Our Baptismal Vows

Our series on the vows we make at baptism continues with the fourth promise, and this one belongs to the congregation rather than to the person being baptized: to nurture one another in the Christian faith and life, and to include in our care the people standing before us. Most of us were formed by someone who made that promise about us, a Sunday school teacher, a choir director, a neighbor. Few of us think of ourselves as the ones…

Our series on the vows we make at baptism continues with the third promise: to confess Jesus Christ as Savior and to serve him as Lord. Confessing means saying out loud who Jesus is to us, and allowing our confession to change the way we live in the world. Every one of us answers that question somehow, whether we say it or just live it. This week we explore what this means, and where we find the confidence to trust…

This week our series on the baptismal vows turns to the second promise: to accept the freedom and power God gives us to resist evil, injustice, and oppression. In Isaiah, the devotion God looks for is feeding the hungry and welcoming the stranger, and in Romans, Paul reminds a struggling church that they are children of God in a world still waiting to be free. There is power already in our hands, and we ask how to use it for…

This Sunday we begin a new five-week series on the vows we make at baptism. We start with the first vow: to renounce. Renouncing means turning away from whatever controls us and deciding who we’ll follow instead. It’s an authentic look at who and what we serve, and at the freedom God gives to choose differently. Scripture: Joshua 24:14-18; Romans 8:1-11 (CEB)