Remember Your Baptism

January 11, 2026. Saint Barnabas Lutheran Church, Howard Beach, Queens, N.Y.

I begin with a confession.

I have been baptized twice.

The first one I don’t remember. I was an infant. I suspect I was held in the arms of our pastor, the venerable Charles Bergner, who sprinkled a few drops of water on my fontanelle and handed me back to my mother.

The second one was twenty years later, on November 6, 1966, and I remember it vividly. I was in the Air Force in England and was going through a born-again Baptist phase. The chaplain, a Southern Baptist, said my first baptism didn’t count because I was not a believer. Wanting to cover all bases, I agreed to do it again. There are no dunking facilities in Air Force chapels so the chaplain arranged for me to be baptized in the Baptist church in nearby Woodbridge town.

It was a cold November that year and the Baptist church had no central heating. The large baptismal pool was filled and a small kerosene heater was tilted near the edge of the pool to warm the water. It wasn’t working. As I stood in my white baptismal robe I noticed ice was forming around the perimeter. When the chaplain immersed me, my lungs froze and I thought I was going to die. When I finally regained my breath I understood why baptism was said to symbolize rebirth from death to life.

It was a memorable and even holy experience and I admit I enjoyed the attention as the women of the chapel brought me a towel, caressed my head, and praised God that another sinner had been reclaimed by heaven.

But now I understand that a second baptism as an adult was unnecessary. The Holy Spirit was powerfully present when I was baptized as an infant and there was no need to be re-baptized.

As a member of the World Council of Churches staff I attended a meeting with Latin American Pentecostals in Costa Rica. An intensely evangelical group, Pentecostals have been aggressive in bringing lapsed Catholics into their fold. But a Pentecostal pastor reported that his church does not re-baptize converts who were baptized as infants in Catholic parishes. “The presence of the Holy Spirit is for all time,” he said. “The Holy Spirit does not expire.”

I do not blame my Baptist Air Force friends for pushing me to be re-baptized because I know they did it out of love and concern for my salvation. I think they thought like Delmar O’Donnell, one of the three escaped prisoners seeking their fortune in the movie Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou, a Coen brothers film based loosely on the Illiad. As Pete and Ulysses and Delmar pass a pond where people are being baptized, Delmar suddenly breaks away and runs into the water. He returns to his companions dripping wet and smiling. The following dialogue ensues:

Pete: Well I’ll be danged. Delmar’s been saved.

Delmar: Well that’s it, boys. I’ve been redeemed. The preacher’s done warshed away all my sins and transgressions. It’s the straight and narrow from here on out, and heaven everlasting’s my reward. The preacher says all my sins is warshed away, including that Piggly Wiggly I knocked over in Yazoo.

Ulysses: I thought you said you was innocent of those charges?

Delmar: Well I was lyin’. And the preacher says that that sin’s been warshed away too. Neither God nor man’s got nothin’ on me now. C’mon in boys, the water is fine.

It certainly is a stretch to assume the mere act of dunking guarantees everlasting heaven.

How can water do such great things?

“Certainly not just water,” Martin Luther wrote, “but the word of God in and with the water does these things, along with the faith which trusts this word of God in the water. For without God’s word the water is plain water and no Baptism. But with the word of God it is a Baptism, that is, a life-giving water, rich in grace, and a washing of the new birth in the Holy Spirit, as St. Paul says in Titus, chapter three: “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying.” (Titus 3:5–8)

Luther declares, “St. Paul writes in Romans chapter six: ‘We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life’” (Rom. 6:4)

For Luther, baptism was an essential step to salvation. We’ve read his words in his Small Catechism: “Baptism works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare.”

The importance of baptism is founded on the fact that Jesus, who was without sin, demonstrated its importance by being baptized himself.

We know the familiar paintings that depict this scene: John standing awkwardly before Jesus protesting he was not worthy to baptize him; Jesus insisting that he do it anyway.

The three other Gospels tell similar stories of Jesus’ baptism. Mark, the writer of the oldest Gospel, writes, “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

That’s the old, old story we love to tell

Professor Mitzi J. Smith, J. Davison Philips Professor of New Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia, also sees hidden meanings in Luke’s version of the story.

“Before Jesus has done anything,” she writes, “before he begins his public ministry in Luke, the voice from heaven publicly announces, ‘I am well pleased with you’ (3:22b). The only thing Jesus has done so far is to humble himself by submitting to be baptized by a man who describes himself as unworthy to untie Jesus’ sandals and who has lived in the margins of society.

Perhaps this demonstrates God giving value to the lowliest in a society where wealth is concentrated in the top 1–2 percent. Maybe this God gives value, purpose, belonging, and a sense of dignity and worth to persons born into social statuses relegated to the bottom of a society. This divine affirmation and confirmation will allow Jesus to unapologetically speak truth to power, to stand in the midst of hostile crowds, and to stand firm before religious and political leaders.”

Thus Jesus’ earthly ministry begins on a high note, with God placing him among the most common people of his time while instilling him with a power and authority that will change the world forever.

And it all begins in water, that is, “a life-giving water, rich in grace, and a washing of the new birth in the Holy Spirit.”

As preachers all over the world are admonishing each of us today, 

“Remember your baptism.”

Come on in. The water is fine.