October 2024
Dear Church Family,
This month we get to celebrate baptism and membership during our Sunday service October 13th. The weeks leading up to that Sunday, we are taking a deeper look at the scriptural background for both elements of the faith journey, and it has sparked some lifegiving conversations around what it means to be a Christian. Both Baptism and Membership have been areas rife with conflict when it comes to expectations and practices, sometimes escalating to gatekeeping and judgment. As a Pastor I find the conversations surrounding these elements of participation in God’s family deeply moving, while recognizing how easily we can make it more about our definitions than God’s action.
Baptism is one of 2 sacraments we celebrate in the PC(USA), the other being communion. These are ‘visible signs of invisible grace’ - each draws us into the reality of God’s presence in our midst, and are reflections or ways of remembering God’s faithfulness in our past. Ultimately as we do them, we are looking ahead in hope for what God is doing next. Every time we celebrate a baptism, we are invited to remember our own baptism, to know that there is nothing we can do to earn God’s love, and that the fullness of God’s Spirit is ever present to us. We may also do this remembering when we come to communion - because baptism is deeply linked with the life of faith, and the cost of discipleship. We remember at the table all that God has done for us, and continues to do all around us. We are reminded again that it isn’t so much about our faithfulness as it is about God’s faithfulness, and when we come upon a love as transformative as Christs, we are inspired into faithful living, sharing the good news not just with our lips but with our actions.
Baptism is often thought of as a New Testament sort of thing, though the practice of passing through water and becoming something new is as old as the Genesis creation account. we see Jesus get baptized by John in the Jordan, which is a river connected deeply with Old Testament stories of God’s renewal and promises for the people of God. When Jesus is baptized, it is before any of his public ministry takes place, and in that moment, in which we imagine the triune God on display, we hear those words, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” God’s word of blessing and belonging are not earned, they are given and proclaimed. We too are invited to consider God’s words over us, and operate from a deep sense of blessing and belonging so that we might go out into the world to be bearers of the good news in all that we do.
With Christ’s death and resurrection, we reflect on Christ’s ultimate passing through the waters of death and being resurrected into new life. We too are invited to become a new creation - perhaps a truer or healed version of ourselves. Not without fault, but filled with humility and gratitude for all that God might do in us and through us as we depend on the Spirit’s power for guidance and provision.
What’s wild to me is how in Matthew’s Gospel account, directly after Jesus is baptized he is sent into the wilderness and is tempted by the Devil. Not to do crazy things, but tempted to do good things for bad reasons. I can’t tell you how many times I have witnessed seasons of blessings followed by seasons of wilderness, struggle and temptation. I realize that Christ, also being God, could withstand this temptation in the wilderness on his own. But for us, I appreciate that we do baptism in community, and we as the community make vows to stay close to those who are baptized - to walk with one another in the ups and downs of faith in the midst of life’s chaos. This in my mind, is also the purpose of membership - that we do faith life together.
Membership also has its tricky bits around governance and what it means to actually work together, but at the heart of it all is the humility to follow after God’s invitations together. It means walking with one another, serving one another, pointing each other to Christ, and rejoicing in God’s presence through every season. Whether you join us on October 13th or not, I pray you spend some time in prayer for our baptism celebration, remembering God’s voice of belonging in your life, and that you would seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance on what it means to be a part of this big, expansive family of God.
Many Blessings for your journey,
Pastor Becca
