Irregular Baptism!?
Last week, eight Duke Divinity students showed up in the darkened sanctuary of Watts Street Baptist Church for an abnormal ceremony. Filling the baptistery with water and changing into swimsuits, they stepped into the water two by two...and re-baptized each other. And not just once. Repeatedly. In the name of the Trinity! One guy was immersed at least nine times.
Broken baptismal practice? Hardly. As a matter of fact, it was a very appropriate baptismal practice. For, you see, it was....well, baptism practice. Under Dr. Freeman's leadership several of us future pastors had the opportunity to hone our skills. Actually, it would be more accurate to say we were given the opportunity to create them in the first place. Like good divinity students, we pondered the theological ramifications of our practice session. Should we “baptize” in the name of the Trinity? Or should we do it in the name of Snap, Crackle, and Pop? We decided in favor of the three friends we admire most because the “baptism” was not performed based upon a new profession of faith and with the intention of the church in the sacrament of baptism. However, given that we live on this side of the eschaton, we cannot speak with certitude and there remains the possibility that we shall be smitten (smited, smoted, smoten?) for offering “strange fire upon the altar.” Perhaps in that case, like a traditional candidate for Presbyterian ministry, we could just say we're willing to be damned for the glory of God. Damn – and all that for earning some style points for ministry!
Seriously, though, I appreciate Dr. Freeman's intentional (oh, that Duke Divinity word!) formation of future Baptist clergy for the practices of ordained ministry. In the Free Church class last fall, our midterm was a paper in which we planned an imaginary discipleship class lesson to explain Baptist distinctive to church members. Our final was a heavily-footnoted baptismal liturgy. Although I believe Duke holds much stronger connections with both individual churches and the church universal in its confessional tradition, even in this place where nearly three-fourths of the graduates will enter congregational ministry the emphasis in courses scheduled and academic work assigned within those courses falls heavily in favor of second-order theological reflection. However, as baptist systematic theologian Jim McClendon has reminded us, doctrine is first and foremost a first-order practice and theological reflection is dependent upon the narrated practice of the church. A casual, jokey baptism practice late one Thursday afternoon called eight young Baptists to remember that the discourse of Christian theology begins, and only makes sense, in the tangible and lived experience of congregations living, and calling others into, the faith that calls us to die and rise in the water.
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