David’s Baptism

Vic, Nate and David after the baptism

On Mother’s Day we were in Dickinson for David’s baptism. I have been meaning to share some of the pictures of the day, but haven’t gotten to it. We have had such a rush of a spring with high school track meets and a few meets of Paulina’s that we have been able to get to, and everything else; it has been crazy. Tonight as I am watching the DVR version of The Voice finale I will try to catch up with a post or two. I have also admitted that I have spring allergies. As I look back to the many years of fighting through illnesses and even bronchitis during track season, I started to look at when the pollen began each year, and my sinus issues match with the blooming of the trees and the flowers and all. And I love gardens. Oh well…. at least since spring was actually early this year, I am healed by now and should be feeling better this Friday and Saturday when we head for the State Meet. It will be much better than sleeping through most of the meet in the tent just trying to wake up for our events. Maybe I will actually see the meet and enjoy it for a change.

David’s baptism

Well, hope you enjoyed the pictures. The baptism was in the UCC Church in Dickinson, ND. Nate’s sister was the sponsor, but Mr. Papa would not let her hold little David until it was over. What a deal! The outfit he had on during the event is a family heirloom handed down from the mid-1800’s. It is still in pretty good condition even for having gone through all three of their children. It was used by Nate and his father and beyond. Pretty neat.

Jaxon and Ana during the service

The baptism seemed to be a bit of a problem for Ana. I think it was because she was not the center of attention, but how could that be. HaHA!!

Prayers

Here is the message we had in church today. The Bible I used was the NRSV, and the story I quoted was written by Mark Twain and published after he died, “The War Prayer.” The scripture used today were: Genesis 9:8-17, I Peter 3:18-22, Mark 1:9-15 and Psalm 25:1-10. The title in the bulletin was “Cleansing Water.”

Some years ago, in fact it was nearly a decade ago, I was in charge of an oral interpretation team. I was quite fortunate to have one outstanding student in the group, though I can’t take any credit for coaching him. I merely did the paper work to enter the meets, drove the van to get us there, and gave him motivational support. The young man with the help of his father worked and earned many places and medals including two at state. One of the pieces he did was always a bone of contention because it was a humorous in the oratory category that everyone thought should be serious, but there was no rule stating that. The other was a straight out serious in the serious category, and though it was an unusual piece he did it so well.

The reason I say it was an unusual piece is because it was a serious story written by the great humorist, Mark Twain. It wasn’t published until after he died as his publishers convinced him it would cause him too much bad publicity, and they didn’t want it to hurt his income. It was titled “The War Prayer” and is set in a church on a Sunday morning and the preacher has just prayed for a group of young soldiers who are heading off to war. He is asking for their safety and for victory for their efforts. As soon as the preacher finished his prayer an elderly man enters the church saying he is sent from God to offer another prayer. Here is a bit of that counter prayer.

The gentleman begins by saying, “When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory – must follow it, cannot help but follow it.” …he tells the congregation that “the unspoken part of the [preacher’s] prayer” is… “O Lord our Father, … help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander … in rags and hunger and thirst, … broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it – for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, …water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that … seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.”

Having heard that reading over and over for an entire speech season, I am now more conscious of what a prayer is really asking. I am more aware of how I choose my words when imploring God for help. Is the issue in my heart to prevail or is it for the good of all involved. Is what I am asking of God only for my benefit, or is it for what is right and good and best for those around me and is it only for those I love, or is it for everyone and everything that God loves? These are questions that I have learned to ask from hearing a reading about prayer in an unlikely place from an unlikely writer.

Now prayer is not mentioned directly in any of the passages we read for today, but seriously, prayer has to be a given in these stories. The Genesis reading about the great flood in the days of Noah does not includes the information that many of the people in that day were wild and wonton to the point that God was sorry for creating the human race. You have to read a couple of chapters earlier to get that background.  But we know that part of the story from our youth. We also know that Noah was God fearing and obedient and I would bet someone who spent time in prayer, and God saved him and all who were with him. And, after the flood because Noah and his family were obedient to God, he made a covenant with them not to destroy humankind or the earth in such a manner ever again.

Jesus disciple, Peter mentions the days of the flood as he writes of how Christ suffered for the sins of all humans when he was “put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.” Peter writes of the flood as cleansing the earth of the sins in the days of old, but now because of Christ our cleansing comes through baptism just as Christ was baptized by John. Yet Peter makes it clear that baptism in itself does not cleanse us or wash away any of the dirt from our sinful body, but it is an “appeal to God for a good conscience.” What is prayer other than an appeal to God?

The passage in Mark today is again three different events put together in one reading. Mark is nothing if not efficient with his words. He would never get docked by an English professor for being too verbose, too wordy in an essay. The opening three verses are Mark’s account of the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan by John. Mark mentions the proclamation by God that Jesus is his Son and the Spirit descending onto Jesus.

The middle section is about Jesus going into the wilderness and being tempted. Again Mark doesn’t give us any details on this. In fact, he barely uses 40 words to tell us about the 40 days that Jesus spent in the wilderness pondering his ministry and being tempted by Satan. [We will spend time on Wednesday looking at that event in detail by using the words of other gospels. It will be the beginning of our journey with Jesus.]

In the final section of today’s gospel reading Mark tells how Jesus went to Galilee preaching and proclaiming the gospel after the time when John was arrested. This is a time that we know from other readings that Jesus often spent time in prayer. Just two Sundays ago, we read how the disciples went looking for him in the early morning and found him in a secluded place in prayer.

One passage that is in the lectionary for today that I didn’t include in the set of scriptures is Psalm 25:1-10. The lectionary always suggests using the Psalm as the call to worship and so it is rarely read with the scripture. Today and for the next few weeks, the Psalm really should be the message focus. This one is a prayer for guidance and deliverance. It is a prayer attributed to King David. [read it]

As much as Jesus taught us to pray the prayer we recite each Sunday, the prayers of the Psalms are also guidance for us in how we are to petition God. “To you O Lord, I lift up my soul.” As we come before God, we should be humble and open and honest with our feelings. We don’t ask for our enemies to be ripped to shreds or to die as was the case in the unspoken prayer in the Twain story, but we ask just that our enemies are not gloating over us.

In this prayer, David also asks God not to remember the transgressions of his youth. I suspect that may be a good example for a few of us. Instead David asks God simply to remember him. What a good guide for us; we ask God to remember us and those we care about, those we know of who need comforting, or healing, or just the reminder of God’s presence. Mostly this prayer shows we are to ask God to point us in the right way, to lead us to the paths that we are to follow. We are to ask that God teach us what we need to know to obey his laws and his promises to us.

This year, as we come together during the Lenten times of worship, be they Sunday mornings or Wednesday evenings after a soup or sandwich meal, let us do so with the attitude that we have come together to worship and to pray in earnest for our families, our friends, our church and ourselves.

We might be on this 40 day journey through the wilderness and around the ancient roads with Jesus, but we are also on a journey of our own, exploring our faith more deeply trying to understand what we are still able to accomplish and how we go about reaching out to others both inside and outside of our own faith community. Our journey may not be as strange as the story of The War Prayer, and it may not be as familiar as the story of Noah and the great flood, but whatever it is for each of us, I hope it is one filled with prayer. Amen!

Granddaughter baptized with message: A New Way

On Sunday, I had the pleasure of baptizing my granddaughter, Ana. It was a truly special day for me, and “apparently” for some in the congregation. I haven’t been able to look back to find how long it has been since we had a baptism, but I know it has been sometime. See, we are an “Empty Nesters” Church, and though it may seem very sad, I am thinking that we will find our purpose other than doing really nice funerals. I hope we can find more meaningful things to do as we continue on. In the meantime here are some pictures and the message from that day.

The baptismal group all lined up.

Jaxon asking Paulina to take the picture.

Ana seems to be yawning, or maybe she was singing.

Sponsors, Jessica and Tony with Ana. We don’t have a picture with her and the parents. Good grief!

The family at the baptism.

She just wanted to sleep. Maybe she was nice and warm.

The cake at the reception. This was not cut correctly, and so wasn’t eaten. Blame the grandmother.

Ana with cousin Luke and Great Aunt Alvina.

As listed above the title was: “A New Way.” The scriptures used were: Deuteronomy 34:1-12, Matthew 22:34-46 and I Thessalonians 2:1-8.

This is what was said, well without the ad libbing.

It seems that I come here every Sunday and tell you how busy I have been in the past week. In truth I am not so sure this week was all that busy. I might want to think that I was busy with grandchildren at our house, but in reality there was quite a bit of sitting around time. Jaxon and I sat to eat, sat to play some games, and sat to watch some Bubble Guppies, or as I was starting to say it Gubble Buppies. Now Ana and I sat even more. We sat for feedings, for rockings and just to sit.

Of course there were a few moments of craziness, especially when the phone rang about three times at once. See I don’t know what happens at your place, but at our place there must be some sort of technological aura. We can go for a whole day without any sort of calls, and then all phones go off at once or in tandem. And the best part is if someone doesn’t answer their cell phones then you call the house phone. Usually when I didn’t answer the cell phone it was because I was already talking on it to someone else, and I could hear the beep coming through, but depending on who was calling and my ability to call back, I would just ignore it.

See I am not that tech savvy with my phone. I have only had the thing for about five years, so really haven’t had time to figure it out. I have tried, but really haven’t got a clue about putting one call on hold to answer the other, and so on and so on. Well that means when the house phone rings while I am already on the cell phone, it just makes life even crazier. And some days I wonder what it would be like to go back to simple and quiet and sitting around playing board games or just visiting with no technology driving us all up the wall.

Perhaps that is why it seems so relaxing to stop and read stories like the one about Moses of this week. Though when you think about Moses and all he went through with the Israelites, he might just as well have had a cell phone or two. Maybe if Aaron would have texted him about the people going crazy wondering when he was going to return from the mountain with the 10 Commandments, maybe there wouldn’t have been a golden calf and all such things, but then again maybe it would have all been worse.

Today we read about the final trip Moses makes to the top of a mountain to hear from God. Today we find ourselves in the wilderness with Moses for the last time. As I got to looking at this story, I realized it is a good passage to use to think of an ending, perhaps a passage to use at a funeral. Well truthfully this is about the passing away and the burial of Moses. God leads him to the top of the mountain; he looks out at all of the land that the Israelites will possess and he dies. No one knows where he is buried because he was buried by God and not any of the Israelites. We are at an ending.

We could look at it that way, but we are not going to. We are going to look at this story with a different, a new idea in mind. This story isn’t just about the end of the trip that the Israelites take out of Egypt. This is the beginning of the story of how the Israelites take over the land of Canaan. This passage is also the story of how Moses passes on and passes the reigns, the role of leadership of the Israelites over to Joshua. It is a bit of a passing of the torch sort of story. It is a handing down of the ways. Moses gives Joshua the people to lead and the faith to follow.

Today in the act of baptism we have passed the faith to another generation. Ana is not the first of her family to be baptized, and she is not the first of her age group, but she is among many children in families around the world who believe in the importance of passing on their faith. Ana’s parents and sponsors and family members and you as a congregation have promised to guide and support her as she grows in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and an appreciation of what God has in store for her life.

And even though Ana will not be an every Sunday member of our congregation attending Sunday services and Sunday School, we have a mutual bond through her baptism in our midst, and we will continue to care about her well-being as she grows in her faith. Baptism is an important sacrament in all Christian Churches. It is a bond we share as Christians. We are baptized into Christ’s family to become joint heirs of God’s kingdom when it is our turn to pass on as Moses did on the top of Pisgah on Mt. Nebo

This chapter in Deuteronomy was used in a speech by Martin Luther King Jr. in his final speech in Memphis the night before he was assassinated. He compared himself to Moses in that he had seen the Promised Land. He knew that Civil Rights was on the verge of becoming the law and a reality, and he said it didn’t matter if he lived to see it because he knew it would happen. We see now that this story is several things. It is certainly the looking into the future of what is to come. Each people, each generation has a Promised Land that we look forward to, but it is also the story of handing over of the leadership, and mostly the faith to the next generation. Just as Moses handed over the leadership of the Israelites to Joshua, so we hand over the stories, the workings, the followings of our faith to the next generation through the act of baptism.

In considering the lesson we looked at from the book of Matthew, I am curious why none of the Jewish leaders ever questioned Jesus about the sacrament of baptism. Boy babies were brought to the temple when they were only a few days old for the act of circumcision, but baptism was not a Jewish ritual, and Jesus was baptized as an adult, yet they never questioned the need or truth of that. No instead they tried everything to trap Jesus in terms of the law, and this passage was no exception.

The section immediately before the one we read today was about how the Sadducees who do not believe in the resurrection, tried to trap Jesus on a question about what happens in terms of marriage in the afterlife. When he silences them, the Pharisees have their turn. The passage we read in Matthew earlier is another trap where they try to get Jesus to choose one commandment as being greater than any of the others. And again they fail. Jesus is always ahead of their plots and plans even to the time when they arrest him. Jesus is always on to their schemes no matter which set of leaders is after him. So too it should be for us when we face the issues in the world around us.

Yes, because we know Christ and all that he did for us days like today are not a linear/straight down handing over of the faith like you pass on a set of rules. Instead, ours is a perpetual circle of faith and life and resurrection. We bring future generations with us into the realm of Jesus Christ. Because of Jesus we become the children of God and when this earthly life ends for us, we are given a new life through the grace of Jesus.

And, today there is no but, it is an AND. And when we believe when we give ourselves over to Christ, he asks us to follow the greatest of all commandments: To love the Lord our God with all of our heart and soul and mind, and when we do that we will also love our neighbor as our self without a question. By the way, our neighbors include everyone. It isn’t just the person who lives beside us, or sits beside us in the pew on Sundays, but everyone, even those of us who are not so loveable. Jesus asks us to do that, and hard as it may seem, when we give ourselves over to his grace and his love, it becomes possible. So let’s remember today as we leave, that just as Moses handed the staff of leadership to Joshua at the end of his days, and just as we pass on our faith in the act of baptism, it is also so very important that we live our faith each and every day by following the greatest commandment that Jesus gave us, to love one another. Amen!!