As a Christian raised in the Lutheran tradition, I believe that our baptism is at the center of how we interact with the violence and brokenness of sin.
Baptism changes the way we see the world because baptism gives us all the forgiveness we will ever need, the very moment we are touched by the water. That’s a profound statement for Lutherans who are baptized as infants. God pours out unending grace and forgiveness before we have chosen wrong, and without our knowing what we will choose to do over the course of our lives. We are cleansed with the waters of forgiveness that promise we need not purify ourselves again. “We are born children of a fallen humanity; in baptism we are reborn children of God and inheritors of eternal life.” Baptism does not mean we live outside the reality of sin. Baptism means we live as already forgiven sinners.
This message is excerpted from “Healing after brokenness” by AmyJo Mattheis in the July 2017 Cafe online magazine.
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