Being True to Our Baptismal Identity

Has much of Christianity in the United States of America lost its baptismal identity?

Have Christians sold their birthright in an attempt to compromise their identity for he sake of getting along with the Empire?

Have we forgotten who we are and to Whom we belong?

Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann provides some valuable insight for us to consider:

"For I believe the crisis in the U.S. church has almost nothing to do with being liberal or conservative; it has everything to do with giving up on the faith and discipline of our Christian baptism and settling for a common, generic U.S. identity that is part patriotism, part consumerism, part violence, and part affluence." 

When I was baptized my 10 year old mind could not fully comprehend that my identity was about to change for the rest of my life. I was baptized, in the words of St. Paul, into Christ Jesus. These were just words to me at the time.

Little did I realize that my baptism defined me in ways that my citizenship in this or any other country would never define me. Now granted I have not always lived according to this conferred baptismal identity—I had to grow into it as I grew into an adult and beyond.

My baptism may have conferred upon me a new Christlike identity but living out that identity became a matter of maturing in my faith and coming to a clearer understanding of the implications of what it means to follow Jesus in this world.

This has been a lifelong process for me up to the present time.

Brueggemann reminds us that the Jews also forfeited their identity as God’s chosen people (circumcision) by attempting to become Babylonians (during their tragic exile).

They compromised their Jewish faith, their traditions, and their Jewish identity for the sake of getting along with an Empire that worshiped other gods—an Empire that did not recognize the supreme authority of the God of Israel.

History seems to be repeating itself right before our eyes. 

Are we Christians compromising our unique God given identity in exchange for a patriotism that offers nothing substantive in return? 

We fly our national ensign high on flagpoles in front of our churches; we position that same flag next to the cross in our worship centers; and there are some who feel right at home reciting the Pledge Allegiance in those same sanctuaries.

There is nothing wrong with a love of country. But when we compromise our baptismal identity for the sake of Empire then we have a serious identity crisis. 

Brueggemann is right. It seems that a good portion of the church in America has “given up on the faith and discipline of our Christian baptism.”

A baptism that clearly identifies us as followers of one Lord!

And in so doing we have settled “for a common, generic U.S. identity that is part patriotism, part consumerism, part violence, and part affluence.”

American Christians must reclaim their true identity in Christ. We must acknowledge our own unique God given identity that we received at our baptism. 

Until such an identity is reclaimed American Christianity will become nothing more than an insipid version of what sociologists call “Civil Religion.” A melding together of the religious and the patriotic which creates a hybrid version of Christianity whose identity is wrapped in red, white, and blue.

There is nothing wrong with loving or honoring one’s country. But let’s not be mistaken, our identity as Christians is not defined by where we live geographically on this globe, or by which flag we salute, but rather by our confession in Jesus as Lord. 

This makes all of us resident aliens regardless of the country in which we claim residency.