Devotional for the Week

Together Rooted in Christ

Devotional for the week of December 15, 2024

The church’s preachers and teachers often distinguish between John’s baptism and our own baptism into Christ. But perhaps we have sometimes gone too far in supposing they are all that different. Both begin with repentance. Both orient us toward the good news that God forgives our sins and claims us as beloved children. Both call us to “grow in faith, love, and obedience to the will of God” (ELW, p. 227.)

The grace and love of God lavished on us in baptism are not the result of simple mechanics whereby we receive forgiveness because we’ve pressed the right buttons on the salvation machine. Instead, we live into God’s forgiveness in deeply transformative and organic ways, like trees bearing good fruit. That John’s baptism is, at its heart, about genuine transformation and living in a new way shaped by God’s grace is apparent from the questions people ask him. Called to bear fruits worthy of repentance, they want to know: “What then should we do?” (Luke 3:10).

Advent offers us a wonderful chance to renew the gift of baptism by asking ourselves important questions about our direction in life and our relationships with others. How are you nurturing your prayer and worship life? What are you learning about your relationship with God? How are you growing in faith? How are you caring for others and the world God made? What help or support might you need on your spiritual journey that you’re not currently receiving?

John turned people’s hearts to God by reorienting them to their community. He encouraged them to share life together by uplifting one another, performing mutual acts of kindness, and nurturing a spirit of thanksgiving. In this season full of expectation, we look to Jesus’ coming among us at the same time as we remember that we ourselves have been reborn children of God. In baptism, we have been welcomed into a community of care and support, together rooted in Christ, bearing good fruit, and proclaiming God’s good news to all the world.