Don't Dodge God's Love!

A church member recently asked me to rebaptize him. "I'm reading my bible, I'm praying, and I'm experiencing a change in my life as I seek to follow Christ. Will you rebaptize me?"

After explaining to him that United Methodists do not rebaptize because we believe that baptism is primarily what God has done for us through Jesus Christ rather than what we do, I asked, "Would you be interested in a baptism renewal service?"  I said, "A baptism renewal is how we respond to God's love and faithfulness in our lives."

With great excitement, he said, "Yes, that's what I want to do!"

Little did I know that just three days later, I would find myself at an impromptu baptism renewal service. No, it didn't include this same church member. This unexpected baptism renewal service was at our mid-week youth gathering and their water balloon dodge fun.

After we had some fun throwing water balloons and dodging them to avoid getting wet, it just seemed right to ask the youth the question, "Anyone here, want to renew their baptism?" Surprisingly, several youth volunteered and instead of dodging my water balloon toss as they had been doing, they gladly allowed me to break water balloons over their heads as I offered the liturgical words, "Remember your baptism and be thankful."

For some, it's during a worship service when God prompts someone to renew their faith in Jesus Christ. For others, it's during a mid-week water balloon dodge fun event.

As we go through our day, don't "dodge" God's love. Let's be open to God's invitation to renew our faith, remember our baptism and be thankful.

Can Baptism Be This Fun?

Yesterday, I baptized four people during our worship services. One of them was a little boy named, Logan (see picture above.)

As you can see from the picture, Logan took great delight in his baptism. As soon as I placed my hand in the water, he wanted to play in the water, too! So for about a minute, Logan and I had some fun playing in the waters of his baptism. 

He didn't want to stop. He kept dipping his hand into the water basin and making little splashes. I must admit that I didn't want to stop our play time either.  But we did. And when I sprinkled the first amount of water on his head, he thought that was pretty cool. He also enjoyed the second time and the third time.

After the third sprinkle of water, I kissed his forehead and said a little prayer, "Dear God, may Logan always remember his baptism and how much you love him."

Logan's joy in being baptized reminds us of the joy we can have in our journey with Christ.  Sometimes, we take our faith so seriously that we forget to play a little.  We don't need a whole lot to experience joy, just a baptism font with some water in it and a child-like faith.

Thank you, Logan for reminding us that baptism can be fun. And thank you, God for your gift of water which reminds us to have a playful faith that is filled with joy.

Holy Communion in the Sea of Tranquility - In Loving Memory of Neil Armstrong

 

This tribute is from this morning's "The Daily Office West" website. I love to read how the Sacrament of Holy Communion is a tangible way of helping us to become conscious of God's grace and presence in our lives no matter where we are.

 

A statue of Neil Armstrong as an undergraduate at his alma mater, Purdue University, now decorated with signs of mourning and gratitude. Here’s something you may not know or might have forgotten: “In the radio blackout, I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread and the wine. I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. Then I read the Scripture, ‘I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit.’ … Eagle’s metal body creaked. I ate the tiny Host and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility. It was interesting for me to think: the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements.” — Buzz Aldrin & Neil Armstrong receiving the 1st Communion on the Moon, 1969

A Conversation with Confirmands - Holy Communion

The confirmation class invited me to share with them about the meaning of the Sacrament of Holy Communion.  Knowing that 7th graders probably wouldn't want a lecture format, I shared off the cuff.  While sharing some thoughts on Holy Communion, these are the things that I thought were important to share with them.

• Holy Communion is a Sacrament because we believe that Jesus Christ is present every time it is celebrated.  Like Holy Baptism, we can know with confidence that Jesus is present even if we may not feel very spiritual or close to God.
• This Sacrament has many names - Holy Communion, The Lord's Supper, the Mass, & The Eucharist.  I told them that my favorite name for it is the Eucharist, Greek word meaning, thankful.  It's a thank you meal.  When we receive the bread and the juice, we received God's grace in Jesus Christ anew and we are saying thank you for this gift of grace.
• Holy Communion comes out of the Jewish Passover meal.  When we receive Holy Commuion, we are to remember the Passover when God had rescued the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt and led them through the wilderness to the Promised Land.  When Jesus was gathered at the Passover meal with the disiples, he pointed to the bread and the cup as symbols of his own life he was about to offer by dying on the cross (Good Friday.)  In a similar way, God was about to rescue the world from slavery to sin and death through his sacrifice.  And because of Easter, Holy Communion has a future dimension.  One day, Jesus will return and we will all share around a great heavenly banquet.  It's important to keep both of these dimension in mind when we receive the Sacrament - the looking back to God's acts of salvation through the exodus story and Good Friday and the looking forward to the time when Jesus will return and all of God's people will be reunited. This is the great hope of the Christian faith!
• The methods for receiving Holy Communion include intinction (dipping) and by trays in the pews.  I explained that both methods have important dimensions in helping us appreciate this Sacrament.  Intinction is more personal as people come individually to receive.  Trays provides an opportunity for us to receive at the same time which reminds us that we are all one in Christ.  In addition to sharing these methods, I also said that over my years of ministry, the method of communion has been sensitive for some people.  In most cases, this is because we tend to only want to use the method that was used when we were childen and youth.  Because of this, we can shut ourselves off from another method of receiving communion that offers an important symbolic dimension.
• When we receive the Sacrament by intinction, I think it's important to take a fairly large piece of bread. While this may seem trivial, the Sacraments are meant to help us taste and feel God's love.  When we take a very tiny piece of bread, we lose this sense of taste/touch.  Plus, on a practical level, small pieces of bread are difficult to dip in the cup!  I think people only take a very small piece of bread, because they are trying to be polite but my advice for most people it to take a much bigger piece of bread.
• When preparing for Holy Communion, I encouraged the confirmands to repeat little phrases like the Jesus' Prayer - "Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner."  It helps us to keep in mind  the theological meaning of the Sacrament, rather than it simply being something we do from time to time.
• We also talked about transubstantiation and consubstantiation.  Some people believe that the bread and the juice/wine literally becomes the body/blood of Christ after the elements have been blessed.  Others see the bread and juice/wine as only symbols.  As United Methodists, we lean more toward the symbolic side of the debate, but we still believe that Christ is present in the elements through the mysterious presence of the Holy Spirit.
• Since Holy Communion is a means of grace, we should receive the Sacrament as often as possible.  There is nothing that says we should only receive it sparingly.  When we worry about it becoming an empty ritual, we forget that God can still transform us even if we are not feeling very spiritual.

At the end of our discussion, we received the Sacrament by intinction.  As each confirmand came forward, they looked into my eyes as I shared with them Jesus' words about the bread and the cup.  With glad and thankful hearts, we communed together and celebrated the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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A Couple's Reflections on a Recent Baptism

The sacrament of baptism is a celebration of a person's entry into a life of faith in Jesus Christ.  In the United Methodist Church, baptism is a gift of God's grace that is available for people of all ages.  When infants are baptized, parents/guardians who are professed Christians along with the church family promise to surround the child with a community of love and forgiveness.

Whenever I baptize an infant, I am especially aware of God's prevenient grace which is God's grace that is extended to us even without our conscious awareness.  It's a humbling moment as we anticipate how God's grace will be at work in this little one's life beginning at such an early age.  Our prayer is that as this child of God grows and becomes more and more aware of God's love through Christ that he/she will claim the name of Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ.

Last week, I had the priviledge of baptizing Alexander James Schmelzer, the infant son of parents, Kris and Ashley.  Ashley has a nice web blog and included this recent article of her reflections on Alex's baptism.  It's a helpful way to reflect on the joy and celebration of infant baptism from the perspective of the parents.
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When You're Stuck in the Mud

Yesterday, one of our adults in the summer new member class took me seriously when I said, "Instead of being baptized next Sunday when you join the church, maybe you should get baptized in the mud-pit."  I was referring to the youth group's annual mud-pit fun at our Crossroads facility where a small plot of land is tilled and the fire department waters it down making it nice and muddy.  Our youth love it! 

Throw in a garden hose and a plastic tarp to serve as a slide into the mud-pit and you have created a Disney World/Cow Pasture.  The mud-pit reminds me of the local swimming pool where I grew up.  It was a nice pool but it was located in the middle of a cow pasture.  I always wondered what it would have been like for me to take my towel to the other side of the fence and roll around in the swampy mud.  Now, I know. 

Back to the adult in our new member class.  I jokingly mentioned that being baptized in the mud would be very symbolic of how the water of baptism cleanses us from all the mud and yuck in our lives and that God meets us right where we are - in the mud-pit.  This theological description captured her attention and she looked back at me and asked, "If it's OK with you, I'd like to be baptized today when the youth group meets for the mud-pit." 

And so, with about twenty-five muddy youth surrounding this new member who was covered in mud, not to mention yours truly who had made a snow/mud angel, I asked her the baptism questions from our ritual and then taking the garden hose, I baptized Connie Marie in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  In the process, I washed off the mud from her head and her clothing and the youth layed hands on her and we prayed that God would continue to lead her in her faith journey.

There are eleven occurrences of "mud" in the bible.  The prophet Jeremiah had been thrown in a cistern and sank in the mud.  I told the youth that while playing in a mud-pit can be fun, that it wouldn't be fun if we stayed in the pit all the time.  Baptism and entry into the faith through baptism is how God cleanses us from our sins and pulls us out of the pit.

This mud-pit baptism was a first for me, but I shall never forget it, and I'm sure Connie won't forget either!

"I waited patiently for the Lord, he inclined to me and heard my cry.  He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.  He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God." - Psalm 40:1-3a
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A Royal Wedding

The recent engagement announcement of Prince William and Kate Middleton is creating quite a stir in the media. We love royal weddings! When the wedding takes place, all eyes will be fixed on the ceremony.

Weddings give us an opportunity to anticipate that time in the future when heaven and earth will become one. As the Lord's Prayer states it so well, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

At the end of the bible in the Book of Revelation, we have this beautiful picture of the heavenly Jerusalem descending upon earth. "He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more." - Revelation 21:3

The bible often uses the image of a wedding or a marriage to symbolize this relationship between God and creation. In the New Testament, it becomes even more particular with Jesus Christ (the groom) and the church (the bride.)

This is one of the main reasons why the covenant of Christian marriage is considered one of the seven Sacraments of the Catholic church and at least seen as "sacramental" in many Protestant traditions. The coming together of a husband and wife is a reflection of the marriage of God and creation (heaven and earth.)

As we near Christ the King Sunday this Sunday, this is the ultimate royal wedding that we anticipate and even begin to celebrate now.

Baptism - Renewal, Cleansing, & Transformation

This upcoming Sunday, January 10, is known on the church calendar as "Baptism of Our Lord" Sunday. It's a Sunday in which we remember when Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist and began his public ministry.

I can't think of any topic in the Christian faith that has caused more divisions in Christendom than the theology of baptism. With that being said, here are some thoughts on the meaning of baptism from my United Methodist/sacramental perspective.

• Baptism is the initiation of a person into a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ and a particular church family. Baptism is a communal event reminding us that our faith journey is meant to be lived within the community of faith (a local church) rather than in isolation.
• Baptism is primarily about what God has done for us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because baptism is more about what God has done and is doing in our lives and less about what we have done or are doing, the age of the person being baptized becomes irrelevant.
• OK. Let me qualify the above point. Since baptism is primarily about what God has done, and less about what we have done, infants and young children are invited to receive baptism, provided that a parent or guardian is willing to affirm Christian vows on behalf of the baby or young child being baptized. If baptism is about an initiation into a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ (see point #1) then a baby or young child will need to rely on a parent or guardian who is living out the Christian faith.
• For people who are against infant baptism because they believe each person should be able to decide to become a Christian or not, here are a couple of thoughts on this. 1) As the baby grows with the support of a Christian parent or guardian and the support of a local church, the hope is that this child will one day profess the Christian faith for himself/herself. 2) Since we live in a highly individualistic culture and the Bible comes out of a highly communal oriented culture, infant baptism makes sense only when we place a high emphasis on the role of the community when it comes to baptism.
• Since baptism is primarily about what God has done and is doing, we believe a person only needs to be baptized once, even if that person was baptized as an infant, or if a person has fallen away from the faith (short of publicly denouncing his/her faith.) If a person would be baptized again, it is like saying that God wasn't faithful in the baptismal covenant. It's not whether or not God has been faithful. It's on whether or not we have been faithful.
• There are many ways to renew our baptismal covenant without being baptized again. 1) For young people, confirmation is a wonderful process for a young person to reaffirm his or her baptism by reflecting on the meaning of the Christian faith and professing membership vows. 2) Every time we receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion, we celebrate what God has done for us in Jesus Christ and offer ourselves in joyful obedience to continue to live out our faith. 3) Every time the church offers baptism in worship, the congregation has an opportunity to renew their baptismal vows. "With you, we renew our vows..." we say from our ritual. 4) Participate in a baptism renewal service which we will be offering this Sunday for "Baptism of our Lord Sunday."
• Since Jesus was baptized, the question is often asked why this was necessary since Jesus was sinless. While it's true that Jesus didn't need cleansing from sins as we do, baptism isn't only about the cleansing of sins, it's also about responding to God's covenant faithfulness and responding in joyful obedience. Jesus' baptism marks the beginning of his public ministry in which he would faithfully live out his mission of being the Savior of the world.

Ah! So much more to say but that's enough for now. Have a blessed "Baptism of Our Lord" Sunday!