Welcome to the global Christian family, Charlie

I'm Rev. Sam LaDue, pastor of University Lutheran Church (UniLu) in Palo Alto, a small, queer affirming, Stanford adjacent congregation that takes the Gospel seriously and itself not too seriously. This Sunday, we had an infant baptism. There was no manuscript for a sermon in the usual sense, just a bowl of water, a baby named Charlie, and every kid in the room getting their hands wet before the rest of us caught up. One of the kiddos turned straight to her dad afterward to make sure he still remembered his own baptism. Pretty sure he remembered it by the time she was done. :) 

​

​

This past Sunday we didn't do church the usual way. We had a baptism, a baby named Charlie, and a room full of kids (young, and old) who were not interested in sitting still for a sermon about Matthew 18 and the king who forgives but then takes it back and throws a slave into prison to be tortured. So, we skipped that, and instead I invited the kids over to play with the baptismal water with me.

They did, immediately and without hesitation (which is the correct theological response to a bowl of water, by the way). Little hands went in. Water got swirled, scooped, spilled. One of the kids poured a cupful from the pitcher into the bowl, and we all just listened to that sound for a second, water finding water. I asked what water does. They knew: It helps you when you're thirsty. It helps plants grow. It washes the dirt off. It's what animals and people and trees need to live. None of that is complicated theology and all of it is exactly right.


Then I asked whether anyone remembered their own baptism. Most of the grown ups in the room don't, not really, not the way you'd remember a birthday or a first day of school. Charlie certainly won't. So I told the kids that's part of the whole point: nobody has to hold onto the memory of being loved by God all by themselves. God gave us water. And with that water, we remember all these good things, and can remind one another. That's one of the things this whole enormous, strange, beautiful family of God is for, reminding one another we are loved just as we are, we are never alone. We help each other when we're thirsty. We find each other food when we're hungry. We stay next to each other when we're lonely. We help make things fair when they're not. I encouraged the kids to help their parents remember all these things, too-- and one truly grabbed one of the squirt toys and took it right over to her dad for a quality little splash. It was good, for all of us.


Our texts this week, Paul writing to the Romans and Jesus telling that hard parable about the servant who wouldn't forgive a debt after his own had just been forgiven, are both about people who've gotten so busy keeping score, who owes what, who's right, who's clean and who isn't, that they've stopped noticing what the person in front of them actually needs. Water doesn't do that. Water doesn't keep score. It just keeps moving around between people and creation. 


So we poured some of that water on Charlie's head and welcomed him into a family that is, frankly, still learning how to do that movement and loving behavior. We don't always get it right. Charlie's family won't always get it right. I won't either. But that was never the bar. The water isn't there because we're good at this. It's there because every time we touch it again, washing our hands, jumping in a pool, catching rain on our faces, we get to remember something true whether or not we did anything to earn it: I belong to God. I have a huge family, in this room and well beyond it. And we belong to each other.




A Practice for the Week
Next time you touch water, on purpose or by accident, washing dishes, caught in the rain, a kid splashing you in the bath, let it be a small reminder. Take a second to think: You are loved just exactly as you are, imperfections and all. You, and all those around you, and al of creation. Perfectly, wholly loved.  And if you forget once in a while, that's ok because somebody in this huge, strange family can remind you. And, you can remind remind people in this whole big global Christian family, too. 

So, remember your baptism, friends. And rejoice- baby Charlie has joined the family!


with joy,
Pr. Sam