Why would a famous psychiatrist choose to be baptized at mid-life? Dr. Scott Peck saw the need of his patients to start over, to wipe the past away and start afresh. The Christian concepts of sin and forgiveness offer a new start. Not just for his patients but for him too.
Sermon Texts
It’s the language many of us grew up with. We heard sermons about receiving Jesus. We talked about it in Sunday School. Rarely did we stop to ask what it really means. What does it mean to receive Jesus?
The country seems paralyzed. Neighbors won’t talk with neighbors. Churches are splitting apart. The news about your health is not good. Your children won’t talk to you. With so much bad news, can we find reasons to hope?
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the bad guys are obvious: the robbers. They beat, stripped, robbed and left their victim on the side of the road. The priest and Levite weren’t bad people, but they didn’t help the victim. Their sin was different. They committed the sin of uselessness.
When someone is baptized at Weatherly, the entire congregation participates in the blessing by saying in unison, “We baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” This is actually what Jesus commanded in Matthew.
We normally think of four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Some argue that the book of Acts is a gospel too.