Baptismal exhortation

Matthew 28:18-20: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age.

Baptism is a naming ceremony. Your daughter already has a name, and a meaningful one. Baptism adds another name because in baptism she becomes a member of a new family. She receives the family name of Father, Son, and Spirit. At the same time, God Himself takes on a new name, for here He promises to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and now Elaina.

We Protestants don’t like to say that baptism works “automatically,” because in some respects it doesn’t. Baptism doesn’t guarantee eternal salvation. But in this respect – as a naming ceremony – baptism is automatic. Everyone who is baptized receives a new name, whether they want it or not.

Like everything else Elaina has, this name is a gift of sheer grace. Elaina didn’t choose you as her parents. She didn’t choose to live in Moscow, or to be an American, or to be born to members of this church. And she doesn’t choose to be given the family Name of the Triune God. God chooses her. Through this water He lays His mighty hand on her to declare to the world that she is a daughter of His love.

Names always come at the beginning. You didn’t hold off a few years to discover your daughter’s temperament so you could make sure to give her an appropriate name. You named her as soon as she was born. We name our children in hope that they will live up to their name.

God does the same. He doesn’t leave us wandering around trying to find our name. At the beginning, before we have shown our true colors, God risks placing His name on us and adopting us into His family.

Elaina will spend the remainder of her life learning to be a Blakey. That’s a life-long project for anyone. More profoundly, she will spend her life growing into her name as a child of the heavenly Father, a sister of her Brother Jesus, walking with the Spirit of adoption. God is true. His Name sticks regardless. God calls her by baptism to be a true witness so that God’s truth will shine in her.