Space to write, space to create and space to let the spirit speak.
Write Now!
This blog started as a 'Lenten Writing Project', where we wrote each day in Lent. Now that Summer is here, let's keep up the discipline of writing with a weekly writing challenge! A prompt will be posted each week and anyone is welcome to join in and post their writing here or participate just by reading it.
Every writer has their own special light to add to this blog and all of your writing offerings are appreciated, whether poetry, prose, essay, thoughts, lists or comments and encouragement.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Lenten Writing Prompt #24
Write about a baptism that you participated in. What does it mean to you to be part of the faith community for that person?
A Letter to my Daughter on Her Baptismal Day (I wrote this to her after we put her to sleep the same night she was baptized) This morning was the greatest day of your life, and the second greatest of mine only to the first day I ever saw you. This morning, you were re-born, into the greatest family of all – the family of God. This morning you were baptized, washed with living water, sealed with the Spirit, and marked with the Cross of Christ forever. You have always belonged to God, and through the unfailing nature of God’s promise, God let you know it, God has chosen you! How exciting! How amazing! Today, your baptism was a sign and testimony of God’s grace, awakening, and creating faith. It is now the promises of your father, your God-parents, this new Christian family, and me to nurture your newly developing faith, to encourage your questions and inspire you to think about God’s gifts of grace as precious and yours to share, to support you as you grow and discover the ways God loves and cares for you personally, and to help you learn how to spread God’s love liberally in everything you do and say and are. I look in your giant deep blue eyes, Hazel, and am inspired to teach you this love. To teach you the truest meaning of community, and faith, and trust, and compassion. I live for the day you realize the strength you can receive from the mutual comfort and consolation your brothers and sisters in Christ share with you. And I pray that you will continue in the covenant God made with you this day by participating in the community of Christ, hearing the Word and receiving Christ’s Supper, by proclaiming the good news in word and deed, and by striving for justice and peace in all the world. May you never need to ask me for support, because you’ll always know I’m here, and my love – not unlike Gods – is unconditional, always available, and free. Mom
When my husband and I were first married, he mentioned that he had not been baptized. He is the youngest of 6 kids and though the family were occassional church-goers it seems lives just got busy and he never was baptized. I thought that baptism was very important and I so wanted that experience for him but it seemed that the timing was just never right for him. After a number of years we had our first child and of course, we wanted her baptized. To my surprise during the small ceremony we had for her and some other family members, my husband stepped forward and asked to be baptized as well.
I think it was one of the most romantic things he has ever done.
I was baptized when I was less than a month old, I don't remember any of it know. We didn't really talk about baptism when I was growing up, so I didn't hear any stories abut it. In my mid twenties somehow it did come up and I asked who my baptismal sponsor's were. Turns out they were both sets of grandparents. I was quite honored to find that out. I had had great grandparents - there was one normal seriously sweet person and three eccentric people - a wonderful mix to learn from and have kicking around in me still! I also went through a time in my younger days when I wasn't so sure that infant baptism was the the best thing to do or even scripturally correct. But I got over that and I now see it as a wonderful gift that God claimed me before I knew what was going and loved me even then. (It also give me permission to admit that I'm not always sure what's going on now - and God still loves me!)
I especially love your last paragraph; I went through the same quest; and isn't it wonderful that we can be safely questioning and growing and changing, and even wrong! and God still completely loves us.
I agree - but at the time it didn't feel safe - it was pretty core questioning for me - theologically and socially. It seems like the road I needed to take but it was scary at the time. Perhaps my first foundational questioning - part of growing up. I glad I am where I am but it gives me empathy for those in that part of their journey - at any age.
My belief in the meanings of baptism have changed through the years. I wasn't baptized as a child and worried that I might not get to heaven since in the service every Sunday at that time, it was repeated, "He who believes and is baptized shall be saved." When I confessed to a Sunday School teacher that I wasn't saved, she assured me I was because I believed. I was baptized later before my confirmation.
The baptisms I have most recently been part of are my grandchildren's. Neither were baptized as babies. It touched me to watch their expressions as they leaned over and then raised their face to listen to the pastor, hold their candle and look out at the congregations they already knew. It seemed to me to be a knowing acceptance.
This is a poem that has come out of thinking about baptism the last couple days. It's still taking shape.
Taken into the fold, part of the count, yet its name wasn't there on the rolls.
No tag was found that proved it belonged to the green pasture section of town.
Bare, scratched, bloodied hands reached into the brambles and gently determinedly freed the young lamb.
I was baptized at 2 weeks old by my father, who was also my pastor. I had to be baptized quickly so that my grandmother, who was visiting, could be there to see and also hold me - she was one of my godparents and I lived very far away from most of my family. I don't remember my baptism, but I did write a poem about a baptism that I had in Yosemite (not that I needed another one, but hey, God is bountiful). Every time I climb the mist trail to the top of Vernal falls, I get to participate in God kissing me with pure sunlight and water, climbing the rock steps to the top of the falls for a magnificent view. I can think of no place closer to God than Yosemite. Truly.
The Baptism
The gentle mist swirlsandtwirls around my diminutive body dancing in my hair and kissing my lips and ears I am ascending to heaven surounded by rainbows and new green life the sun bestows its final blessing upon my shoulders and I am baptized.
1. Recently, I attended a baptism at my cousin's church in Minnesota. He is the Pastor there, and was able to baptize his own new, and first grandchild, Ella. During the words of the "Thanksgiving at the Font" (cranberry pg 230), where the history of God using water to deliver us, is recited, I could hear the water being poured from an urn, until the last word was spoken. I had never heard it done this way before, and it really made the Word and Sacrament come alive for me that day in a new way.
2. A memory from many years ago: At my first three hour (Lutheran) Easter Vigil Service, starting at 11pm, Baptism is one third of the Service. At this church, the font is a gigantic seashell, 3 feet in diameter.
Three people are baptized this night in water that includes water brought from the Jordan River(soon after, sprinkled on the congregation). The first candidate is an adult, then an older child, the last one a naked infant, who is immersed, then lifted up three times.
It is a unique visual symbol of baptism, for me. I feel a link between the Early Church and the Present Church in this moment of participating in an early form of the Sacrament.
3. Finally, in my own two daughters' baptisms, we not only had the Church communities as witnesses, but my Mother attended, representing the Faith community of family and friends from my hometown. However, this meant that both were done within two weeks of their birth, because my Mother had to return to her home, 2000 miles away. She made sure everything was done "right" She made the mandatory family-recipe potato salad/ham/fruit salad/cake lunch reception. My sisters made the Christening gown and hat. The whole church was invited.
Godparents were chosen with care, as they might have to actually take care of my babies if "something should happen". Both of them got several godparents, chosen from their namesakes--my sisters; and their grandparents, and one honorary great-great aunt.
These were people were chosen for their faith in God, and similar values, and love for these children. It was an important decision to make. It was also important for me(and for my Mother, who would not leave town until the babies were safely baptized), to make sure that my children were sealed into the Family of God, as soon as possible. Now it was up to the family (all of us) and their Church, and the Holy Spirit, to help them to grow up in the Faith and know the Love of God. (And they did)
In each of these three baptisms, I was involved in a different way: Some more passively, in prayer and meditation; and some more actively, as in the daily interaction with my own babies. Just as each person is unique, yet still a person; so each of my baptism experiences are the same, yet different. s.h.
A Letter to my Daughter on Her Baptismal Day
ReplyDelete(I wrote this to her after we put her to sleep the same night she was baptized)
This morning was the greatest day of your life, and the second greatest of mine only to the first day I ever saw you. This morning, you were re-born, into the greatest family of all – the family of God. This morning you were baptized, washed with living water, sealed with the Spirit, and marked with the Cross of Christ forever. You have always belonged to God, and through the unfailing nature of God’s promise, God let you know it, God has chosen you! How exciting! How amazing! Today, your baptism was a sign and testimony of God’s grace, awakening, and creating faith. It is now the promises of your father, your God-parents, this new Christian family, and me to nurture your newly developing faith, to encourage your questions and inspire you to think about God’s gifts of grace as precious and yours to share, to support you as you grow and discover the ways God loves and cares for you personally, and to help you learn how to spread God’s love liberally in everything you do and say and are. I look in your giant deep blue eyes, Hazel, and am inspired to teach you this love. To teach you the truest meaning of community, and faith, and trust, and compassion. I live for the day you realize the strength you can receive from the mutual comfort and consolation your brothers and sisters in Christ share with you. And I pray that you will continue in the covenant God made with you this day by participating in the community of Christ, hearing the Word and receiving Christ’s Supper, by proclaiming the good news in word and deed, and by striving for justice and peace in all the world. May you never need to ask me for support, because you’ll always know I’m here, and my love – not unlike Gods – is unconditional, always available, and free.
Mom
tears and smiles..
DeleteLove it Liz. It says it all!
DeleteMarlene
Perfect : )
Deleteby Pat Mason
ReplyDeleteWhen my husband and I were first married, he mentioned that he had not been baptized. He is the youngest of 6 kids and though the family were occassional church-goers it seems lives just got busy and he never was baptized.
I thought that baptism was very important and I so wanted that experience for him but it seemed that the timing was just never right for him.
After a number of years we had our first child and of course, we wanted her baptized. To my surprise during the small ceremony we had for her and some other family members, my husband stepped forward and asked to be baptized as well.
I think it was one of the most romantic things he has ever done.
ohhhhhhh Clell!
DeleteYour Baptism
ReplyDeleteBaptized into the Name of Christ
And washed with his salvation,
You rise up from the grave of death.
You are God's new creation.
The Holy Spirit fills you now,
Seals you with His redemption;
Chosen by God, marked with the cross,
To live your life in celebration.
This is the Truth, the Way, the Life:
To love God’s whole creation.
You life’s been given to God above,
To be a blessing to every nation.
lovely!
DeleteI was baptized when I was less than a month old, I don't remember any of it know. We didn't really talk about baptism when I was growing up, so I didn't hear any stories abut it. In my mid twenties somehow it did come up and I asked who my baptismal sponsor's were. Turns out they were both sets of grandparents. I was quite honored to find that out. I had had great grandparents - there was one normal seriously sweet person and three eccentric people - a wonderful mix to learn from and have kicking around in me still!
ReplyDeleteI also went through a time in my younger days when I wasn't so sure that infant baptism was the the best thing to do or even scripturally correct. But I got over that and I now see it as a wonderful gift that God claimed me before I knew what was going and loved me even then. (It also give me permission to admit that I'm not always sure what's going on now - and God still loves me!)
I especially love your last paragraph; I went through the same quest; and isn't it wonderful that we can be safely questioning and growing and changing, and even wrong! and God still completely loves us.
DeleteI agree - but at the time it didn't feel safe - it was pretty core questioning for me - theologically and socially. It seems like the road I needed to take but it was scary at the time. Perhaps my first foundational questioning - part of growing up. I glad I am where I am but it gives me empathy for those in that part of their journey - at any age.
DeleteSet Free
ReplyDeleteMarlene Obie
My belief in the meanings of baptism have changed through the years. I wasn't baptized as a child and worried that I might not get to heaven since in the service every Sunday at that time, it was repeated, "He who believes and is baptized shall be saved." When I confessed to a Sunday School teacher that I wasn't saved, she assured me I was because I believed. I was baptized later before my confirmation.
The baptisms I have most recently been part of are my grandchildren's. Neither were baptized as babies. It touched me to watch their expressions as they leaned over and then raised their face to listen to the pastor, hold their candle and look out at the congregations they already knew. It seemed to me to be a knowing acceptance.
This is a poem that has come out of thinking about baptism the last couple days. It's still taking shape.
Taken into the fold,
part of the count, yet
its name wasn't there
on the rolls.
No tag was found
that proved it belonged
to the green pasture
section of town.
Bare, scratched, bloodied hands
reached into the brambles
and gently determinedly
freed the young lamb.
There you are, come along now.
I love your poem! And your sharing of your experience : )
DeleteI was baptized at 2 weeks old by my father, who was also my pastor. I had to be baptized quickly so that my grandmother, who was visiting, could be there to see and also hold me - she was one of my godparents and I lived very far away from most of my family. I don't remember my baptism, but I did write a poem about a baptism that I had in Yosemite (not that I needed another one, but hey, God is bountiful). Every time I climb the mist trail to the top of Vernal falls, I get to participate in God kissing me with pure sunlight and water, climbing the rock steps to the top of the falls for a magnificent view. I can think of no place closer to God than Yosemite. Truly.
ReplyDeleteThe Baptism
The gentle mist
swirlsandtwirls
around my
diminutive
body
dancing in my hair
and kissing my lips and ears
I am ascending to heaven
surounded by rainbows
and new green life
the sun bestows its final
blessing
upon my shoulders
and I am
baptized.
Beautiful!
DeleteLove, Mama XO
Lenten Prompt #24 Friday March 16 2012
ReplyDelete3 Baptisms 3 Responses
1. Recently, I attended a baptism at my cousin's church in Minnesota. He is the Pastor there, and was able to baptize his own new, and first grandchild, Ella. During the words of the "Thanksgiving at the Font" (cranberry pg 230), where the history of God using water to deliver us, is recited, I could hear the water being poured from an urn, until the last word was spoken. I had never heard it done this way before, and it really made the Word and Sacrament come alive for me that day in a new way.
2. A memory from many years ago:
At my first three hour (Lutheran) Easter Vigil Service, starting at 11pm, Baptism is one third of the Service. At this church, the font is a gigantic seashell, 3 feet in diameter.
Three people are baptized this night in water that includes water brought from the Jordan River(soon after, sprinkled on the congregation). The first candidate is an adult, then an older child, the last one a naked infant, who is immersed, then lifted up three times.
It is a unique visual symbol of baptism, for me. I feel a link between the Early Church and the Present Church in this moment of participating in an early form of the Sacrament.
3. Finally, in my own two daughters' baptisms, we not only had the Church communities as witnesses, but my Mother attended, representing the Faith community of family and friends from my hometown. However, this meant that both were done within two weeks of their birth, because my Mother had to return to her home, 2000 miles away. She made sure everything was done "right" She made the mandatory family-recipe potato salad/ham/fruit salad/cake lunch reception. My sisters made the Christening gown and hat. The whole church was invited.
Godparents were chosen with care, as they might have to actually take care of my babies if "something should happen". Both of them got several godparents, chosen from their namesakes--my sisters; and their grandparents, and one honorary great-great aunt.
These were people were chosen for their faith in God, and similar values, and love for these children. It was an important decision to make. It was also important for me(and for my Mother, who would not leave town until the babies were safely baptized), to make sure that my children were sealed into the Family of God, as soon as possible. Now it was up to the family (all of us) and their Church, and the Holy Spirit, to help them to grow up in the Faith and know the Love of God. (And they did)
In each of these three baptisms, I was involved in a different way: Some more passively, in prayer and meditation; and some more actively, as in the daily interaction with my own babies. Just as each person is unique, yet still a person; so each of my baptism experiences are the same, yet different.
s.h.