[AI translation] Dear Brothers and Sisters! According to the classical statement and formulation of the ancients, baptism is a symbol on the one hand and a seal on the other. What is it a symbol of and what is it a seal of?It is a symbol of God's love. The love of God is what we human beings generally always want to understand, that God loves us as we think he does. To treat us as we imagine it. To give us all that we ask of Him. To help us out of all kinds of trouble, to pull the wagon of our lives out of the pothole, and so on... So we want somehow to use the great power and the great love that we imagine God to have for us, to somehow use it for our own benefit, to use it for our own advantage. We want to take that great power and put it in the chariot of our own lives, to pull and carry it wherever we want it to go. And that when it does, in this we see the love of God. Then we say: 'Look how much God loves us! He has granted our request. He has helped us through all kinds of troubles and miseries. Well, dear brothers and sisters, there is no doubt that we experience God's love in such things very often. But if He happens not to give us what we ask Him for, does not God love us? Does it happen that if God does not help us in the way we would have imagined in a difficult situation in our lives, then is God not a loving God? This is the way many people then cry out: how can God allow it?! If God is in heaven, how can this and that be?
Well, dear brothers and sisters, baptism is not in this sense a "sign" of God's love. It is a sign of a much greater love than we can imagine. It is a sign of the love that was revealed to us in Jesus Christ, especially in Jesus' death on Calvary. For the water of the cross, simple as it is, is worth as much as the blood of Jesus. And when we baptize someone with this baptismal water - the baptismal water that represents the blood of Jesus - we are in fact securing for that person the saving grace of Christ, the infinite great grace of God in Jesus Christ. So baptism is a sign of God's love in the sense that it is a sign of his redeeming grace. God wants to love us not only for this life on earth, but for eternal life. God wants to give us more than we can imagine of Him. He not only wants to order our outward circumstances, He wants to order us inwardly, in the sense that He wants to make us His own. That is why God made such an unheard of sacrifice when He gave the incarnation of His love for us on this earth in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. When this incarnate divine love took upon Himself our sins, bore our suffering and punishment for them, and there on Calvary His holy blood was shed so that we might become, untroubled, fully reconciled, in spite of all our sins, in spite of all our miseries, dear children of God. Baptism is a sign of this love.
And baptism is also a seal. In a way, it is a seal, in the same way that a document has a seal on it that authenticates it. Or in the same way that the wedding ring that binds spouses together is a seal. It's like a seal that we belong together. This is one of those seals. Anyone who wears this seal - and everyone wears this seal from the moment they are baptized - is betrothed by the blood of Jesus Christ to the eternal possession of God. Just as truly, just as truly as the water touches the head of that child. Just as truly as the whole saving grace of God touches, and not only touches, but carries, surrounds, and is valid for all eternity for the one who is baptized.
This child is not yet aware of all this. Neither of the fact that he has such a mark, nor of the fact that he will be the owner of such a seal. But somehow it is in such a way that he would not even know that someone, a very, very rich relative, would donate a very large deposit book to this child. The parents, the godparents, the family would have to take over that deposit book and keep it until they could give it to the child so that he could live off it. Until its meaning opens up enough for it to become aware of the treasure it holds. Somehow in this way, even more precious gifts, greater riches, God gives to this child in baptism. He does not know what is happening now, he cannot appreciate it, but you: parents, godparents, family - you know what it means, and therefore he places in your hands this great inheritance, this reality of the whole redemption that is valid for your child. Keep it! Guard it in prayer, guard it in such a way that, as the child's understanding opens, you make him more and more aware of the great treasure he possesses. So that when he is so grown up that he himself may live from it, he may be glad to know that he is also a redeemed child of God, and may live from the grace which, behold, is now sealed for him by baptism!
Amen
Let us pray!
Our Father, be blessed for this precious little life in whom we see your gift. In her, too, Lord, we see the manifestation of Your love. For the joy of receiving such a child from You is unspeakably precious. But, Lord, let us see even more of Your love in that the reality of the Redemption is, behold, also for him. As true, and as valid, as this water is here, and as this water touches this child's head, so You seal, so You receive this child into Your fellowship, into the fellowship of Your redeemed. We thank You for this. And we ask, Lord God, that this may not remain just an outward sign in his life, but that it may truly become, through Your Holy Spirit, a seal that makes it Yours forever. Bless the growth and development of this child in body and spirit. And especially we ask that the more his mind is opened, the more he may know You! And the more he knows You, the more he will love You! And then let him himself freely commit himself to living as Your follower in this life on earth.
Thus we ask the Lord's blessing upon him. Guide him throughout his life on earth and use him for the glory of Your great name here on earth and in eternity. In this way, Lord, give parents and families the understanding, wisdom and strength to live the beauty and reality of redeemed life before their little ones. That that child may absorb the power of your Spirit in the home, in the family atmosphere.
Hear us, we pray you, for the sake of Jesus Christ!
Amen.
Date: 17 May 1967 (baptismal sermon)