Preaching on the Sunday that your own child is baptized creates an interesting dynamic. I didn't think it would affect me the way it did, I had seen baptisms, performed baptisms, but making promises for your own child is a new experience. I had many emotions going into the service, and felt the best way to offer the sermon was in the form of a letter.
To the child I love:
On an occasion like today, when we gather together with a loving community of faith, and family and friends, those who live close and those who traveled a great distance, there is no better way to tell you how I feel, than in a message from my heart to yours. I loved you before you were born and my heart swells with pride everyday that we spend together.
I must admit that I know you won’t remember this day as you continue to grow older. You won’t remember the people sitting next to you. You won’t remember the baptismal celebration. You definitely won’t remember the sermon. But that doesn’t make today any less special. It is special because at this moment, you are surrounded by the grace and love, hope and promise of God’s presence. The presence I pray you always turn to in times of joy and sorrow. It is that presence that never leaves you or me.
In looking at your baptism, I acknowledge it is a strange way to show the world that you are claimed and anointed by God and a member of God’s family. You are drowned in water, cleansed from sin, and given an invisible sign of the cross on your forehead. Promises are made for you to be raised in the faith and taught the traditions and confess the creeds. You are encouraged to worship regularly, because even though your baptism makes you a new creation, you are captive to sin and cannot free yourself, and need to be reminded regularly of God’s forgiveness and grace in your life. You will make mistakes, you will fall down, but God has given you people like me to always walk with you, and to pick you up, to love you, to support you, and to encourage you. Baptism is a strange way to be connected to this family, I apologize that it is hard to understand, but it is a precious gift that I hope you will cherish as you grow in faith.
As I experienced the healing of the man born blind in John’s gospel, I want to show and tell you how this story has a profound connection to your life and baptism story. The man, who spends his days sitting alongside the road begging, doesn’t even ask for healing. He doesn’t utter one word, but still God chooses him to receive the miracle gift of sight. With a little holy spit to make mud, a tender touch, and a washing in the Pool of Siloam, the blind man is no longer blind. His life is now changed from this day forth. He will not return to his life of blindness, and doesn’t want to anyway.
Your baptism, dear child, is not your choice. Sorry, you don’t have any say in it. It’s not your pastor’s choice. It’s not Mom’s choice. It’s not Dad’s choice. Even if you are old enough to speak, and say you want to be baptized, this decision is out of your hands. Baptism is a gift given to you by God. You are chosen by God for healing, forgiveness, and redemption, without having to ask. God takes the holy waters of creation and with the Word, makes a sacrament of celebration. And in the baptismal waters, you are changed, you are transformed, from this day forth. You cannot return to your life before baptism, and I promise, along with your family of faith, that we will uphold you in this new life.
Even though the blind man doesn’t ask, his sight is transformed. He can see! He can give witness to the living God who stands in front of him. He proclaims the good news that God has given him his sight. He could boast in himself, his parents, or even the religious leaders. But this man boasts in God, and gives God the glory and the credit for this miracle. His neighbors can’t believe this is the same man, showing surprise and skepticism. The Pharisees question the legitimacy of this healing and investigate to confirm his story. His parents mistakenly kept quiet about his transformation for fear of being thrown out of the community. Through all of his trials, he continues to understand more about who healed him, and proclaim God’s presence in his life.
Precious little one, because you are graciously chosen first by God in your baptism, you have the duty and the joy to respond to God’s gift with praise and thanksgiving. You now can boast in God, and not in yourself, because it is God who shows you daily that your life is because of him. You will learn to love and forgive, and you will be loved and forgiven. You will treat your neighbors the way that God expects, including your neighbors that you don’t really like. You will seek justice and peace in this world, even when the world is surprised and skeptical at your actions.
Living out your baptismal promise will cause some to question you and investigate if your story is true. You will face trials that pull you from God, disasters that cannot be explained. Sickness that takes the life of a family member. Bullies that crush your self-worth. Job loss. Floods that threatened to destroy your home. People who hate and despise you. Mom and Dad who will set strict boundaries, who will make tough decisions that you don’t like, who will make mistakes in parenting, and who need your patience.
Martin Luther once said that parents are more important than bishops and pastors, because they have the majority of the time each week to teach faith to children. That is pretty big responsibility that you can help Mom and Dad with.
But through all of the trials you will face, through all of the mistakes you will make, all of the time others are at fault, remember that God has never left you. God sticks with you, makes you holy, washes the mud from your eyes, so that you can see the world more clearly. Only two verses from John’s story are about healing…the rest is the man being sent to live out his healing - showing his friends, family, and fellow beggars God’s good news. Displaying God’s work in his life. Your baptism is only a tiny fraction of your life, a fleeting moment, but living out your baptismal call, who and whose you are as God’s child, is what you are sent to do. Showing others God’s good news in your life of faith. Return to the promises of your baptism whenever you need the mud washed away.
I probably need to end this letter, because I have a habit of talking a bit too much. But I want you to know how much joy you bring me. Hold me in your heart, as you are held in mine. Little child, I am the light in your life, the light of the world. Do you believe in the Son of Man? You have now seen him… in fact he is the one speaking with you.
Yours truly,
Jesus
