Baptisms are one of the most special celebrations associated with Eastertide. This Sunday, we'll have 16 baptisms across the four services. It will be a special day you won't want to miss!

As you may know, the forty days preceding the Feast of the Resurrection was a period the early church used to prepare candidates for baptism. The Easter season, with its themes of new life, supernatural power, and hope, accented and contextualized what actually happens at baptism. St. Augustine, who himself was baptized at Easter, preached an Easter sermon directed at those being baptized. He pointed to the connection between baptism and resurrection:

“You have been buried with Christ by baptism into death in order that, as Christ has risen from the dead, you also may walk in newness of life. Such is the power of this sacrament: it is a sacrament of new life which begins here and now with the forgiveness of all past sins, and will be brought to completion in the resurrection of the dead.”

You see, baptism, while personally meaningful and oftentimes downright cute, is more than a sentimental rite of passage. It is an announcement of God's purpose and commitment to all of creation. In baptism, we're joined into the death and resurrection of Jesus. We're made citizens of a kingdom that is both here and coming. By linking Easter with baptism, the church reminds us that what happened on the first Easter morning to Jesus can happen to us, today. God is still making that which is dirty clean, that which is crooked straight, and that which is dead alive.

I pray you are able to come on Sunday as we not only announce the fact of the resurrection but also taste, in part, something of this resurrection in the sacrament of baptism!