Remind Them of Their Baptisms

Lord's Day, July 14, AD 2024
King's Cross Church, Moscow, Idaho

Your children this morning will not remember this baptism. They will not recall the feeling of the cold water running down their brow or my warm hand upon their head. Their memory will not bring to mind the words of the charge we will recite, for as we say so ourselves in it, “…and you still know nothing of it.” 

So what does this sacrament mean then, if these recipients are too young to remember? Well, it still means everything.

Many of us have had the experience of watching home videos of ourselves at the age of three, now unsure if we actually remember that family vacation or birthday party – or if we have just watched that particular VHS tape one too many times. And that, in a sense, is how baptism is to be for our children. Of course they will not remember this moment – but they will always know it has happened and what it means for them.  

This morning these children are receiving the sign of the covenant, the sign of the remission of sins and the washing of regeneration. They are being claimed by God as His own. And now it is your parental duty to point them back to this baptism, and the ongoing reality it signifies, all the days of their lives. 

While ministering in Strasbourg, John Calvin wrote a catechism for children that included these two questions. They were asked, “Are you, my son, a Christian in fact as well as in name?” And the answer was, “Yes, my father.” The next question was then, “How do you know yourself to be?” And Calvin’s answer for the children in his church, and for these children now is this, “Because I am baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” 

Our baptisms are a reminder to us of who we are in Christ. They are a sign that points us to His saving work in our lives. So the charge is to remind your children often of their baptisms, which declare Christ’s love to them. And amen.