Commission
In this final movement, we are encouraged and equipped for the work God would have us do.
“Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death
Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.”
—Romans 6:3-4 (NRSV)
There is a practice, old as the church itself, of beginning each day by touching water and recalling who you are. Not who you were. Who you are.
The reformers were fierce advocates of it. When Luther was plagued by doubt or assailed by accusation - whether from his own conscience or elsewhere - his answer was not to summon more willpower or better arguments. He would declare, simply: Baptizatus sum. I have been baptised.
Remembering our baptismal identity is powerful because it reminds us who we are, and whose we are.
We live in an age of identity confusion - not just culturally, but spiritually. We are endlessly encouraged to construct ourselves: to curate, define, and perform who we are. The gospel cuts clean against this. Our deepest identity is not something we build. It is something we receive. We are marked, claimed, and named - not by our own achievements, but by the triune God who met us at the water.
REMEMBERING YOUR BAPTISM
Take some time today to remember your baptism, or if you have not been baptized, take this time to contemplate its meaning as something you may wish to embrace in your own life. Here is a simple, three-step practice for remembering your baptism which you may want to build into your devotional life from time to time. It is an intentional, tactile act that holds no sacramental power or significance. It serves as a simple reminder of a significant act.
Preparation
Find a quiet place. Still yourself. Take a few slow, unhurried breaths.
When you are ready, move to wherever there is water - a bowl, a basin, a sink. Let the ordinary-ness of it be part of the point. Grace comes to us through common, physical things.
Remembrance
Dip your fingers into the water, or let it run over your hands.
As you do, speak these words aloud, or hold them quietly in your heart:
In my baptism, we are claimed.
Not because we are ready.
Not because we are worthy.
But because God, in his mercy, chooses to meet us and call us His own
In water, in word, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Closing
Dry your hands slowly and deliberately.
As you do, remember that the water does not stay - but what it signified does. You carry your baptism with you. Into the ordinary day. Into the difficult conversation. Into the moment of doubt. Into whatever each moment holds.
Go, knowing whose you are.
