baptism Archives - First Churches of Northampton, MA

Does Baptism Make You More Than Wet?

Sermon by Rev. Todd Weir September 27, 2018 Scripture: Mark 1:9-12 What happened at your baptism? If you were an adult, was there a feeling of warmth in your heart, a special sense of God’s presence, or did you just get uncomfortably wet and couldn’t wait for some dry clothes? If you were baptized as an infant, it’s unlikely you remember anything, so how does your baptism matter to you? Does something happen beyond your conscious awareness in baptism? Does the Holy Spirit literally descend and be present at the sacramental moment, entering you, infusing you with love and wisdom, doing some kind of mystical work? Or is the sacrament a symbolic act, where we as a community affirm that you belong, and we love you on God’s behalf. I was baptized at age 14, on Easter Sunday [...]

Where the Welcome Meets the Road

Sermon by Rev. Todd Weir April 29, 2018 Scripture: Acts 8:26-40 How did Christianity spread to become the dominant religion of the Roman Empire in the 4thcentury after Jesus? At this weekend’s Awakening Conference, Bart Erman, author of “The Triumph of Christianity, tried to answer the question. One school of thought is that Christianity prospered because of its exclusivist and missionary nature, and after the conversion of Constantine, the power of the Roman State was used to crush all the pagan religions as the emperor used religion to consolidate power. School number two holds that Christianity was a more egalitarian religion that grew gradually among the lower classes. There was more room for women and slaves to participate. And early Christianity had a system of care for widows and orphans, the most vulnerable people in society. When two [...]