simply a wonder to see what God is up to… here's how it was a few weeks
back.
I had an appointment with a young man who wanted to be baptized. He
hadn't grown up in the church, really, although he'd always considered
himself a believer. As he is nearing adulthood though, his plans for his
future were starting to come together. He's planning to join the air
force, after he graduates, you see. He knew his travels would take him
far and he told me he wanted to be sure God would go with him. So he
called up his grandparents and asked if he could come to church with them.
And he did. For the next year or so he could be seen sitting alongside
them more weeks than not.
And a few weeks ago I sat down with him to talk with him about his
baptism. I assured him then that God would go with him, baptized or not…
but that this is a public sign of his commitment to follow Jesus… and that
in the water poured and the word spoken in baptism he is claimed as God's
child in a promise that would never let him go. And pretty soon on a
Saturday night he bent over the font and I reached up to pour the water on
his forehead…. To place my hands on his head and pray for him…. To make
the sign of the cross on his forehead, binding him then to Jesus'
sacrifice and a whole multitude of others of us who have also been claimed
in the faith and who have claimed it, in turn, as our own.
It used to be that we thought of baptisms as 'christenings' --- a private
ceremony where a name would be bestowed on an infant. Not true any
longer. Baptisms are public: inserted into a regular service of worship
where both friends ands strangers: all of God's people are gathered and
where those there make promises to support the newly baptized in their
life of faith. And as for naming a person? We baptize in God's name…. in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, remembering
then that God attaches God's own name to us each one as the water is
poured upon us…
And you know the prayer spoken then, of course:
We give you thanks, O God, that through water and the Holy Spirit you give
your daughters and sons new birth, cleanse them from sin, and raise them
to eternal life.
Sustain name with the gift of your Holy Spirit: the spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge
and the fear of the Lord, the spirit of joy in your presence, both now and
forever. Amen.
We pray in that moment for wisdom and understanding… for counsel and
might… for knowledge and the fear of the Lord… and for joy in God's
presence. But notice, too, that every time it's 'the spirit of…' for the
gifts prayed for and offered here also bind all the baptized up with God
and God's amazing gifts.
And so it is that a few weeks back I got to be part of that journey
again…. Hearing in another's story how God has, in fact, been leading him
all along to this day when he would in a very public way receive those
promises of God which God had been offering him all along. It's a
wondrous thing, really --- one we experience in this place every single
time parents carry a child to the font… or one spouse stands alongside
another who has heard this call of faith and is ready for baptism… or when
a young person whose whole life is laid out before him recognizes God
working in his life and wants to follow in the path that Jesus walked as
well.
Peace to you and many blessings,
Pastor Janet
Coming up this week at Salem:
New members will be received at the 8 and 10:30 services on Sunday, May
8th. Be sure to come and welcome our new members at a reception in
fellowship hall at 9:45 a.m.
Sunday school students and their dads/grandpas/uncles/friends will gather
in fellowship hall this S Sunday, May 8th at 9:15 to make Mother's Day
gifts for moms. All are welcome!
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