Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
[Paul writes:] 1 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2a God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.
29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, 31 so also they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they also may now receive mercy. 32 For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.
29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
People often ask me if it’s OK to be re-baptized to mark an important event in their life of faith, or because they were too young to remember their baptism. The answer is a solid, “no, you can’t do that”. Why? 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
When we’re baptized, God calls us into our Baptismal Vocation. That is the ministry out in the world that we are uniquely gifted to do. Because each of us has a unique set of God-given gifts and abilities, no one else can do the work that God prepared for each of us before the foundation of the world. In baptism, the Holy Spirit stirs-up those gifts in us and sends us out to get busy. Repeating Baptism is impossible because God names and claims us as sisters & brothers of Jesus once and for all time. That can never be undone because God never goes back on a promise.
There are, however, some wonderful ways to mark important events in our life of faith or to have an experience of Baptism that we can remember. In my Lutheran tradition, we do that with an Affirmation of Baptism where we repeated the Baptismal promises and trace the Sign of the Cross on our forehead that was placed there in Baptism. It’s a lovely way to remember and recommit ourselves to God.
Lord God: Thank you for creating each of us in your image in a completely unique way and for our Baptism that binds us all together in the Body of Christ. AMEN