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Absorbed into Jesus Christ: A Life of Renunciation of the Old and Adhesion to the New

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One of the reasons that we should perceive the catechumenate as the beginning of a lifelong apprenticeship in the faith with other Christians is because becoming a Christian requires a reorientation of life. To use biblical language, it requires death and resurrection—death to the old life and birth of a new life. This is a radical change and it necessitates having Christian mentors to guide those moving toward this baptismal reorientation.

Paul Galbreath in the 4th chapter of Leading through the Water identifies the renunciations in the baptismal liturgy as very directly expressing this death to the old and rebirth into the new that it is at the heart of the baptismal journey. The renunciations—in Lutheran Service Book “I renounce the devil, and all his works, and all his ways”—express the radical reformation of identity that is taking place in the catechumenate through God’s baptismal work. Galbreath refers to this reformation of identity as a movement toward gospel values and away from values inconsistent with and contradictory of the gospel. The Word proclaimed throughout the catechumenate facilitates and works this movement away from the person’s past life into a renewed life within a new community.

Yet, this is a fundamentally challenging reorientation. It is not easy to renounce one’s own past identity. Lots of questions and doubts surface in the process. Aspects of Christian belief will seem strange and foreign to the inquirer and catechumen. That includes the renunciations themselves. What is the devil? How do I participate in evil? What is sin? Am I really to be identified as a sinner? What is this life in Christ that I am adhering to? Why does this community love the stranger and the foreigner? Is that really what my life is all about? Is being a Christian really who I am? As Galbreath observes, “The baptismal liturgy presents the demands of this new way of life” (67).

The Christian community holds the members of the community accountable to that baptismal vision. For the catechumens their mentors/sponsors personally embody that vision and the values of renunciation for the catechumens. Through the catechumenate the catechumens “catch” the vision of a new identity for themselves and the role that renunciation (death to the old, birth to the new) plays in this new vision.

The renunciations are a present-tense, ongoing reality. For each catechumen they are grounded in trust of the Triune God and the Christian community that bears witness to him.  That same community supports and upholds the catechumens as they make this radical transition. The renunciations take shape in the individual catechumens’ lives and decisions (ie. I can no longer pursue financial wealth at the cost of everyone in my path). Through the renunciations the catechumens see how the Word of God shapes a different understanding of their priorities.

The catechumenate shapes a life of ongoing renunciation (a synonym would be repentance). Through the ongoing act of renunciation and adhesion to Christ the Christian community becomes the living embodiment of Christ to each other and the world. It is a death and resurrection experience that forms the catechumen into a completely new vision of communal life under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Through this ongoing act of renunciation and adhesion all the baptized are absorbed into Jesus Christ and his story. And it all starts in the catechumenate.

*Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Redeemer Rite of Election Laying on of Hands 2019

A Christian Apprenticeship: Learning Faith and Practices from Others

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Inquirers into the Christian faith, having entered down the path toward changing their lives, commit to an intentional exploration of the Christian faith when they become catechumens and are accepted into the second stage of faith formation. Paul Galbreath in Leading through the Water (chapter 3) refers to this stage as the Preparation stage. It is preparatory in that it is seeking to prepare candidates for baptism and entrance into the church, although the formal acceptance of the desire to be baptized comes with enrollment into the third stage of enlightenment marked by the community’s election of the candidate.

Galbreath emphasizes that the preparation in this stage focuses on a corporate model of apprenticeship in the faith, rather than a hierarchical, noetic, individualistic notion of faith formation. Often, as he notes, we teach potential new Christians head knowledge, but make no effort to help them integrate faith with human life. We leave them on their own. We’d never take that approach with a child so why should we do so with adult-age children in the faith?  Like any child, we should teach adults to learn the faith and the practice of the faith from the Christian community itself.

Such a corporate understanding of faith formation has significant implications for the catechumenate/preparation period. It approaches learning from a collaborative mindset with pastors, church workers, catechumenal directors, sponsors, and the catechumens themselves all committed to sharing life together and learning from one another what it means to live as a baptized child of God. In this collaborative model, mentors/sponsors pay a committed role in which they “study, work, pray, eat, and learn side by side” (Leading through the Water, 43) with their catechumens. Sponsors are Christians who make real the transformative power of the gospel.

The corporate model of the catechumenate also shapes a different leadership style in the congregation. Everyone in the Christian community has responsibility for those becoming Christians. Pastors and other church workers share the responsibility for formation with the catechumenal director, catechists, sponsors, and the entire community. As Galbreath argues, the focus is “on the life of Christian companionship . . . and the journey of discipleship . . . in congregational ministry and mission” (Leading through the Water, 44). In this regard the pastoral staff view themselves as fellow travelers with the catechumens and with all those shaping their formation in the Christian faith.

This collaborative approach means that catechumens are more than being taught knowledge. They are being apprenticed, formed toward faith, living a life of faith, serving others, and bearing witness to the world. Practices of the faith and apprenticeship in how to practice them are a central concern of the catechumenate. Opportunities to serve others in the church and in the greater community are planned and emphasized. This in turn has the effect of re-directing their priorities and values. Such embodied teaching embeds the faith in their very bones. And it creates honest, supportive conversation about the nature of the faith among pastors, catechists, sponsors and catechumens. In order to create opportunities for apprenticeship in the faith pastors are focused as much on training and molding catechists and mentors as they are in teaching/forming the catechumens.

As Galbreath rightly argues, “Mentoring disciples is a long process that rests on the foundation of baptism as a lifelong journey” (Leading through the Water, 54). It is a journey all of us are on together and together we form and teach one another to learn the faith and practice it.