First thing we encounter in Luther’s explanation of Holy Baptism is the classic Lutheran idea that a sacrament must be clearly “commanded” by Christ, as the Word of God. It is the authority of God, connected with a physical element and a believing community that enacts it, that makes something a sacrament. This means that the efficacy of the sacrament and everything else about it all remains God’s work. Whatever we may happen to feel as we experience it or witness is only frosting on the cake. The real power is God’s.

Thus, in Luther’s understand is his vital, even vivacious, understanding the Word of God. The Word is always a living word. This Word is not encased in a dusty old Bible, and God’s command is not like the books of law in an attorney’s law library. (Consider the Bible to be, as Luther suggested, like a manger for the living Christ.) This is a Word that, when read, proclaimed or sacramentally enacted, comes alive in the experience of the faithful. The Word calls, beckons, blesses, and transforms, sometimes by killing the patient (as in baptism) in order to bring back to new life. But more on that later.

For now, let us accept the teaching that this wonderful sacrament of initiation comes from the archetypal depths to invite us into the mystery of the Living God, and to connect us with the mystery of the Church as the body of the risen Christ in the world.