During the 1960s and 70s American Lutherans became increasingly concerned with the importance of baptism. It led to changes in the baptismal and confirmation liturgies and to discussion about the significance of baptism for daily life. Baptism and daily life? Yep, Luther wrote in the Small Catechism: Baptism “indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.”

The LCA published a study: “In, Not Of: Living our Baptism in the World.” You can see from the title that they were trying to make a connection between daily life and baptism. A baptized Christian has to live in the world without become worldly. This to me is the hardest task for Christians.

Most of our lives are consumed by apparently worldly things. There are bills to pay, meals to prepare, cleaning to do, trips to the doctors to make. Many of us go to churches to worship or for Bible study, but being baptized–being a Christian–ought to effect everything in life and not just those hours in a church building. Working out how to live in the world without accepting the world’s values is hard.

I don’t have any definitive answers about this, but I hope to share some thoughts in some of my blogs during this year. In the meantime, how do you manage being in, not of the world?

Read 1 John 2:15-17 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne