newly baptized) to discover the gifts unique to them and how they might best employ them.

Galbreath summarizes the gifts of the spirit under four primary headings: Family, Covenant, Anointing, and Baptism itself. Each of the neophytes receive a new family through baptism, the church. Everyone is grafted anew into this family through baptism and contributes to the up-building of the family, enriching its quality of life through the gifts bestowed upon them. As Paul says in Romans 12:10, in this family they are to “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” As Galbreath notes, “Discipleship creates a new community of brothers and sisters” (99).

This family’s life is supported by the gift of the covenant. As a Presbyterian, such an image for baptismal is central for Galbreath (and a gift that Lutherans should not neglect). All the baptized, every child of God, belongs to this covenant community. The gift realized through this baptismally-covenanted community is, as Galbreath observes, “a relationship of trust and support in which the community pledged to teach and model faith to those who received baptism” (101). Central to the established covenant is God’s faithfulness. Baptism seals (literally through the water and the powerful symbol of anointing) God’s covenant with his people and their commitment of faith in him.

The third gift of baptism is anointing with oil. Diverse Greco-Roman bathing patterns contributed to the staying power of this gift in Christian practice, in addition to Old Testament practice. Eventually a primary referent of the gift of anointing is Christ, the Anointed One. But it acquires a multitude of meanings: baptismal anointing symbolizes protection and healing, gladness and thanksgiving. And that only scratches the surface. All the baptized are anointed in the Spirit for service.

And Baptism itself is a gift because there are a multitude of meanings to unpack in baptismal life. Through our baptisms we read the biblical text in a different way, that is, in light of baptismal regeneration through the Triune God.

The gifts we receive in baptism are intended to be used in service to the neighbor and in thanksgiving to God. We give these gifts in service to our new family, the body of Christ.  And we use them in ministry to the world. The post-baptismal period of Mystagogy provides space and time for the church to help the newly baptized discern their gifts for ministry in the world: How to use them, when to use them, and what to speak when using them. Galbreath provides two excellent ideas for naming these gifts: attaching pictures of members as associated with one of the gifts of the spirit to a tree of life and inviting sponsors to offer testimonies about the gifts that the newly baptized bring to the assembly (105-106). And every time we celebrate aspects of Christian vocation we can gather around the font as the baptismal family.

As the baptismal gifts abound and overflow in the newly baptized, the catechumenate has achieved one of its ends: the pouring out of the Spirit of the Lord upon the earth through the Lord Jesus Christ. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19).

Baptsim with water splashing

Water Everywhere: God’s Gift for Transforming Life

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Paul Galbreath titles the 5th chapter of Leading through the Water very simply “Water.” In a sense the entire book, and the catechumenate, drives to the water and finds its center, source, and power in the Word-drenched water. In this chapter Galbreath walks through the history of baptismal water and then seeks to learn from the past by drawing some implications for our present practice. Historical interpretation; practical reflection.

Galbreath’s brief historical survey courses through the biblical narrative until the fourth century. He notes that water doesn’t belong to us. It belongs to God and is his gift in creation. We use water because God gives it to us. As the most essential part of God’s creation, it is at the center of human and creaturely life. Not surprisingly, then, water figures prominently in God’s story through Israel and in his Son Jesus Christ. While one might quibble with his interpretation of the sources for and the historical development of baptism in the early church, there can be no denying that, as he says, “baptism…quickly became an act that defined the community” (79). Yet, it defined the community within the contours of life within specific Christian gatherings in distinct cultural contexts. While there were constancies in baptismal practice within the Christian movement, those practices reflected the distinctive features of local communities, often mirroring secular bathing patterns and other associated practices. Within a common core such as application of water in the name of the Triune God, diverse ritual practices associated with baptism arose regionally. For example, the Triune Name could be invoked through creedal questions reflecting local baptismal creeds or spoken as a formula of baptism (ie. “I baptize you in the Name of….”). This reflected ongoing adaptation and development in relationship to each local cultural context.

As Galbreath notes, in our own reflection on our baptismal practice at the center of church life and faith formation, we can draw from this wealth of biblical and historical resources to renew our baptismal theology and practice. He provides four areas of focus arising from the modern liturgical renewal movement that are worthy of consideration. First, baptism is best conceived as a congregational act. As he contends, “Recovering the primary role of the congregation as those who welcome, nurture, and support those who seek baptism is a primary goal of worship renewal” (85). Faith formation practices form the congregation to be the primary agent for transformation through the catechumenate. Second, the design of architectural space for baptism aims to situate it within the movement of the biblical narrative. For this Galbreath provides a compelling depiction of a Nicaraguan immersion font. Third, the transformative power of the water attached to the Word and the claims God makes on his children through baptism call for the use of ample amounts of water in baptism. Along with the use of a plenitude of water goes the recovery of a full panoply of biblical images for baptism, his fourth area of focus. (To develop that baptismal imagery more fully I’d recommend Maxwell Johnson’s book, Images of Baptism). These images include not only the forgiveness of sins, but death and resurrection, new birth, anointing with the seal of the Spirit, incorporation into the body of Christ, clothing, and others.

Through such reflective transformation of our baptismal practices faith formation can achieve more fully what it is intended to achieve: “a way of living into the hope of God’s promises for our lives and for our world” (90).

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