Tangible Grace and Vows

The baptism of Jesus is celebrated early in January in the Christian liturgical calendar. It is a time for people to think about thier own baptism. A sermon on this theme was about tangible faith and how baptism and communion are two ways Christians live in the tangible grace of God. What I found interesting is how the sermon ended up describing in a similar way what Buddhists do and mentioning vows. I had recently made an entry here that quickly looked at a comparison between the two faiths so it was even more interesting to hear the sermon which talked about being tangible grace by rejecting and resisting evil and loving all people and vowing to live into our vows by doing no harm. My Christian community believes it is necessary to be baptized once but renewing our baptismal vow is popular. The sermon continued about when we encounter water, we can experience the spirit moving, suggesting that this week we engage with God through water.

Two things stuck out to me in the sermon that show how Christianity and Buddhism can have similar conclusions on how we live our lives. One is that the taking of a vow which I also had a recent entry on. The other thought, that was expressed in the sermon, was being present with the example for this week being water.