Over the last several months, we have been publishing in Sightings some sections from Glad Hearts: the Joys of Believing and Challenges of Belonging (Covenant Publications, 2003), an anthology of Voices from the Literature of the Covenant Church with over 700 readings from the mid-19th century to the present.
We are doing so for the sake of increasing numbers among us who are largely unaware of their inheritance as Covenanters in both life and thought.The complete Glad Hearts volume is available for purchase under the Resources Link on the Home Page of the rootedwings.com website. Comments or questions regarding any of the readings here are always welcome.
Covenant Understandings
The Covenant Church celebrates two sacraments: baptism and the Lord's Supper. We believe that sacraments are "outward and visible signs of an inward and invisible grace." Sacraments communicate grace; they tell the story of our redemption. Sacraments witness to the gathered church and the watching world of the mystery of God's grace. They tell the story of God first coming to us with his love, and of our response in obedience to that out-reaching grace.
The Lord's Supper is celebrated with a wide range of frequency, depending on local church customs and preferences. Covenant churches practice open communion: that is, the sacrament is freely available to all who believe, regardless of church membership. The Lord's Supper always belongs as an integral part of worship, and not as a private, separate act (with the exception of serving those who are incapacitated and unable to attend).
Baptism is celebrated through sprinkling, pouring, or immersion. For families who wish to reserve baptism for their children to choose, we practice infant dedication. Infant dedication witnesses to the commitment of the parents but does not use water. Generally Covenant churches do not re-baptize, respecting the unity of baptism from other denominations. Baptism is a requirement for membership in Covenant churches.
A Family Matter: An Exploration in Believing and Belonging (Inquirer's Class Manual of the Evangelical Covenant Church, 1994), p. 33.
That great Christian of long ago, Augustine [354-430], said that a sacrament is "the visible and outward sign of an invisible and spiritual grace." You may have to read those words several times before they become meaningful to you. But notice that he is saying there are two sides to a sacrament. There is the outward sign which everyone can see--that is, the act itself. There is also the inward blessing which can be received only if one has faith.
Some people forget the difference between these two things. They think, for. example, that just because they have been baptized they are saved. This is to make the act of baptism a strange kind of magic. It is to forget that it is not the sign which saves but that to which it points. And to what does it point? It points to the work of Jesus for our salvation. This salvation (as we have seen earlier) must be received through faith in Jesus Christ. This is why we sing in a hymn ("Friend of the Home," The Hymnal, 1950, No. 481) often used when children are baptized:
Thine are they, by thy love's eternal claim,
Thine we baptize them in the three-fold Name;
Yet not the sign we trust, Lord, but the grace,
That in thy fold prepared the lambs a place.
Clifford W. Bjorklund (1921-1986), Harry J. Ekstam (1918- ), Karl A. Olsson (1913-1996), and Donald C. Frisk (1911- ), According to Thy Word (1954, 1955), p. 400.
Covenant thinkers have consistently argued the sacraments are Amysteries.@ The Latin word sacramentum was used early on to translate the Greek word mysterion, "referring broadly to hidden realities or sacred rites" (J. Matos in The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology). The worship book of 1964 explains sacraments as Acommon things used to channel God's grace@ or ordinary things "clothed with transcendent meaning." How this happens is not explained. That Christ and his grace are present in the water, bread and wine has been more important than explaining how they are present. For early Covenanters the removal of the mystery and power of the sacraments was not a sign of sophistication, but a modernist rejection of the supernatural. However it is understood, Covenant thinkers have insisted that Christ through the Holy Spirit is "really present" in the water of baptism and in the bread and wine of communion. This, they thought, was no less than the clear witness of Scripture.
"The Christian Sacraments," from Proposed Book of Worship (2002).
Baptism: Biblical Moorings
"What possible good can it do to baptize a baby?" someone is sure to say. "The infant doesn't have the faintest idea of what is going on. Why baptize him [or her]?" Perhaps it will help us to keep in mind that there are two sides to the act of baptism--what we do and what God does. Let's think first of what we do. The parents consecrate their child to God and solemnly promise "to instruct or have the child instructed in the Christian faith." The sponsors (Christian friends whom the parents have chosen to help them bring up the child in the faith) promise to share with the parents their great responsibility. The members of the Church affirm their faith that Christ died for this infant and pledge themselves to do all they can to help the child come to a personal decision to accept Christ as Savior.
Now we need to ask, "What is God's part?" First of all the act of baptism is a way of calling attention to what God has already done for this child. It proclaims to us the marvelous fact that, even before we were born, God sent his Son into the world to die on Calvary for our sins. Long before we felt our need of him, he did everything that needed to be done to make our redemption possible. As Paul put it, "But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
The second thing God does in baptism is to remind us that as the years go by he will continue to surround the child with his gracious care, constantly seeking to bring him [or her] to the point of full commitment to himself. This work is done through the Holy Spirit, acting within the Church and surrounding the child. When that child responds to God's surrounding grace and comes to personal faith in Jesus Christ as his [or her] Savior, all that was promised in baptism will be fulfilled. It should be clear that no one is a Christian once and for all just because he [or she] is baptized. We believe a child has a form of faith appropriate to a child and belongs to the kingdom of heaven (see Luke 18:16, 17). However, he becomes a Christian in the adult sense only when and if he has faith in Christ's atoning work of which his [or her] earlier baptism is the sign.
So far we have been speaking about the baptism of infants. As you may know, there is a large section of the Christian Church which believes baptism should be only for adults. Some believe it necessary to be immersed; others that sprinkling the head with water is sufficient. In our Covenant churches baptism may be either of infants or of adults, by sprinkling or by immersion. This may look as if we didn't care what type of baptism is believed in. That is far from true, however. We believe that good Christian people differ in their interpretation of the Bible on this point and that there is room for both interpretations within the Church.
When an adult is baptized, it is required that he [or she] be a believer. In baptism, whether by sprinkling or immersion, [an adult] testifies to the fact that the Christian life is a dying to sin and a being raised to a new life in Christ.
Clifford W. Bjorklund (1921-1986), Harry J. Ekstam (1918- ), Karl A. Olsson (1913-1996), and Donald C. Frisk (1911- ), According to Thy Word (1954, 1955), pp. 400,401.
What is the meaning of baptism as a sacrament? Here Covenanters will differ quite markedly in their understanding of Scripture. These divergent interpretations are not to be seen as a lack of unity in Christ but rather as evidence of the range of interpretations which can exist among God=s people. What is asked of every Covenanter is that he hold his position thoughtfully and sincerely, that he respect the rights of those who hold a different view, and that he agree that church membership be open to those baptized in either form.
Donald C. Frisk (1911- ), The New Life in Christ (1969), p. 29.
Baptism: An Act of the Church
The doctrine of baptism must be understood from within the context of the Church as the body of Christ. The act of baptism is an act of the Church and ultimately of Christ. The minister who performs the rite does not act as an individual but on behalf of The Evangelical Covenant Church. He or she acts not on personal authority but as a representative of the authority given to the Church in the Great Commission.
Within Covenant churches, the major practice has been, and still is, that of infant baptism. It has, nevertheless, been recognized that Christian people have, through the ages, interpreted the Scriptures differently with respect to baptism. Believing that membership in the church is determined solely on the basis of personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the Covenant refuses to divide the church because of doctrinal differences that do not disturb the central verities of the faith. In accordance with its principle of freedom, the Covenant as a denomination recognizes the validity of either infant or adult baptism.
Since the Covenant minister is the servant first of Jesus Christ and also of the Church, it is his or her obligation to administer both of these recognized forms of baptism. Keeping in focus the realization that devoted Christians have held each of these views and that there is room for both in the body of Christ, a Covenant minister must, as a representative of the denomination, give each form its own dignity and legitimacy as an accepted interpretation of biblical baptism. This can be done in the fullest sense only by administering both personally. Not to do so is to deny to him- or herself the privilege of being the pastor of the entire flock.
Board of Ministerial Standing, Adopted by Covenant Ministerium and Covenant Annual Meeting, 1966 (Covenant Tract, 1988).
The community of believers is intrinsic to the onset and development of both faith in the saving grace provided in Jesus Christ and faithfulness in discipleship. Pastoral discernment is required in the administration of baptism. Baptism is not an act apart from community, but in and toward community. If persons request baptism for their children, but are not part of the community, then sponsors from the community are intrinsic to the right administration of the sacrament. Neither faith nor faithfulness is possible apart from the Word of God. The sponsors from the congregation, pledging spiritual care of the children with full parental consent, is that which maintains contact with the Word of God. Neither should confessing believers be baptized apart from some form of sponsorship. To do so amounts to spiritual abandonment.
"The Sacrament of Baptism," from Proposed Book of Worship (2002).
Baptism: Objective and
Baptism as Christians believe and practice it is uniquely Christian; unlike conversion, which occurs routinely among religions, baptism is identified with Christianity. A Jewish acquaintance of ours, who converted to Christianity as a young adult, was surprised when her parents were much more upset by her baptism than they were by her previous conversion. To one who has not experienced it, conversion may appear to be no more than a change of opinion; but baptism identifies you and separates you from what you were before. The New Testament, as we read it, does not declare that baptism makes you a Christian; but it certainly teaches that baptism marks you as a Christian.
The mark has a specific meaning; it is baptism into the death of Jesus. It marks you as a participant in the cross. We dare not say, therefore, that there is no significant difference between Christians and other people. Because Christians are participating in the cross, our story is distinct from the story of the world.
Baptism delivers us from the error of having faith in a Jesus of our own imagining, picking and choosing from his story those elements that please us. The Jesus of the cross is the only one there is, no matter what else he did. The water of baptism, as it is poured on you or as you are immersed in it, is the inescapable declaration that he died for you.
Everett L. Wilson (1936- ), Christ Died for Me (1980), pp. 143,144.
At one point in German pietism, the pietists resisted the pressure and refused to change the water in the baptismal font between the baptism of the children of peasants and the baptism of the children of the nobility, because all are equal at the font. The water made dirty by human sin is the same for all.
Jesus comes to the Jordan River, along with a large group of sinners. He stands there on the bank of the river, waiting his turn--indistinguishable from the others who came. Just like one of the sinners, Jesus lines up to be baptized. John gives expression to the reservations that we all feel when we read this text: "I need to be baptized by you-and you come to me?" If all these other people have lined up along the bank of that river that day to have their sins washed away, then what is Jesus doing standing in that line?
But just like all the others, Jesus enters the dirty water of the Jordan-waters made figuratively filthy by the washing away of sins. And he goes under the water just like everyone else. And he does it in the company of sinners, and he is baptized by a sinner.
Is this not Jesus' ultimate identification with us sinners? By entering the mud of the Jordan River for baptism, Jesus moves towards us sinners in a most dramatic way. And as he emerges from these dirty waters, God declares his approval, and he identifies Jesus as his Son.
The baptism of Jesus is really a double act of identity. Jesus identifies with sinners, and when he does-at the very moment that he does-God identifies him as his Son, with whom he is well pleased. It is significant that the identification of Jesus as the Son of God was not after one of his mighty acts, or one of his miracles, but it was after his identification with us sinners. That is when God declares and affirms him as his Son.
Glenn R. Palmberg (1945- ), from "The Dirty Waters of Baptism," a sermon preached at the Midwinter Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church, January 29, 2001, pp. 1,2.
Roman Catholic theologian and Calvin scholar, Alexander Ganoczy, calls baptism the sacrament of historicity. It has to do with concrete people living at concrete places and times blending their histories---ethnic, psychological, religious, vocational, and so on-at one place, namely the congregation of which they are a part. It is the historical stuff of life that makes this effort so trying and frustrating. Redemption helps one transcend the limiting factors of life but it does not ask persons to deny, repress, or forget them. Congregations are places where the "one new humanity" is being fashioned, where "the plan to unite all things" confronts the counter plan to demolish all things, and where the mystery of God is still being revealed. Redemptive work concerns real persons, not ideal types, and cannot be spiritualized.
C. John Weborg (1937- ), "It Seemed Good to the Holy Spirit and to Us: Clergy and Laity in Interaction," from Servant Leadership, Volume One: Authority and Governance in the Church, James R. Hawkinson & Robert K. Johnston, editors (1993), p. 122.
Baptism: An Act of Grace
Means of We believe that baptism is a means of grace. In saying this we affirm both the mystery of God's grace and its earthly reality. We are saying something different from those who claim that "baptism makes a Christian," as though the human action of putting water on a person in the name of the triune God is itself sufficient to transform the individual and complete the rebirth in Christ. It is not sufficient. Yet when a baptized person later makes a personal commitment and a confession of faith, the grace of baptism is bearing fruit, and this grace continues to bear fruit throughout the life of the Christian. A person once baptized may sin against this grace. A person who is not baptized is, nevertheless, able to respond to God's grace. Yet the sacrament of baptism is a mystery of God's grace. That is why in the Covenant Church we emphasize the sacrament of baptism, whether of infants or adults. We believe that whenever baptism is performed, it conveys the same grace, for all grace is God's. Underlying our conviction is a recognition of the mystery of grace, that it blesses us in time and yet is not confined in its operation to the temporal sequence of moments we trace on clocks and calendars.
In the Covenant Church we are also saying something different from those who understand baptism as a human action showing outwardly to the community that the person has made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ and has promised to be his disciple. By calling baptism "a means of grace" we are affirming that God acts in baptism as well as we ourselves. At the same time, we recognize that baptism does manifest to the community the Christian hope which is grounded in God's grace, hope both for the individual receiving baptism and for the community standing by, supporting the baptized one, and being encouraged to continue steadfast in their hope.
By calling baptism a means of grace we are confessing our faith that in this action God's grace comes to the individual in a particular way. Further, we have understood that this grace is prevenient and redeeming. Long before we sought the Father's forgiveness or even knew of our need, God did all that was required for our salvation. "God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Grace thus "prevenes"--runs ahead--preparing the way and making possible our every approach to him.
"Holy Baptism," from The Covenant Book of Worship (1981), pp. 87,88.
Some say if baptism is a means of grace, it would follow that everyone who is baptized would be saved. The gospel is also a means of grace, but it certainly does not follow that everyone who hears or reads the gospel will be saved. The means saves through faith, but where unfaith steps in, the means serves no purpose.
...Bread is a means of nourishment, but it does not follow that one who has bread cannot starve. He will starve, if he does not eat.
Paul Peter Waldenström (1838-1917), Biblisk Troslara, 1914
Quoted in Donald C. Frisk, The New Life in Christ (1969), p.37.
Baptism: Infants and Adults
The best example of [Covenant] freedom is in our beliefs and practices of baptism. The Covenant Church has always practiced both infant and adult baptism. While on the surface this may seem incompatible, it is really a demonstration of freedom. The Bible tells of cases of individual believer's baptisms and the baptisms of whole households. The early church practiced both forms of baptism from at least the third century onward, yet the whole Christian Church has been divided on this issue ever since. Since both forms are compatible with bringing a person to a saving relationship with Christ, we respect and practice both forms.
A Family Matter: An Exploration in Believing and Belonging, Inquirer's Class Manual of the Evangelical Covenant Church (1994), p. 33.
The issue of paedobaptism (the baptism of infants) versus adult baptism has been a delicate one for many years and the accession of disproportionate numbers of pastors from either persuasion is bound to have an effect. The same may be said of pastors who wittingly or unwittingly disturb the delicate balance of inerrantists and more moderate Bible believers. A sine qua non of Covenant comity is the willingness of both parties to live and let live so long as basic fidelity to the Scriptures is maintained. This is not any easy achievement and precious ground can be lost to bigots of either persuasion if we forget that ceaseless vigilance is the price the Covenant pays for its freedom.
Karl A. Olsson (1913-1996), Into One Body...by the Cross, Volume Two (1986), pp. 403,404.
Within the Covenant Church a wide range of viewpoints on baptism exist. Recognizing that careful scholars have arrived at differing interpretations of the biblical texts, the Covenant refuses to divide the church on this issue. Some of its members are persuaded that infant children of believing members may properly be baptized. Others hold that only believing adults are to be baptized. Both views are respected and it is expected that both forms of baptism will be administered within the congregation. Accordingly, in order to serve the whole church, ministers are required to officiate at both forms of baptism.
Donald C. Frisk (1911- ), Covenant Affirmations: This We Believe (1981), pp. 135,136.
It may not be a matter of common knowledge...that an animated exchange of opinion concerning child-baptism has been carried on for some time in one of the newspapers of Sweden.... [Various writers] have sought to show the unscripturalness and error of child-baptism while Dr. Waldentröm has defended the same and in connection therewith has called upon not only Scripture but also the testimony of the Church fathers. But this testimony the former have
minimized and rejected....
This is of great importance. For if it can be shown that child-baptism was current among the believers during the apostolic days and thus is acknowledged by them, and not condemned, then this is a sure proof of its correctness. That the Church fathers do give clear witness concerning this is what Dr. Waldenström presents with clarity, and the testimony of these Church fathers
bears so much greater significance inasmuch as the Scriptures in many instances also speak of family baptism. Or to say it better: we have so much greater reason to believe that children's baptism took place at family-baptisms because the Church fathers who lived at the very doors of the apostolic age clearly testify concerning them. But if one wishes to reject the testimony of the Church fathers with reference to the practice of child-baptism, then one must also reject them with reference to the question of the genuineness of the New Testament Scriptures.
E. August Skogsbergh (1850-1939), The Minneapolis Veckobladet, January 20, 1886
Quoted in Herbert E. Palmquist, The Word Is Near You (1974), pp. 73,74.
This spirit of tolerance was manifested in the first service of baptism which was held after the completion of the church building. There were six persons to be baptized, and all six were dressed in dark blue gowns and sat at the front of the congregation. After the reading of the service, three of them were baptized by sprinkling in the church. The other three went to a nearby creek and were immersed in its cold waters.
The following baptismal services were consummated in the church, for the people began to realize the sacredness of their sanctuary, even though it was only a simple wooden structure. There was provision for the baptizing of the adult believers and also for the baptism of children of believers, but when we were there, no instances of the latter occurred.
Edward G. Nelson (1914-1988), Assignment in Japan (1952), p.188.
If parents choose to delay the baptism until such time as the child is of mature age, the child may be dedicated to God in a service of presentation of infants. The Covenant Church does not include confirmation or the presentation of infants as sacraments. For this reason they appear in a later part of this book dealing with Occasional Services.
The Covenant has traditionally believed that infants who are children of members in full communion with a Covenant church may be baptized. However, baptism is also appropriate for the children of non-members when Christian sponsors stand with and take the vows with the parents or at least one parent. The parents and sponsors take direct responsibility for the Christian training of the child. The congregation joins in the vows since the whole Church is the community where the child matures and grows spiritually.
The minister should counsel with the parents and sponsors or godparents in the case of children and with the person being baptized if he or she is an adult. This means that the minister should carefully review the service and its spiritual implications, making sure that the significance of the sacrament is understood. When immersion is the mode, it is helpful for the minister to take the candidate through the procedure to be used prior to the actual service, seeking such help as may be needed. ...It should be noted that the minister's concern should include every aspect of the theological significance of baptism as understood by the Covenant. A review of the service should be aimed both at reducing the anxiety of a person being baptized or of the parents and sponsors of a child being baptized and at heightening its celebrative significance.
"Holy Baptism," from The Covenant Book of Worship (1981), p. 89.
Some of you may have been baptized as little children. Your parents presented you for baptism because they knew that you belonged to God before you were able to make your own choices. They were celebrating the fact that God's grace was reaching out to you even before you could either accept or reject it. Because little children already belong to God, your parents were baptizing you to be welcomed into God's family. Others of you may not have been baptized as little children. Your parents also believed that you belonged to God before you were able to make your own choices, but they believed your baptism should take place after you have made your own decision to receive God's gift of salvation.
Each of these views has been held by thousands of Christians, and we shall never be able to prove to all that either view is correct. Members of the Covenant Church have the freedom to use the form of baptism that is in accord with their beliefs. We are all united by our being baptized "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," and we must never permit our differences to divide us.
Wesley W. Nelson (1910- ), God's Friends: Called to Believe and Belong (1985), p. 280.
Baptism, Conversion, and New Life
While early Mission Friends held a view of the church as consisting of only believing Christians, they also wanted to make sure that children had place in the congregation. For this reason they continued to baptize children and confirm young people--not with a Lutheran understanding that these were rites of admission into full membership in the church, but as "preparatory and promissory rites which incorporate the child into the Christian community, proclaim the interest of the church in [the child] and which witness constantly to the necessity of a full commitment to Christ." By the act of baptism Mission Friends sought to make clear in a beautiful and celebrative way that children have place due to their own intrinsic nature and worth, and that they come to baptism as those already in the kingdom. In the words of the 1964 Covenant book of worship, "They belong with all who believe to the body of Christ, through the covenant made in him."
Later on when there were parents who chose in a similar, celebrative way to present their children for an act of blessing, it was not with the notion that children have value only as adult believers, but that the responsibility for telling the next generation lays on parents and congregation a sacred urgency. In either case, Mission Friends saw the importance of an act of conversion or at least decision when a child reached the age of accountability. Such a living experience of grace lay behind the telling.
Glen V. Wiberg (1925- ), This Side of the River (Published by Salem Covenant Church, New Brighton, Minnesota, 1995), p. 89.
By the grace of God, the Christian life includes periods of renewal when persons experience restoration from times of stagnation, wandering, or rebellion. Sometimes the experience is gradual, sometimes dramatic. Sometimes the change is so fundamental it is a conversion.
In such times of renewal, Christians may desire to bear public witness to God's work of grace, and occasionally a person who has already been baptized‑-as a child or adult-‑may express this as a wish for rebaptism. For them it may seem that their experience of renewal had no relation to the grace of God and the promises made at their baptism. They may even regard their baptism as meaningless. We should help them recognize that just as Jesus Christ's death was once for all, each person's "baptism into his death" is a once-for‑all event in his or her life. It is appropriate to reaffirm one=s baptism after a period of lapsed commitment.
Serious pastoral attention should be given those who seek to make a public witness of spiritual renewal or of their return to the household of faith after a period of wandering. Such a witness can indicate how God's faithfulness has brought them from baptism through times of doubt and difficulty to this time of renewal. In tangible acts such as the laying on of hands the church can celebrate and affirm God's redeeming work.
"Affirmation of the Baptismal Covenant," from Proposed Book of Worship (2002).
