Open your wallet and take out a dollar bill. Now look at that bill. You will notice that each bill has a number of safety features to ensure that it is real tender.

I understand that officers at the Treasury department are shown only real currency when they are trained to spot counterfeit bills. They are able to distinguish the real from the false bills because they know the features of the genuine currency so well.

One of the safety features of a dollar bill is the watermark. In Baptism, we also have received a watermark – God's watermark. It is, so to speak, a promissory tender of great and eternal value. Through this baptismal watermark, God seals his promise to us that we are valued and treasured for who we are because we are made in his image. Through this watermark, God claims us as his, and calls us by our name as his beloved children. Because we belong to him, we can be assured that we are not a fraud.

Even though we profess that there is one Lord, one Church, and one Baptism, we realize quickly that the body of Christ is not one. It is broken into several pieces. It consists of several church bodies. Although they base their respective theologies on the reading and interpretation of the very same Source, many church bodies declare that other groups adhere to false and counterfeit beliefs.

It is not my intention here to pronounce who is right. Rather, I want to suggest that we look beyond these theological differences. With that, we will do right to look to the One who is the Giver and the Author of this baptismal watermark. Our human interpretations do, though well-intended, often get in the way of full understanding. But this does not devalue the authority of the One in whose name we are baptized. Counterfeit theologies may circulate. But they do not render God wrong.

To counterbalance the insistence on a particular theological view as the only right one, it was refreshing to see how several churches (Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, and Presbyterian) on Vashon could get together for worship during the Great Vigil of Easter on Holy Saturday. True, we belong to different theological traditions. But that night, we came together to hear the same biblical passages that ultimately proclaim the victory of freedom over bondage, of light over darkness, of life over death. As representatives from each denomination present poured water into the baptismal font, we were not only invited to renew our baptismal vows (promising, with God's help, to live as the body of Christ), but we also expressed quite visibly that Baptism is the ecumenical Sacrament. And, finally, what better way is there to round out a sound worship experience than through sharing a meal at the Lord's Table?

Putting our theological differences aside we were able to give honor not to ourselves but to the truthfulness and salvation of a very real God.

The next time you reach for a dollar bill in your wallet, you may want to take a moment to reflect (not necessarily on the material wealth that God has given you but) on God's watermark of grace and love that you have received in Baptism.

Yours in Christ Jesus,
Bjoern E. Meinhardt, Pastor