Baptism is on the forefront of my mind, lately. We have a baptism coming up on Sunday here at St. Mark's - I'll be preaching, and the rector will be doing the pouring. And then, a few months ago, I did my very first baptism - twin boys! My spiritual director said that it is a rare treat to have twins be your first baptism. Now, my cousin up in Atlanta is looking to have his newborn son baptized, and I am trying to help them figure out how to get an RC sponsor (they are catholics). So baptism is on the brain.
All of this got me thinking about the relation between grace and faith, and how quite often they are set in opposition to each other. Sometimes we Anglicans want to stress so much the efficacy of the sacraments, and the power of God's grace, that we sometimes downplay the role of faith. By contrast, many Evangelical Protestants do the opposite. They are so scared of "sacerdotalism" and "hocus pocus" that, at least on a popular level, the sacraments are completely downplayed, and are free to be abstained from for various reasons (I have seen such people do this with both Baptism and the Lord's Supper). But the two - grace and faith - go together. "For by grace are ye saved through faith." (Ephesians 2:8). The sacraments communicate divine grace, which helps bring about faith. In baptism the parents and sponsors profess faith on behalf of the child, who later profess that faith on their own. Dr. Peter Toon has written some good articles on the subject of faith and baptism lately.
Anyway, I think that in our preaching and ministry we would do well to always stress both of these great truthes: grace and faith. For as much as Our Lord spoke of faith, and as much as the BCP speaks of having faith in Christ's blood (e.g. BCP p.81), you'd think we all do it more. And to be honest, I think the Church would be a lot better off today if we started talking about faith again.
