Baptism Yearning
I was nine years old when my parents finally
relented and arranged for me to be baptized. I wanted to be baptized because I yearned to belong
to a community of faith that I knew and loved. I wanted to be part of my
ancestry and heritage.
My uncle baptized me with full immersion in a
font the size of a swimming pool, dunking me three times into the deep water.
Years later my family and I left that church
and I found myself without a faith community. That was okay for a while – I was
a teenager and then a college student and it was after all the 1970’s – a lot
of cultural change was happening and I was trying to find my way through it.
By the time I was 31 I was married with a new
born baby. My husband was raised Roman Catholic, and it was important to him
that we have our precious baby baptized immediately. So we entered baptism prep
classes at the local Roman Church and had her baptized at six weeks of age.
By the time our son was born four years later
we were active members of a neighborhood Episcopal Church, a church very different
in practice than the church of my childhood. During communion, for about six
months I just watched, feeling too uncertain and suspicious of the Eucharist to
participate.
Finally, on Easter Day I went up for
communion. The priest looked at me, hesitated a moment, and then placed the
wafer in my palm with these words, “The body of Christ, the bread of heaven.”
Afterward the priest approached me at coffee hour and asked me about my
baptism. I responded, “My uncle immersed
me into a pool of water three times and said ‘In the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.’” That was enough to assure the priest that,
despite the fact that I was raised in the Mormon Church, my baptism was
official and counted.
Baptism and Holy Communion are profoundly
connected to one another in Christian faith. Baptism is the ritual that
identifies us as Christian. We are baptized into the Christian family of God
and Jesus. We are not baptized Episcopal or Roman Catholic or Lutheran. We are
baptized Christian – that’s why my baptism, even in the Mormon Church counted.
There was a big discussion by the World Council of Churches in Lima, Peru in 1982,[i]
which affirmed the bond and unity of baptism for all Christians.
Each week, as we receive the bread and the wine
of Holy Communion, we are reminded of our baptism and our desire to live as
Jesus teaches. The Episcopal Church defines how we are to live as Christians
through the baptismal covenant, which we will say shortly. Essentially living
as Jesus teaches means that - with God’s help - we will care for all people,
treat everyone with dignity and respect, work for justice and peace, share our
resources with others and continue to learn and grow in our own faith.
What drew me to baptism and what called me
back to Church after a sixteen year absence, was a desire for community. I
yearned to be part of a community of people who were wrestling with the issues
of life and making meaning out of the various ups and downs of life through a
common set of teachings. I needed the teachings to be broad enough and
expansive enough to accept my questioning heart and mind and yet anchored
enough in the tradition of the church universal to give me a solid foundation
from which to question and seek understanding.
My yearnings may mirror some of your own
desires. Certainly my desire for community, belonging and meaning making, find
cohesion in the story of Ruth and her mother in law, Naomi. Naomi’s husband has
died, leaving her a widow. Her two sons have also died, leaving her daughter’s
in law abandoned as well. Previously Naomi encouraged her daughter’s in law to
return to their families. But in a famous passage used in many wedding
ceremonies, Ruth states that Naomi is now her family and she will stay with
Naomi, where ever she goes. So Naomi and Ruth return to Naomi’s homeland. There
they are befriended by Boaz, a relative of Naomi’s deceased husband. Under the
guidance of Naomi, Ruth follows the custom of the land, and is soon married to
Boaz. This union affords both women a place to belong, safety and security. It
further helps that Ruth has a baby boy, ensuring them both a lifetime of security.
The story concludes by reminding us that Ruth’s son is the grandfather of
David, who becomes the famous king of Israel. David is known in the Christian
story as the ancestor of Jesus.[ii]
The story reflects the reality of women in the
ancient world, unable to survive without a male family member’s protection. But
more to the point the story is about family, belonging, and community – of
tragedy and new life. And that is what we are doing today – baptizing two
babies into the family, so that they
will have a community of faith to journey with them through the ups and downs
of life.
Today, in addition to baptism, we will commission
a group of parishioners who, on behalf of the Vestry, are going to travel to
Liberia to work out the details of how we can partner with a church in Monrovia to build an Episcopal school. This is a project of our
"Undesignated Gifts Fund" grant process. These parishioners will live out their
baptismal ministry in a very particular way through this journey, reminding us,
that through baptism we are each, in our own way, called to be the hands and
heart of Christ in the world.
[i] http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/wcc-commissions/faith-and-order-commission/i-unity-the-church-and-its-mission/baptism-eucharist-and-ministry-faith-and-order-paper-no-111-the-lima-text.html
[ii]
Process and Faith Lectionary Commentary: http://processandfaith.org/resources/lectionary-commentary/yearb/2012-11-11/proper-27
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