Grace United Methodist Church

In today’s Exodus passage Moses is reminded that God promised his ancestor Abraham that He and all his decedents would receive- a new life in a treasured place (Promised Land.) God then renews the promise land covenant with Moses and adds something else: “I will take you to be my people.” Essentially God is adopting Moses and the Israelites making them family. In Galatians Paul, reveals that that those who are baptized in Christ also receive this promise and are also heirs of Abraham. In every human being God sees a potential treasure. And one of the things that happens in baptism is that God “stakes a claim” on the person being baptized (infant, child, or adult). When God stakes his claim through infant baptism it is the parents and the church who must “work the claim” until the child can grow and “claim the name” of Christ (Christian) for his/her self.