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Submersion

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Images of Baptism: The Full Baptismal Plunge

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The ecumenical report Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry (WCC, 1982)—a valuable indication of where the various member denominations stood on those practices both theologically and ritually—said that the images of baptism “are many but the reality is one” (II, A-E). It is that plurality of images that we intend to explore in this new series over the next four weeks through the book Images of Baptism by Maxwell Johnson. We recommend the book to you as a basis for studying the various sets of images of baptism in your catechumenate or in congregational Bible studies. It provides a biblical and liturgical summary of the us of these primary sets of images in the church:

  • Baptism as Participation in the Death, Burial and Resurrection of Christ
  • Baptism as New Birth and Adoption by Water and the Holy Spirit
  • Baptism as the Sacrament and Seal of the Holy Spirit
  • Baptism as Incorporation into the Body of Christ

This week and over the next four weeks we’ll take up each of the images on the basis of Dr. Johnson’s book and reflect upon the plurality of images of the one reality: baptism.

How amazing though is the gift of that plurality. Johnson’s introduction begins with a quote from Cyril of Jerusalem’s Procatechesis (introductory lecture to the elect) that reveals the multitude of ways in which baptism is participation in the work of God in Jesus:

Great indeed is the baptism which is offered you. It is a ransom to captives; the remission of offences; the death of sin; the regeneration of the soul; the garment of light; the holy seal indissoluble; the chariot to heaven; the luxury of paradise; a procuring of the kingdom; the gift of adoption” (Cross, Lectures on the Christian Sacraments, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1977, 50).

The gifts that baptism imparts through the Word associated with the ritual washing and “plunge into the waters of the font with Christ” (Johnson, xiii). We want to receive those gifts and be able to impart them through our catechumenal preaching, teaching, and ritual practice. As Johnson says regarding the intent of the book,

“An attempt toward recovering those images for the church today. As such, these images provide for us models by which we might glimpse some of the manifold riches that baptism is and offers to us. Hence, we might say that it is precisely a variety of models for conceptualizing, catechizing and celebrating baptism that these images provide” (Johnson, ix).

The models encapsulate the primary sets of images that the Scriptures and the liturgical reflection of the church employ to enrich our experience of baptism. As Johnson notes, they are intend to “give rise to thought and invite further reflection” (Johnson, x). That is what we intend to do with this series as well. We hope it will spur your thinking so that your baptismal practice, catechesis, and preaching is as baptismally rich and full as possible. We hope these blog posts will allow you to consider the multitude of metaphors for participation in baptism and in baptismal living.

Cranach Altar Triptych 1

A Perfect and Complete Sign: Drowning in the Baptismal Word

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Last week Rhoda presented us with a picture of her standing in an ancient Ethiopian cruciform font, that, as she noted, is still in use! It was clearly a deep enough font for submersion, that is, the complete submersing of the body under the water during baptism. As with Rhoda, I was recently traveling, but in my case to Germany. I studied in Germany 37 years ago and this was my first opportunity to return since then. 37 years ago the wall was still up and we didn’t visit any of the Luther sites in Wittenberg or other places. This trip afforded the opportunity to do so. Like Rhoda I have an abiding interest in fonts (go figure!).

Here are four fonts or depictions of fonts from Luther sites:

This first is a 12th Century font that is part of the museum at Wartburg Castle.

The second is of course the famous Cranach altar triptych in the city church in Wittenberg which shows Melanchthon baptizing.

This third is the font in the city church, St. Mary’s, in Wittenberg.

The fourth is the font in the castle church in Wittenberg. These latter two date after the 16th century.

            What is noticeable about these fonts extending from the Ethiopian font to the font in the castle church is the shrinking size of the fonts. Over time the symbolic imagery or sign value of baptism has eroded. It looks less and less like a washing into the death and resurrection of Christ, as a drowning. While the promise of  baptism still holds no matter what the nature of the washing’s symbolism, still the loss of the full symbolic value chips away at the recognition of the comprehensive nature of the promise: “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).

As Luther himself says in Babylonian Captivity, “It is therefore indeed correct to say that baptism is a washing away of sins, but the expression is too mild and weak to bring out the full significance of baptism, which is rather a symbol of death and resurrection. For this reason I would have those who are to be baptized completely immersed in the water, as the word says and as the mystery indicates. Not because I deem this necessary, but because it would be well to give to a thing so perfect and complete a sign that is also complete and perfect. And this is doubtless the way in which it was instituted by Christ. The sinner does not so much need to be washed as he needs to die, in order to be wholly renewed and made another creature, and to be conformed to the death and resurrection of Christ, with whom he dies and rises again through baptism. Although you may say that when Christ died and rose again he was washed clean of mortality, that is a less forceful way of putting it than if you said that he was completely changed and renewed. Similarly it is far more forceful to say that baptism signifies that we die in every way and rise to eternal life, than to say that it signifies merely that we are washed clean of sins” (Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 36: Word and Sacrament II, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 36 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999), 68.)

I have become convinced that the fullness of the baptismal sign—a complete washing and drowning in a substantive amount of water such as through immersion or submersion—is central to the conversion experience of the catechumenate. Through the catechumenate we come to die and live in Christ alone. The fullness of the baptismal sign reveals that to the newly baptized and to the entire Christian community.