Happy New Year! You are Baptized!

Happy 2016!  You know that song Auld Lang Syne? It’s the one you hear every New Year’s Eve that no one can understand.  That phrase is Scottish and is translated “old long since” or perhaps better understood as “times gone by.”  It’s a song reminiscing on (and drinking “a cup of kindness” for) the good old days.  The founder of The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, C.F.W. Walther, had quite a different perspective as the new year approached: 

"Should the Christian stand all day long at the grave of all joys which he enjoyed in past years? Through Holy Baptism a great stream of joy has been conducted in his heart, which does not drain away, but streams forward with his life until its waves carry him into the sea of a blessed eternity. Should the Christian be reminded all day long that the flowers of his youth fall more and more? He stands planted by God in the water of his Baptism as a palm tree which becomes greener and greener and whose leaves never wither. Yes, his Baptism makes death for him like a short winter's nap, out of which an eternal spring--an eternal youth—follow”

We Christians have the hope of eternal youth!  The old is gone and the new has come.  We experience a daily rebirth.  I am reminded of images where the passing year is represented by an old man with a long white beard carrying an hourglass and sickle and the new year is imagined as a baby in diapers wearing a top hat. Perhaps not exactly a biblical image, but to me it brings to mind that we Christians  put off the old man (sin) and put on the new man (Christ), not just yearly, but daily.  We daily remember that we are baptized.  This is Walther’s hope for the New Year as well.

”Now then, all of you who believe in God's Word, let your watchword for entering the new year be this: 'I am baptized!' Although the world may laugh at this comfort, the enthusiasts vex its confidence . . . nevertheless, abandon any other dearly held pledges and speak only throughout the entire year to come, in all terrors of conscience and necessity through sin and death: 'I am baptized! I am baptized! Hallelujah!' And you shall prevail! In every time of need, you will find comfort in your Baptism; on account of it Satan will flee from your faith and confession; and in death you will see heaven opened and will finally come into the joy of your Lord to celebrate a great year of jubilee, a year of praise, with all the angels forever and ever. Amen!”

I know a fellow believer, who if you ask him, “How are you?,” his response is often “I am baptized!”  Seems to be a pretty good answer to me.  As Walther reminds us: “Baptism is a bath that washed me not only once when I received it – washed me pure with Christ’s blood – but it continuously washes me clean even daily for as long as I hold it in faith.”

There are lots of pledges and resolutions we can make for the New Year, but our greatest comfort and joy comes from our baptism.  If we are to drink “a cup of kindness” in remembrance of anything, let us toast to our baptisms!  

Note: The quote from C.F.W. Walther comes via Treasury of Daily Prayer (or the PrayNow mobile app), a great resource I highly recommend for devotional use.