Baptism and Narnia (And Tom Sawyer, too)
Baptism, then, is the entrance into the garden. It’s the Narnian means of grace through the wardrobe of wonder to a world upheld by a faithful Lion.
In our congregation in Pensacola, we offer a baptismal word before the individual is brought to the font. We do this for two reasons:
a) Because people need to know the place of baptism in the life of the church, and b) because most evangelicals do not know how to think about baptism biblically and theologically.
As John Frame puts it, baptism is not a simple concept. It's like a rich tapestry layered with meaning. But understanding baptism isn’t just about reading explicit texts; it's about deducing its meaning from a comprehensive theology, not just a single reference. The Bible offers a rich guide to baptismal theology. But one must have eyes to see how the language of baptism is woven into the fabric of Scriptures.
Baptism as an Entry-Door to the Garden
The Genesis story is the most natural entryway into baptismal theology. The Garden portrays a world of newness and communion with God. The Garden gives us the language of discipleship. Adam was both a son and a servant of the most High God. This thesis should orient any healthy baptismal theology since baptism is sonship and a call to discipleship.
Baptism, then, is the entrance into the garden. It’s the Narnian means of grace through the wardrobe of wonder to a world upheld by a faithful Lion. We often think that little infants must develop an imagination before entering this world. But as C.S. Lewis notes so clearly, in a new world, we are called to constant remembrance:
“But, first, remember, remember, remember the signs. Say them to yourself when you wake in the morning and when you lie down at night, and when you wake in the middle of the night. And whatever strange things may happen to you, let nothing turn your mind from following the signs.
Children enter this new world so that their imaginations are formed by it. It’s the environment that forms the imagination. These memory reservoirs will be available to draw from as little seeds. And as these seeds grow into little trees, these memories will increasingly inhabit their imagination. Baptism invokes a remembrance banquet.
But this remembrance is for good works. These are not memories to stoke our introspective habits. Adam was created out of nothing, but he was not created for nothing. He was created to do something. Similarly, baptism needs to be improved, worked on, and refined. We are baptized into something and to do something.
When a child walks through this doorway (baptism), he is christened by this font to live differently. He is to be like the second Adam, not the first; he must grow up in wisdom and knowledge and never heed the serpent's logic. He enters this new world to remember and remind those around him of that privileged status.
Baptism Marker
The Gospels tell us that the Kingdom of God belongs to these little jolly people who walk into the Garden and grow with the Garden’s language around, beneath, and over their baptized foreheads. To be in the kingdom is to embrace a new ethic; to be in the kingdom is to follow the rules of the King. The baptized can always hear the roar of the King in the garden.
When the King’s seal marks the baptized, they hold tightly to it wherever they may go. When strangers in the Garden seek to turn them away from the roar of the King, they roar back in imitation to their Lord, “Drop your ugly accusation; I am baptized into Christ!” And when he strays from the kingdom, we urge fathers and mothers to issue sobering and joyful charges to call him back, for there is no life outside the Garden; no, there is no life at all. Welcome to the font, little ones! Welcome to the kingdom and its King!
Notations
For all Mark Twain's atheistic shenanigans, the man was a comedic genius. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer—yes, I am a first-time reader—is a delightful journey through the lens of a boy who loves disorientation but finds himself still tied to the objective norms of his society.
Sawyer’s life is surrounded by sacred things, texts, and places, but he always manages to see the motivations behind the curtain. He is not content with mere decorative pieces; he wants to see the way the pieces are made.
He has a deep sense of justice but also of boyish deception. He uses his business smarts, or what the ancients called common sense, to distance himself or set himself apart from the gullible. In one distinct interaction, Swayer makes an enormous profit while convincing his peers to do all his work. Twain describes
“Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it -- namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain.”
Tom sees the hollowness around him, and he seeks to escape it to pursue other ventures because the hollowness bores him. He can manipulate events, but will truthfulness still prevail in his own life? Will telling the truth be the ultimate pursuit? Will he kill the dragon and get the girl? Will he find the treasure?
My interview with Faith in Action on Women in Combat is now available for listening:
My Man Rampant interview with Doug Wilson should be out next week. Stay tuned.
Nuntium
In a few weeks, I will be headed to Moscow, ID, for several meetings and interviews, including an NSA board meeting. I will also be returning to the Grace Agenda. I am looking forward to meeting OK State Senator Dusty Deevers. That Sunday, I will preach in one of the newest church plants in town.
Twain was, indeed, a comic genius and astute observer of humanity and the world. Few men have squandered God's gifts of insight as tragically as Samuel Clemens did.
Wonderful, Uri!