The Baptism of The Painted Door/ Romans 6:1-11

Over our church’s nine-year history, we have witnessed God baptize many individual people. We have watched with joy as these lovely souls were dunked under the water and so buried with Christ, only then to be lifted up in the glory of resurrection. This is what God does. He saves people from the death upon death of ourselves into the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. And baptism is his sign and seal of that salvation. But what of whole congregations? Can God baptize an entire church? And if so, what might that look like? In the story of the Exodus, God led the Israelite people out of slavery in Egypt and into safety from the Egyptian army by passing them through the Red Sea. The Apostle Paul writes that in this miraculous rescue Israel was “baptized into Moses.” Yet, Paul says, God was not pleased with the people of Israel, because they walked straight from their baptism into idolatry. Our church has undergone a community-wide baptism of sorts over the past several years. We’ve gone underwater. We’ve known the swirling darkness of chaos and sorrow. And now we are here, Easter Sunday, having emerged from those waters. New life is before us. Will we walk into it? Or will we choose idolatry? Israel was baptized into Moses, a prophet of God’s law. We have been baptized into Jesus, a gracious Lord. Let’s follow him.