We are Sons and Daughters with whom God is Well Pleased!

“And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water,

suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Matt 3:16-17

Before I came to All Saints’, I was Priest-in-Charge out at Church of the Incarnation out on the west side of Atlanta. I found out that one of our parishioners had a son she had adopted who was not baptized. The Baptism was on!

\When the time came to baptize the not-so-little boy, I still held him like they taught me, “football style” with his head over the font. He was being a good sport. Right at the moment when I poured water on his sweet head he moved and I poured water up his nose. He gagged,  squirmed and screamed in horror and  I quickly sat him up and handed him to his Mom. When I tried to anoint him with  oil on his forehead, he even screamed and grabbed my arm and said “NO!”

Everyone laughed, thank goodness.

I think about him  every time we perform a baptism.  “Messier” baptisms like his are closer to the truth for what life after baptism is like.  We are baptized into a messy world. We are baptized to go out and “love and serve the Lord,” even when it is not easy or pretty.

All of us, in the journey towards friendship with God, have to acknowledge and love ourselves and others -because -and not in spite of -the fact that we are messy folk. Baptism truly is a moment when heaven and earth meet. As we douse a person’s head with water, we welcome them into God’s family- not as potentially perfect people but as people who spend their lives becoming who they already are- forgiven, loved unconditionally, and blessed.

We are welcomed as sons and daughters, with whom God is “well pleased.”

On Sunday we will baptize some babies at the 1115 service. Come join in and reflect upon your baptism into the messy ‘household of God.”