Sunday, February 13, 2011

Date of baptism

Last week Pastor John Stozenbach talked about his baptism in the sermon (on baptism), and mentioned the date, and then asked us if we knew the date of our baptism. I didn't. I was pretty sure it was 1950, but didn't have a clue about the day. So I' e-mailed a friend, Sylvia, who still attends that church and is my age and asked her if her mother might have recorded it (she had great scrapbooks since she was the oldest child--I was lucky to have a photograph being third). Sylvia went to the church archives and found out our class was baptized on April 2, 1950 at the Mt. Morris Church of the Brethren. I looked up the date and that was Palm Sunday. I didn't have a "confirmation" verse, but John told us to select one if we didn't. So I've chosen Acts 2:42, which describes the early church group of the baptized 3,000 converted after Peter's sermon. There were four elements of their life as a church, 1) teaching of the apostles, 2) their fellowship together, 3) sharing a meal (eucharist/love feast) and 4) prayer. Isn't that a nice model, even for old timers in the 21st century?

Then it occurred to me today that when we joined UALC in 1976 it was on Palm Sunday also, and that we were confirmed, whereas those who were Lutherans were received by letter of transfer. So Palm Sunday was a big day.

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