A Letter to Rose

A Letter to my goddaughter...

October 9, 2012

My Dearest Rose,

Before time gets away from me I want to write to you and reflect on your baptism. It is still fresh in my mind since it just happened two days ago on October 7th. It was a beautiful sunny day, a little chilly, but a perfect fall day. Everyone from the family gathered at the church in Monroeville where your aunt Amy (yep, t hat’s me) is the pastor. All of you sat in the front row of the church and another family filled the front row on the other side of the aisle as their baby was being baptized too. Your daddy looked so nice with a tie on that day! He was ready for his baptism as well. It is so neat that the two of your share the same baptismal anniversary. Every year the two of you can remember your special day together!

The time came for your baptism. Your cousin Noah was the acolyte that day, and so he poured the water into the font as I read the prayer that described how God used water to bring life and redemption to the world. First I baptized baby Sydney. She had lots of dark curly hair and I soaked her. She slept right through it! Then it was your turn. Uncle Jeff took you in his arms and held you over the font and I poured the water out of a seashell onto your head, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” You stared at me the whole time, never took your eyes off of me! It was like you were thinking to yourself, “This is the most amazing and wonderful thing I have every seen so far!” It was really precious. When I was done with the water, I kissed you on the forehead. I have NEVER done that to any other baby I’ve baptized. Ever. Of course, you are very special to me, my niece, my goddaughter.

Then I did the same for your daddy, he had water running down his face when it was all over. I guess I got a little wild with the water! 

After that we moved forward to the altar as your cousin Anna sang the first verse of the baptismal hymn from the balcony. “I was there to hear your borning cry. I’ll be there when you are old. I rejoiced the day you were baptized, to see your life unfold.” Uncle Jeff was holding you and you held my index finger tightly in your little hand and wouldn’t let go. I sang the rest of the verse to you as the congregation joined in singing too. Mommy was almost in tears she loves you so much!

After the service we ate cake and went back to our house to eat and play with you and visit with one another. It was a wonderful day. A wonder-full day indeed! God is good and he loves you. I love you. We all love you, Rosebud!

Your loving godmother,

Aunt Amy

Why We Don't Baptize in Private

I hate to break it to those who think that faith is a private matter, but when you are a part of Christian community, faith is no longer private.  If it was ever private at all, then I question whether it we should actually call it faith.  Somewhere along the line we have come to the mistaken conclusion that faith is only a "personal" thing.  This has brought on a whole new generation of people who call themselves "spiritual but not religious."  We may not be "religious" in the strict sense of the word, but faith is always something that is meant to be shared (The Great Commission of Matthew 28 tells us that!)

Baptism is the entry point into the community of faith, the church.  For Jesus it was the beginning of his PUBLIC ministry.  You could say that it is the beginning of each of our ministries as well.  If you are an adult who seeks baptism then a confession of faith is required and that is a public acknowledgment that you believe and confess Jesus as Lord of your life and wish to be baptized into Christ's salvation.  If you are a baby then you will have your opportunity to make the same confession after you have studied and been instructed in the faith in confirmation/catechism classes.  Then it becomes an "Affirmation of Faith."  You say "yes" to God's "yes" in your life.

But you can do that anytime you want to!  Just say "yes!"

Baptism in the center of community worship is so vitally important therefore we do not relegate this sacrament to 20 minutes after our latest worship service.  We do not wait for the congregation to go home before we fill up the font.  We invite them to participate with the baptismal candidate as part of the worship discipline.  We are asking the community of believers to take us under their wing, to teach us, mentor us, prod us when we need it, hold us accountable to being a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Baptism is NOT a ceremony where we get a nice new candle and a certificate of authenticity to put in our scrap book at home.  It is a holy sacrament (one of two for Lutherans).  It has been commanded by Jesus (Matthew 28:19-20), it shows us tangibly God's grace, it uses natural elements as signs of what God is doing in our lives (water).  Baptism bestows upon the believer God's mercy and forgiveness. It does not eradicate original sin (that sin that we inherited from our ancestors, Adam and Eve).  It does however keep it in check!  We will never be perfect this side of heaven but daily we remember the sacrament and rejoice that we have been saved through water and the Word.  The Holy Spirit is bestowed upon us and resides in us as our advocate and guide.

This is too wonderful to do in private!
This is too amazing to keep from the rest of the community!
We are all in this together. . . and so we do it together. . . the baptized makes promises to God (or the parents of the baptized) and the community of faith makes promises to the baptized-- AND to God on behalf of the baptized.  The congregation also gets an opportunity to remember their baptisms and how connected we are through our Lord Jesus Christ.  This is ABOUT community. . . to make it private is to relativize it, make it less important and it is VERY important!!

I don't know about you, but I'm glad we do this in community because I could never, ever do this "faith thing" alone!

Thanks be to God that I don't have to, and neither do you!!

(In dire emergencies, such as when a person who has not been baptized, we would do it wherever and whenever we needed to so that they did not die without the sacrament.  In this case any baptized person can baptize another, it need not be an ordained clergy person.)

Those who love their life will lose it. . .

Isaiah 58: 1-12

Isaiah lays it all out there doesn't he?  (In God's words not his by the way...)  You fast and yet you turn around and bicker.  You worship and then you turn around and cheat others.  Those are harsh words to hear, aren't they?  No one likes to be reminded of the fact that we are simultaneously saint and sinner.

Why is it so hard to put God first?  It's our human condition and it smacks us in the face over and over again, that is if we are willing to really see what's going on.  This first week of Lent reminds us that God calls us to return to him with our whole hearts.  Jesus says that those who love their lives will lose them and those who are willing to lose their lives will gain eternity.  We are going to lose our lives anyway, someday that is.  Morbid thought perhaps but we are mortal after all.  Yesterday one of my track kids said to me, "Did you see that movie (something like) 1,000 ways to die?"  No, I didn't.  I only need to know about one way.

In our baptism we died to our old selves, our old Adam, our old man or woman.  Drowned.  Buried.  Ashes to ashes and all that.  But in Christ we are raised to new life!  We will lose our lives sooner or later.  But if you really think about it and embrace it, we lost it in the waters of baptism.  Sometimes we just don't realize that until much later!  Our baptism is our daily returning to God; our daily humbling, our daily reminder that we cannot  do it alone but Christ who walks with us every step of the way does it for us.  We live for him.  He gives us a new life!  That makes a qualitative difference!

Be blessed today! (And every day for you are loved and raised to new life through your baptism!!)