Nine times out of ten, when I check the stats and referrers to evlogia, I find a link to a message board. Usually it's a matter of someone sharing an idea or lesson plans posted here. With less frequency this blog is linked into the middle of a heated theological discussion. Most recently, I found my blog pulled into a debate on the necessity of the Mystery of Baptism.
It was obvious from the posts within the thread that the challenger came from a non-liturgical background, while the defendant argued from the opposite perspective. The arguments were volleyed in a steady and predictable rhythm. It was an easy dialogue to follow. I've heard the arguments more times that I can count and as the debate reached its climax, the challenger hurled the inevitable zinger,
So you're saying that only those who have been baptized can be saved?
An age-old question among Christians of different denominational traditions and persuasions, no? But somehow, without fail, the person who asks it seems to do so with an air of novelty. (Kind of like the hundredth stranger (in a month's time) who remarks to me, "Oh my! You have your hands full!" As if that remark was somehow original. Do they really think I've never heard that one before? But I digress...)
Honestly, I find it surprising that this question endures. It's the result of backwards thinking, really. The question actually results from looking at salvation from the wrong perspective, one which assumes that God is the One in need and the process of salvation is a matter of satisfying God. As if God was the great almighty micro-manager somewhere up there, Who has set up a series of rules and regulations that must be respected and obeyed...or else! He approves of those who keep the precepts and turns His back on those who fail to do so. This model would assume that God was created in the image of man and not the other way around.
Hand me the master list, St. Peter...Yes, yes, I see...Hmmm, not baptized, you say? Tsk tsk! Down you go!
No, that's how fallen man acts, not God. It is utterly ridiculous and most people know that; so much so that many respond by dismissing baptism completely, designating it as a symbolic outward witness. Impossible to think of God as One Who is so exacting and petty, the Christian life lived within the Mysteries of the Church is cast aside as one of no consequence.
Salvation is about the healing of the human person, not the keeping of a set of rules (no matter how short or long one might argue that list to be). This is no legal transaction. The Church doesn't give us rules, but prescribes that which ministers to this healing process.
The union of two persons, God and Man.
God doesn't need baptism. We do. Baptism doesn't change the way God feels about us. God is not the One with the problem. Baptism purifies our hearts and plants the seed of immortality within us.
Baptism changes man.
Can man be saved without Baptism? That is not my business, but God's. Who am I to limit God's mercy? May God especially be with those outside the spiritual hospital, which is the Church. I struggle so much within it. God be with those who are without.
This debate reminds me of the mystery of this season of the Nativity of Christ. The true miracle isn't so much that God came down to us. The great mystery is that God raised man to Himself. It isn't so much about His condescension, mind-boggling though it may be, but about man's ascension.
God became man, so that man might become god.
~St. Athanasius the Great (+373 AD) On the Incarnation
That which God is by Nature, He bestows on man through His Uncreated Grace. Baptism is the the beginning of that great transformation, the writing of Man into an Icon of Christ.
It's the only new thing under the sun.
Having beheld a strange Nativity,
Let us estrange ourselves from the world
And transport our minds to heaven;
for the Most High God appeared on earth as a lowly man,
because He wished to draw to the heights them that cry to Him!
Alleluia!
~The Akathist to Our Most-Holy Lady, the Theotokos