Baptism is the base sacrament which gives identity to the Christian and undergirds all s/he is and does. It is not only a single event but an all pervasive and life long process. Over the centuries since Constantine, its power and significance for the Christian life have eroded away, its theology has become flawed. The challenge before the Church today is in the midst of a changing cultural milieu to reclaim and rediscover that power and that significance and recover that theology.

In the early days of the Church, not only was a Christian "marked as Christ's own forever," but because of that Baptismal commitment, s/he was marked by the existing culture as an outsider, subject to isolation, persecution, and at times, death. To take on Christ was to risk one's life - to literally deny oneself, take up one's cross and follow Him into unchartered waters. This identification as a Christian came through Baptism. The norm in that early Church was adult Baptism. In the Acts of the Apostles, for example, adults came to be baptized affirming their belief in Jesus as Lord, the result of the teaching and preaching of witnesses to the risen Lord. Infrequently there are scriptural and early Church references of "households" being baptized. It is never clear, however, what "household" meant: Other relatives in that house? Older parents? Aunts and Uncles? Slaves? Children? The only clear model that emerges from the early Church is that of the Baptism of committed adults.

The journey for those adults towards their Baptism was then known as the Catechumenate, a word which means "listening with the ear." The Catechumens went through an extensive period (sometimes three years) of reflection and instruction focused on the life and death and resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah, which centered in their (1) renunciation of the existing cultural world view and its values, (2) exploration of the Christian world view and the values of the Kingdom of God, and (3) taking on that Kingdom view by being incorporated into the Body of Christ, the Church, through Baptism. The impact on their new life in Christ inevitably necessitated change and, at times, meant, for some, finding a new vocation and breaking off certain relationships, even those of their blood family.

The Baptismal theology of the early Church is reflected in the New Testament witness. It was as a person "took on Christ," that s/he (a) was incorporated into the Body of Christ, the Church (1 Corinthians 12:12ff), (b) became reborn into the life of the Kingdom of God (John 3:1ff) and (c) died to self and rose to new life in Christ (Romans 6:1ff). This latter understanding became so important that Baptisms were reserved for the Easter Vigil wherein the whole community, including the newly Baptized, participated in the annual celebration of Christ's death and resurrection. At that time the candidate, culminating the Catechumenal process, threw off his/her old clothes and name and took on Christ, symbolized by a white baptismal garment and a Christian name. One's identity, therefore, was "sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism," as the new Christian was "marked as Christ's own forever." In light of this, Baptism was seen as indissoluble, even in the case of those recanting amidst persecution. If a person renounced Christian belief under fire, the Church, as it sought to re-incorporate the repentant, looked back to the Baptismal birth/rebirth analogy. It decided that since the person had been reborn, shared spiritually in Christ's death and resurrection and was a part of the Body of Christ, the Church, his/her Baptism was indelible.

With the coming of Constantine (274-337), things began to change. The realm, by the edict of Milan (313) became "Christian." The focus on Baptism shifted from the extensive catechumenal process of the individual candidate to more instantaneous mass Baptisms of entire tribes, even nations by the decree of a local ruler. Accordingly, a major theological shift took place based on a sociological reality: at first, there was wholesale baptism of adults, with none of the intensive catechumenal formation. Then, with all of the adults initiated, infant baptism became prevalent, evolving into both a societal and an ecclesiastical norm. The baptismal register, for example, in many European villages was the town's only birth register. A new baptismal theology emerged with a focus on original sin and its consequence, eternal death. Baptism, therefore, became as much a theology of fear as a theology of celebration. The Baptism of infants took on an urgency to assure that the child avoided spiritual damnation. This "fear" theology included a doctrine of "limbo," providing an in-between "place" for unbaptized children. The other aspects of the early church baptismal theology: dying and rising with Christ, spiritual rebirth and incorporation into the community of the Baptized, diminished in practical importance.

As Baptism became an expected social norm with little concern for preparation or nurture, the call to be a "real Christian" shifted from the baptized to those specifically called to the ordained or the monastic life. As Bishop Thomas Ray of Northern Michigan, points out, "For the first four centuries the catechumenate was the structure through which people came into Baptism. Since then, we have flipflopped that over to holy orders where the same conditions exist: long preparation times (Seminary education or its equivalent), new names (the Rev.), new garments (the stole), new vocations. The old catechumenate has been replaced by ordination!" Thus, the focus on the minor sacrament of Holy Orders supplanted the more basic sacrament of Baptism as the expression of one's true Christian commitment, demoting Baptism, elevating ordination.

The practical effects of this post-Constantinian shift with its significant elevation of the status of ordination severely flawed the theology of Baptism, resulting in some far reaching practical distortions in the life of the Church and its relationship to the world of daily life. The two most profound are in the status of the ordained and the ministry of the non-ordained. As "Holy Orders" had virtually replaced Baptism as the sacrament defining the "true believers" the role of the non-ordained became increasingly devalued. Ordination, as it evolved, was where the real action in the Christian community was located. Thus, traditionally, at least over the past 15 centuries, the ordained have been afforded prerogatives and privileges far outreaching the laity, from such things as representation in the Councils of the Church to the "pedestal" mentality prevalent in many parish churches. The clergy, to borrow from Paul's analogy of the Body, have become greatly enlarged and disproportionate members of the Body; an exaggerated and out of proportion organ in relationship to the other members of the Body. Services of Ordination especially those for Bishops, are far more elaborate, require far more planning and coordination and people than anything accompanying a Baptism. And irony of ironies, there is nothing in the entire service of ordination for Bishop, Priest or Deacon in the current Episcopal Prayer Book that even remotely acknowledges that the ordained has been Baptized! The medium is the message. How we have disconnected ordination from its Baptism roots!

One of the ways in which this disconnect became clear recently was when the Church faced into the ordination of women. The real underlying issue at stake was less our theology of Holy Orders, as it was our flawed theology of Baptism. All the sacraments of the Church flow from the primary river of Baptism. It is to be expected that those who are baptized will seek, as occasion warrants, those other sacraments in their life in Christ. Eucharist, marriage, penance, healing- and Holy Orders- all come naturally out of the community of the Baptized. But we have through tradition (small "t"), ritual and process singled out Ordination as being so special that we want to be careful to keep it doctrinally "pure" - by what criterion we consider "pure" at any given time. For some time that criteria has been heterosexual and male. Interestingly enough,though, in the confrontation over the ordination of women rarely was the importance of Baptism raised. What had traditionally been a minor sacrament, we have made a major issue by isolating it from the major sacrament in which it is rooted! After all, when viewed in the total context of Baptism, Holy Orders is but a minor blip--one among many other honored vocations to which the Baptized are called including salesperson, carpenter, office manager and executive.

From this exaggerated role of Holy Orders comes the second significant distortion that emerges from a flawed Baptism theology - the role of the non-ordained. "Lay ministry" has evolved into what lay people can do to help the clergy do their job better in the life of the parish as institution. Terms like "mutual ministry" and "shared leadership" more often than not apply to the local parish as the place of "ministry." Less frequently do lay persons see their work in the world as "ministry." "That's what clergy do!" Thus, "the whole sense of ministry has been collapsed upon the ordained, " Bishop Ray concludes. A sense of "vocation" in one's daily life and work has therefore suffered significantly and cries out for new life.

To recover Baptism as base theology for the Church, we must move back to our Biblical and early Church roots before the Constantinian distortions: away from the fear-driven societal norm of infant baptism and its corollary, the exalted role of the ordained (and the monastic) as "the true believers," and towards a deepened sense of the equal ministry of all the Baptized in their daily life and work. This reclamation is of particular importance in the world in which we as the Baptized find ourselves today.

So, in this our day, how do we rediscover Baptism? Let us quickly look at our recent history. In the 1950's as congregations within the Episcopal Church grew and flourished, there was the false impression given of masses of people finding Christianity anew after the devastation of World War 2. There were, however, the prophetic voices which questioned this apparent renewal under such pointed titles as The Comfortable Pew. The '60's raised the stakes, however, as Christians such as Martin Luther King, Jr. assumed the leadership in movements dealing with societal ills such as civil rights and the Vietnam War. In its concern to connect the Gospel to the struggles of everyday life, the very Church to which the people had flocked confronted the superficiality of the '50's. In the '70's the Episcopal Church was engaged in its own internal and institutional changes: the revision of the Book of Common Prayer and the ordination of women, further challenging the Church's life and membership. Through the '80's and now into the '90's these struggles within the community of the Baptized have been overlaid by a cultural situation begun in the '30's and '40's which is redefining the Church's role in society and the individual Christian's life in the world.

For we as Christians in the West, now live in a world that is increasingly secular and neutral, if not hostile, to the Christian Faith. That world wants to accommodate some of our symbols and feasts (such as Christmas) for its commercial interests, and at times in so doing trivializes them. It often transfers a "7-Eleven" consumer mentality to the Church, expecting the Church and its clergy to provide services such as Baptisms and marriages "on demand!" Further, it tries subtly to seduce the Christian to its ways attempting to blend the secular world with that of the Christian, e.g. equating the Faith once delivered to the saints with American civil religion.

It is in such a cultural situation that the individual Christian and the Church need to find an identity anew. Two historical models can inform us: the Hebrews in their Babylonian exile and the early Church in times of persecution. The Hebrews, in their 6th century B.C. exile in Babylonia, found themselves in an alien environment where the existing culture was seductive. It had its enticements of material prosperity and other benefits available to the exiles as they accommodated themselves to the existing culture and its plethora of gods. It was in that environment, however, that the Hebrews consciously decided that they needed to retain their monotheism and its traditions, that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob alone was to be worshipped and followed. So they told the stories of their Faith: about the Creator and creation and of his gift to humankind of dominion, about Adam and Eve and disobedience and its consequences. They heard the stories of their ancestors: of the Patriarchs, of Joseph and Moses, of the Judges and Ruth, of Samuel and Saul and David and Solomon, always punctuated by God's graceful promises and the people's stiff necked responses. Through such story telling they remembered who they were: Jews! They learned to answer their own question: "How can we sing the Lord's song in a new land?" by singing the Lord's song in that new land!

Their experience bears some similarity to our own. We are not as aware, perhaps, as they were of being "in exile." After all we have not been driven off our land and taken into another. But all around us are signs and symbols of a world whose values are increasingly different from those of our Christian Faith, creating a sense of being exiles or "Resident Aliens," as two recent authors have defined us. We are in a new situation. Now, as Walter Breuggemann has said, "Baptism is what makes us exiles." No longer, therefore, can Baptism be seen as that special norm for infants with its mixed societal and religious overtones. It takes on exilic dimensions if one is to live into its significance. It becomes the mark of our identity as called by Christ "not to be conformed to standards of this world, but to let God transform us inwardly by a complete change of our minds" (Romans 12:2).

It is at this very point that the experience of the early Church is so helpful. It was through their Baptism that those early Christians literally changed worlds, changed direction, changed focus. Conversion for them was a transformation to a new world view marked by the sign of the cross. As the Baptized of today that is our calling, too. Except in some specific situations around the world, we, as the Baptized, especially in America, are not under persecution or the threat of death for our faith. But as the community of the Baptized "in exile," it becomes increasingly important that we find our identity in "being marked as Christ's own forever." In the midst of all the competing voices of this world beckoning for our attention and commitment, we are called to discern the voice of God in Christ. How relevant is the story of Adam and Eve! Like us, they were confronted with the voice of God and the voice of the world: the Christian's tension, everyday! And we need to know who we are and whose we are!

In such a situation, how do we remold a theology of Baptism flawed by the passage of time? The most obvious need is to restore Baptism to its rightful place at the center of the Church's life and that of the individual Christian's. If, in fact, Baptism is the sacramental act which declares one "to be marked as Christ's own forever," then the process of living into that identity becomes THE primary responsibility of the Christian community.

Those who developed the 1979 Book of Common Prayer (BCP) had some prophetic insights into this. Contained within it is a two-fold revolution. The first which had transformed the worship life of the Church, is the Eucharist as the central service on the Lord's day. But the far deeper and more subtle revolution is in Holy Baptism. It is like a tulip ready to flower; and principal evidence of its first blooms is in the primary placement of the Baptismal liturgy. Being placed first in the sequence of sacramental liturgies, Baptism sets the tone for the other sacraments including the Eucharist and Marriage and Burial and Holy Orders. It is also evidenced in other subtle ways: in the blessing at the end of the service of Thanksgiving for the Birth or Adoption of a Child, BCP p. 445; in the preface to the Creed in the Burial of the Dead: Rite II, BCP p. 496; and in the Form Two Confession in the Reconciliation of a Penitent, BCP p. 450. But the revolution is yet to be integrated into much of the liturgies of the Book of Common Prayer. For example, as mentioned earlier, nowhere in the ordination services of a Deacon, Priest or Bishop is there any mention of Baptism, including evidence that the person was ever Baptized! The Pastoral Offices aren't any better. And there is no reference to Baptism in the Daily Office, either. Surely, if Baptism is at the heart of the Christian life, it needs to be integral to all the services of this Church. Such integration is a job waiting to be done.

Within the Baptismal Liturgy itself, heralding the revolution, is the Baptismal Covenant. For the Baptized, it is crucial in living into one's commitment to Christ. It frames our life in Christ. It is the job description of the Christian, providing direction for the practical ways by which the Baptized manifests Christ in his/her daily life and work. Grounded inwardly in a belief in God as expressed in the ancient Baptismal (Apostles') Creed, the Covenant moves out in concentric circles from life within the Body to ministry in the world: from the apostles' teaching and fellowship to striving for justice and peace among all people. There is no dichotomy here between the inward and outward journeys. The one presupposes the other. Because of its importance as a signpost for our life in Christ, the Covenant needs to be photo-copied from our BCPs, put on our refrigerators, on our desks and bedside tables, as a reminder of the call to which we continuously respond in life. The Baptismal Covenant can also serve creatively as a daily self-examination or weekly preparation before the Eucharist.

Another subtle revolutionary element in the Baptismal Liturgy is the question, "Will you who witness these vows do all in your power to support these persons in their life in Christ?" What would a congregation look like if it saw as its job description or its mission statement, "the support of the Baptized in their life in Christ?" The work of the congregation on Sunday and throughout the week would be "to equip the saints for the work of ministry." Quality time would be spent in nurturing the faithful for their particular mission and ministry in the world. On Sundays education would involve, as John Westerhoff suggests, small groups reflecting on the past week and the week to come, with possible suggestions for the Eucharist to follow. In such light, the Eucharist becomes the weekly opportunity by which the Baptized are renewed in heart and mind and spirit in their calling to live as Christians in their daily life and work.

Liturgically, members of the community would be commissioned periodically for their work and witness in the world, a welcomed balance to the commissioning of people supporting the institutional life of the congregation such as Vestry and Altar Guild. For example, the Sixth Sunday after Easter known as Rogation Sunday, could be reclaimed as an opportunity to publicly affirm the work of each lay person, (not just farmers and fisherfolk), commissioning them in that ministry. Such commissioning could be repeated periodically as people undergo changes in their jobs, perhaps in each month with a fifth Sunday

What this sense of Baptism does is to proclaim that as the Baptized, the Christian is fully commissioned as a Christian -fully ordained - and the role of the parish becomes the enabler of the ministries of the Baptized in the world. A springboard to that recovery is provided by Raymond Brown, a Roman Catholic scholar, in his book, The Churches the Apostles Left Behind. "Holiness had been too emphatically associated with special forms of Roman Catholic life, such as religious vocation and the observance of vows. The unique status of holiness given by Baptism to all believers needs rather to be stressed." His insight is not limited to Roman Catholics. It is our need, too.

But this is revolutionary thinking in a Church dominated by a Constantinian mind-set, which sees a hierarchial relationship between non-ordained and ordained, where it is the ministry of the non-ordained to assist the clergy in the workings of the institutional Church. Such a sense of "Lay Ministry" hardly jells with scripture! This revolution, therefore, will necessitate a redefinition of the relationship between the ordained as s/he takes his/her place amidst the other laity in doing the work of the Lord in his world, with special focus on "equipping the saints for the work of ministry." As the Rt. Rev. Theodore Eastman has written, "The sacrament of Baptism is the ordination of the Christian to ministry. Baptism encompasses both the delegation of authority and the empowerment for mission. It is the process of ignition that propels each Christian into the world in his or her own way and time." Christians are, therefore, missionaries, people sent into the world to work and witness in daily life. Without this sense of mission, the Church is merely a reflection of the culture's values. It join with other social clubs in a world that looks for good works, without the sense of Christ in its midst.

Living into such a calling may heighten the differentiation between the Baptized and the world in which s/he lives. This will inevitably involve tension when the values of this world and those of the Kingdom conflict. Yet that is the struggle of the Baptized as s/he "comes to have the form of Christ" (Galatians 4:19). Christ himself as he referred to his own Baptism, saw it in the context of struggle in the midst of this world. "I have a Baptism to undergo and what restraint I am under until it is over" (Luke 12:50). It becomes the "work" of the community of the Baptized, therefore, to nurture and equip and empower the Baptized for ministry in the world.

With such a reclaiming of the centrality of Baptism, our Baptismal theology, flawed as it has become, would be renewed in the life and witness of the community of the Baptized. It would proclaim that through Baptism we are "marked as Christ's own forever." Therein we have our identity as the people of God. That identity is crucial in the increasingly secular world in which we live. We need to know who we are and whose we are! It is in that identity that we are empowered to be Christ's people in the worldly world of our daily life. It is through our nurturing within the community of the Baptized that we are equipped for the work of our ministry in that world. In such a reality, there are no second class Christians. The ordained could well return to the position of one vocation among the many available to the baptized. Such a shift would reveal that the Spirit binds us equally together.

For as Bishop Ray has said, "Christ's ministry seen through you, Christ's ministry known in others, is now drawing us and processing us and converting and transforming our lives, 24 hours a day, open, exciting, venerable, confident, loving, forgiving. I wish it for you! I would wish it for me! God, in Jesus, offers it to you, and offers it to me...Live it! Enjoy it! Celebrate it! Never neglect it, never discourage it and never give it away! It is a gift from Jesus through the mystery of Baptism. We are a "chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people," that we may declare the wonderful deeds of him who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. And he calls us friends, brothers and sisters, to share his reconciled, serving, apostolic love, "for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health," for life, and for life everlasting!"