Questions, questions and more questions; all of a trivial variety (since you did so well last time).  On average, what is the thing that Americans do 22 times in a day? What is the real name of the Cookie Monster? What animals have fingerprints other than humans? Who sang about being an “eggman” and a “walrus”? Where were fortune cookies invented? What is the name of the vehicle that Scooby-Doo and his friends travel in? Which Italian town is the setting for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet?  In our last two posts we’ve been dealing with some dangling questions that need to be answered before we bring this series to a close. So far, we have asked (and answered) the following five questions: Does baptism save? Is baptism necessary for salvation? What is accomplished in a baptism? Is the efficacy of baptism tied to that specific moment?  Should we allow rebaptisms?

Last week, we started wrapping up this series by answering a series of questions. So, let’s begin today by asking a series of questions (who doesn’t like movie trivia?): What was the name of Quint's boat in Jaws? What was the first feature-length animated movie ever? In what movie do we find Robert De Niro’s great line: "You talkin' to me?" In what movie did Marlon Brando say, “I could have been a contender?"  What was the song that Tom Cruise lip-synced to in Risky Business? The stage play, Everybody Comes to Rick's,was made into what 1942 movie? What were the dying words of Charles Foster Kane?  Here’s the point: Some questions are trivial (see above). Some are not (see below). There are huge theological and pastoral issues at stake in many of our questions about baptism, and we need to approach them as serious matters, even though, at first glance, they seem rather trivial. Last week,

We start this week with some essential questions. If you pamper a cow, do you get spoiled milk? Can atheists get insurance for acts of God?   Do pilots take crash-courses? Why are things typed up but written down?  If Jimmy cracked corn and nobody cared, why did they write a song about it? Do Lipton employees take coffee breaks? Now, you’ve heard all of these questions before. In fact, that is the point of this whole exercise, because today we want to discuss questions everyone has heard before.  But, unlike the above questions, these questions have real answers.  Let’s start off with the one I get all the time: Does baptism save? Let’s ask Peter. In 1 Peter 3:20-22.  Peter writes about Noah and the ark.  He says, “In it [the ark of God’s salvation] only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now