AllTheseThings: Baptism, Faith, and Sticking With the Group

A while back a group of us at church were discussing "faith, hope, and love" as a theme for the year. That led to the observation that baptism can correspond to faith, communion to hope, and living those two out (in the kingdom of God) to love. Faith, being the assurance of what is hoped for, yet unseen, requires a step. It causes you to leave the old and begin traveling to the new, and better. Think Abram leaving Ur for an unknown land. It is not unlike the new believer, entering into the waters to come out into a new life. The imagery of this baptismal step is throughout the Old Testament.

I also enjoy the idea of baptism in the flood. Imagine Noah's faith in the unseen building an ark for years when no rain could be seen. (By the way, for a laugh--suitable for the family--and a modern day idea of what type of social, family and job pressure ark building would cause, rent "Evan Almighty" of Noah.) In any event, with Noah's experience, the waters wipe out the old, sinful flesh, and God starts anew. It was the world's baptism more than an individual's, but the point is similar.

Another powerful example is the children of Israel leaving Egypt. Enslaved for 400 years, their God says “follow me”. But they had food and shelter under Pharaoh. No one alive could have remembered what the Promised Land of Abraham was like. Nevertheless, Moses leads them out. They band together--there was only safety in numbers--and begin walking home.

They left slavery, and began heading to home. That’s the imagery we need to focus on with our faith. We need to stare, not at the attacking armies of Egypt, or the bad food, or the snakes at our heels. We need to walk by faith to something that is promised to be better than what we had in Egypt and even what we have after we pass through the waters, yet remain on this earth.

Walking by sight will not lead you to the ocean’s edge with a huge army bearing down on you. Sight will scream for you to run away from the very spot God wants you--that he might display his glory and power through your weak position in the face of the enemy's strength. Remember, militarily, Israel was trapped by Egypt's army--they were doomed. Sight will also take you the shortest way possible, which God explicitly does not: "When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter." (Ex. 13:17) Straight lines aren't always used in God's plan it seems. But this faith is not faith without a possible downside. If we are wrong, Pharaoh’s army will surely destroy us.

Nevertheless, walking by faith will lead you to the water—even if it doesn’t appear to make any sense. That is so God can show it is in Him that you rightfully trust: "And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. The Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen." (Ex. 14:17-18) He, not you, will deliver. He takes our old lives in bondage to sin, and brings us to the water's edge, where we must walk in.

We can stop and surrender, and surely die as slaves, or we can push on, into the waters, by faith. Exodus 14:21-22: “Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land, so the waters were divided. And the sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on the dry land, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.”

Passing into and through the waters requires faith. Faith that what is promised is better than what is at hand. It also requires faith that the group you are walking with will stick with the you on the other side, the journey to follow. Like marriage, baptism is a statement of commitment in front of those that will help you stay committed. Faith without works is dead, and faith without fellowship will die.

The first step through the waters doesn't end the tale. Once our first act of faith (passing through the waters, or baptism) allows us to escape slavery, whether in Egypt or to sin, we are not done. We have to press on through years in the wilderness. Why do we do it? Because we trust that God’s promise that where we are going is 1) a place we can get—with His direction and 2) it is better than where we are. So, en mass, we enter a dry and desolate wilderness together. There will be no stockpiles of delicious foods, no ample water, no beautiful scenery.

But God will be with us. And so will all of those that passed through the water. The story of Exodus is not about someone leaving. It is not a story of Moses making it out. It is a story about a people casting off their chains, and passing through the waters. The people travel together. Thus, we ought not to think in terms of simply "my" baptism or "my" faith. It is ours, it is corporate. We travel together in a group, in tribal units. We cannot make it alone. Our society today is individualistic; a community of faith is not, and cannot be.

The community encourages those who falter and pulls them along. After all, just because we’ve seen the deliverance at the Red Sea—or in our case, because we’ve passed through the baptismal waters—it doesn’t mean we’ve made it to the Promised Land. No, we’ve got some 40 years of wandering still in front of us. And we wander with people just like us. Frail, messed up by years in bondage, afraid, frustrated at the lack of meat, water, the heat, the cold, the neighbors, and on and on. But we wander on to a better land. No one makes it on their own. We move as a people.

Faith is not simply a personal pilgrimage. There are group concerns that might trump your personal ones. We must sacrifice for one another. Because, without the group together, and without focusing on the destination, and without constantly reminding each other of the goodness of the destination (and maybe even the journey itself), we will want to peel off, and head back to slavery. Remember, despite seeing the miracle of the Red Sea, and the continual provision of the manna, some in the group--or maybe all of us at different points--have moments of doubt, a lack of faith. This was a group that had been delivered from slavery; had seen a sea split; had seen an army destroyed; had food miraculously appear each day; had water spring out of desert rocks—and yet they didn’t believe. They wanted to reverse course and go back through the sea, undoing their baptism, if you will:

“But they, our fathers, acted arrogantly; they became stubborn and would not listen to They commandments. And they refused to listen, and did not remember Thy wondrous deeds which Thou hadst performed among them; so they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.” Nehemiah 9.

But God was slow to anger and forgave them. Maybe some in the group reminded them how bad slavery actually was. Maybe others told them of what the promised land would be like. It is not always about what we see or have seen, it is about what we remember we saw. When we are forgetful, it is not the individual that matters, it is other members of the group that remind us.

The faith that leads us through waters is not one that can be lived in isolation.

Wander on, together,

Thomas More

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