As we enter 2020 I’m sure we are hearing a lot about New Year’s resolutions, as we do every year. I will admit that this year I have a resolution or two that I will try and stick with in 2020, but I’m not going to try and encourage you all to add anything new in your life for the new year. Instead I’m going to ask you to renew something in your life, your baptism.
Unlike Holy Communion, Baptism is a sacrament we receive only once in our life. We partake in the ritual only once a recipient, but that does not mean the grace encountered in Baptism is a momentary grace. The grace of Baptism is an eternal grace that deserves remembering and renewing.
As we enter this new calendar year I invite you to join me in renewing your Baptismal vows and in remembering that from before Creation God named you as God’s own beloved child.
The Baptismal vows:
Trusting in the gracious mercy of God, do you turn from the ways of sin and renounce evil and its power in the world? I do.
Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as your Lord and Savior, trusting in his grace and love? I do.
Will you be Christ’s faithful disciple, obeying his Word and showing his love? I will, with God’s help.
Revisit these vows throughout the year, ask the Holy Spirit to renew the Baptismal covenant within you and within the Church, and joyfully remember that you are claimed by God as one of God’s beloved and chosen people through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We thank you, O God, for the water of baptism. In it we were buried with Christ in his death. From it we were raised to share in his resurrection, through it we were reborn by the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore in joyful obedience to your Son, we celebrate our fellowship in him in faith. We pray that all who have passed through the water of baptism may continue forever in the risen life of Jesus Christ our Savior. To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit, be all honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.
--Pastor Brian
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