Holding Fast the Faith Once Delivered

All Saints Anglican Church
February 4, 2007
Luke 5: 1-11; I Cor

Today, we have a very happy convergence of “Godincidences”. Our Gospel readings couldn’t be more appropriate for a baptism! Jesus calls his disciples to give up fishing for fish and fish for men instead. I’d like to begin our time by asking a special assistant to come up and help me.

Heather (4 years old) comes up with her mom. We teach the Chorus: Fishers of Men.

“I will make you fishers of men, fishers of men, fishers of men. I will make you fishers of men if you follow me. If you follow me; if you follow me. I will make you fishers of men if you follow me.”

So here the disciples had been fishing all night and caught nothing. Jesus appropriates Peter’s boat and teaches the crowd, then asks Peter to put into the deep water and let down the nets for a catch. Simon is very unsure about this proposition, but obeys – like most of us… Well, if you say so…

They let down their nets and just about kill themselves trying to hoist in all the fish they catch. Big contrast: work all night on your own and catch nothing – go out with Jesus and fill the boat. Hmmm, which one is better?

The catch of fish was symbolic and prophetic. It foreshadowed what Peter and the others would be doing as apostles. In the natural, or flesh, they caught nothing, but in the Lord they would catch exceedingly abundantly above all they could think or ask (Eph. 3:20). The fish are meant to be understood as ‘men’ who will be caught by the Gospel message.

Today we celebrate one man who has been caught by that message, our new brother, Bill Clay. We believe and understand from Bill’s testimony that he was hooked before he invited me to come and visit his home and lead him in a prayer of salvation. Indeed Bill described to me a process, by which, over a period of about three weeks, he felt God working on him. Through contemplating his own mortality, Bill began to come to terms with the ‘legends’ about Jesus and the Bible. One night right before bed-time, he felt a light go on and he was able to affirm the FACT of Jesus, not just the legends about him. The Holy Spirit had done his job and Illumined Bill’s mind, causing the light to go on, affecting a Spiritual Awakening.

I believe at that moment, he was given the gift of saving faith. His prayer of repentance and confession was an acknowledgement of something that God had already done in his life. He had already been hooked and reeled in. Now all that remained was to confess with his mouth something that God had already given him- Grace to believe in his heart.
(Read his Letter?)

I think this illustrates a progressive work in which we receive the Good News, get saved, then are being saved, and will be saved at the last day. It’s like conjugating a verb: God Saved me, He is saving me, and He will save me – if indeed, as Paul says in I Cor. 15:2 we hold fast to the faith that was delivered to us.

Paul has in mind a process of delivering something whole. If you’ve ever seen the Brinks trucks going to or from a bank, you will get the idea. They are delivering to the receiving party the deposit they have been entrusted with. They are very careful to make sure that every penny is accounted for. Paul is just as scrupulous. He delivered to the Corinthians that which he had been entrusted with. It was the Gospel message that Christ died for our sins, that he was buried and was resurrected on the third day, and that he appeared to many witnesses, who can attest to the veracity of his resurrection. This is what we call the Tradition, with a capitol T. It is THE Gospel, not just Paul’s Gospel. It is THE Faith, not just Peter’s faith.

Capitol T Tradition is not just conservatism for the sake of not changing, or a fetish for small t tradition because we don’t like change. No, this is just like the Wells Fargo or Brinks guys delivering the very same deposit they received. There is a sense of passing it on to the next person whole and unchanged. This is a dynamic and life-changing message. It is something that we must hold fast to a deliver to others unchanged.
Therefore, we derive our Church slogan from this passage: “Holding Fast the Faith once delivered”.

When we fish for men, we catch them to something. This something is the Gospel by which people are converted and saved. And it is this faith into which people are Baptized when they are saved. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD put it this way: “This is the orthodox faith; this we all believe: into this we were baptized; into this we baptize. (Extracts, Session II, the Seven Ecumenical Councils, NPNF 2, XIV, p. 249.)

Without this Tradition, this orthodox faith, we become Marine Biologists instead of Fishers of Men – we study all fish with equal curiosity but our policy is strictly ‘catch and release’ instead of catching people into New Life! (Let the reader understand…)

So…when a person is baptized they are ushered into the family of God in a formal, public way. The introduction to the Baptism service in the Book of Common Prayers says that Holy Baptism is full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ’s Body the Church. The bond which God establishes in Baptism is indissoluble.

The catechism on pg 858 says: Baptism is the sacrament by which God adopts us, as his children and makes us members of Christ’s body, the church and inheritors of the Kingdom of God.

Now a Sacrament is the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual reality. Our brother has already experienced an awakening and a saving faith. But now, by going through Baptism, he will experience the outward sign of that faith as well. Not only that, but there is something real and objective that will take place aside from the experience of faith: he will be accepted in to the family of God, his sins will be washed away in the water of death, he will be raised to walk in newness of life, and receive union with God. In short he will have the Gospel Life that saves us from ourselves and brings us back into relationship with God.



Just a brief word about the method of Baptism: Here is a commentary on Jewish Baptism at the time of Christ from Br. Chris Klein, CJ, Director of Franciscan Vocations:
Within Christianity, there are a variety of views about the proper way to baptize converts. Every denomination is sure that their way is correct and answers all questions to reflect their own bias. I began to wonder how the Jewish John the Baptist was baptizing people and whether or not a Jewish Rabbi could help me to answer this question.
I learned that in Judaism, ritual cleansing is required for any proselyte wishing to join themselves with the people of Israel. Maimonides wrote: "Baptism is absolutely necessary to make a proselyte." (Massekheth, Gerim et.al.).
Many of the laws pertaining to conversion come from the Book of Ruth. Concerning the baptism itself, the water must contain rain water, (water that falls from heaven rather than water from the earth). Baptisms may be performed in oceans, rivers, and lakes in which rain water has fallen. It is a complete emersion overseen by three trained people but unlike many Christian denominations, the candidate must immerse themselves. Each person must submit themselves to God without assistance, (thus no one can boast about how many people they have baptized).
For the sake of modesty, outdoor baptisms are often performed at night, since the individual must not have anything between the water and their skin, (Women are baptized behind a partition). Even the hair and fingernails are clipped very short to allow the water to make complete contact with the skin. When the convert comes out of the water, they must look like a newborn child.
The early church fathers were pragmatic about how to Baptize. While the preference was for immersion in “living” water, the first century Didache gives these instructions:

“After rehearsing all the preliminaries, immerse in running water “In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” If no running water is available, immerse in ordinary water. This should be cold if possible; otherwise warm. If neither is practicable, then sprinkle water three times on the head “In the Name of the Father, and of the son and of the Holy Ghost…”

Today we will use a sea shell, the traditional symbol of baptism to pour warm water over the head of our brother. I’d like to ask our Brother Deacon Mark to come and tell us how we will transform this ordinary bowl of water in a river of living water.

Mark comes to describe the process and to add the vial of water to the bowl.

Ask Heather to come with her fishing pole and catch Bill, reeling him in as I say,

Let the candidate for Baptism be presented.