There is one, the SAPBC that is. Wussily, they take their dip on New Years Day. Come on, it is San Antonio after all. Why not midnight at least? Tonight my brother ponied up and came through on a promise and stripped down to swim trunks and jumped into their San Antonio pool just after midnight. I, clad in jeans and t-shirt, removed my wallet and followed suit, regretfully forgetting that I also wear glasses, which had to be recoved on a subsequent, and much chillier, dip.
Michael Green in his book Baptism states that he will not re-baptize individuals who come to him as adults, thinking their baptisms as infants did not take as they were not volitional on their part. Instead he performs a ceremony for them to “remember the waters of their baptism.” There is only one baptism. Amen to that, but I like the practice of the remembrance of one’s baptism nonetheless. I need that kind of reminding every day, especially these days. So, I am using tonight’s dip to remind me of my baptism, to let it wash away the old, sinful patterns of behavior and unhelpful thought patterns, and to let its shock remind me to seek the Holy Spirit of baptism in a new way.
Happy New Year and may God bless us all richly in the coming year. May His peace bleed from us to all the world.