It's Friday again on Things Unseen, and we've been talking all week about baptism, our

own baptism, not to stir up controversy, but as we saw yesterday to improve it, to make

the very best day to day use of baptism.

So that's not just something that happened to us once in the past, it's more like an engagement

ring or a wedding band that provides a constant reminder to us of who we are now in Christ.

I'm fairly sure I'm not the only one who tends to think that when we engage in controversy

over baptism, we are very rarely improving our own, and I'll ask sometimes those controversies

actually divert us from what's really most significant about our baptism.

I want to bring our week-long reflections to a close bite, saying something that has

often puzzled me.

In the sermons I've heard on baptism, I've sometimes heard infant baptism defended, or believers

baptism argued for, immersion emphasized or pouring justified, but you know I'm not sure

I've ever heard a sermon on what is actually central to baptism, really?

Well maybe your experience is different, but before you respond that it is, maybe as

wise to ask the question, what actually is most important about baptism?

The answer?

Well, let's ask Jesus, here's his answer, all authority in heaven and earth has been

given to me, go there for and make disciples of all nations baptising them into the name

of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

So what's central and most important to your baptism?

It's the name into which we've been baptized, isn't it?

The name that reveals the one into whom we've been baptized, the name of God the Trinity,

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