A shorter word about baptism today comes from John Colwell and his wonderful little book The Rhythm of Doctrine, which sets out what Christians believe around the Christian year and its major seasons. Colwell discusses baptism in his chapter on 'The One Who Journeys to the Cross', which he likes with not surprisingly with Lent. (Colwell's more developed understanding of baptism can be found in his book Promise and Presence).
To be baptised is to abandon an inauthentic humanity with all its vain attempts to dominate, to exploit, to transcend; it is to be re-born into this authentic humanity identified in Christ; it is to accept the way of the Cross, the way of service, the way of suffering, the way of dependence, the way of trust. Lent, therefore, is not simply a season of self-denial or of token abstinence it is a seasonal reiteration of the invitation and the promise which is baptism to be authentically human, to live as servants, to live in dependence, to live in trust. In Lent we journey again with Christ from baptism through the wilderness, through temptation, through rejection, through suffering, and even through death, trusting that the way of the Cross is the way to resurrection and authentic eternal life.
John E, Colwell, The Rhythm of Doctrine: A Liturgical Sketch how Christian Faith and Faithfulness (Paternoster, 2007), p.70.
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