Accepting a lonely alienated girl into a loving Christian community.
In the summer of 1979, between my middle and senior year at seminary, I was asked by the Bishop of Eastern Oregon to be the lay vicar of a rural church in northeastern Oregon. The mission was quite small, yet covered an area of mountains and valleys nearly one hundred square miles.
One of the tasks I was assigned was to find out who in this large area wanted to be baptized; then prepare the families and bring them to the church during the Bishop's annual visit in midsummer. It was clear from my discussions with the Bishop that Baptism was an important Sacrament and had a high priority in his pastoral ministry. So we talked a lot about the theology of Baptism.
Three weeks after my arrival in Oregon, I was in the hospital visiting a patient when one of the nurses came to me. She had heard that I was asking around town if there were any Episcopal families who wanted their children baptized. Though not on our church rolls, she said that she was an Episcopalian, had just moved there after a divorce and wanted to have her ten-year-old daughter Patricia baptized. I made an appointment to visit them the next morning.
That evening I went home and spent considerable time thinking through and writing about Baptism. I remembered much about what the Bishop had said, reviewed Scripture, read through the Prayer Book and came up with two pages of "superb" stuff about this important Sacrament, about God cruising the waters of chaos at Creation, Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea and Jesus at the Jordan River. It was a masterpiece and it brought tears to my eyes!
At l0:00 a.m. sharp, I walked up on the porch of a rather run-down house at the edge of town with this document under my arm. There were three hound dogs scratching by the doorway, some toys were scattered around and a cat hopped out through a hole in the screen. After I knocked on the door a few times, the mother appeared--looking not at all like yesterday's nurse. She was frazzled, tired and depressed. She invited me in; I stepped over three more cats in the hallway and entered a dark living room. At the far end of the room there was a couch on which a teenaged boy was sleeping under an army blanket. The mother motioned me to one of the two chairs. As I sat down she went to the door and screamed for Patricia.
A few moments later Pat walked in. She was dressed in dirty jeans, a cowboy shirt and had a baseball cap pulled over her face, so that all I could see of her was a neck and a short crop of dirty, brown curly hair. Mother parked on the couch next to the sleeping boy some twenty feet away and said, looking as surly as possible, "Now, Pat, you listen to the preacher."
Before I could begin, two more dogs ran out of the kitchen and lay down at the screen door. The boy on the couch turned over, yawned, looked at me with sleepy eyes and said, "Mom, who's he?"
Patricia grunted painfully and using the notes on my lap, I launched into one of the greatest baptismal sales jobs of this decade. Seven minutes later the whole event finally caught up with me. In the middle of Moses leading his people through the waters of salvation, I looked up and finally realized what was going on. The boy had returned to sleeping under the army blanket, Patricia sat with her hands in her pockets, slouched under her baseball cap, issuing enough bad vibes to break my coffee cup, and mother, kicking a couple of cats off the couch, said every few minutes, "Isn't this nice, Pat." It wasn't supposed to be like this, I thought. Good grief, what's going on?
The darkness, the smells and the vibes had just about done me in. I left Moses in midstream (only I knew he was there, anyway), stood up with a bound and said to the mother, "Please have Patricia at the church tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. when you go to work." Then with a few hasty words that Moses really did make it, I tripped over the two dogs as I went out the door, leaped into my car and drove straight home, wondering all the way--how would we ever prepare this young girl for the Holy Sacrament of Baptism with the Bishop?
The next day when Pat was dropped off at the church, my daughter Susan was there with me. She and Pat played around the church that afternoon and thereafter for the next two weeks. Every now and then we would talk about some bit of the church, or about worship services, but mostly Pat played on the organ or in the nursery with the preschoolers or with Susan. I learned much about her and her family and discovered that underneath that ever-present ball cap was a little girl looking for acceptance and love.
We never did talk much about Baptism. I never really knew quite what to say, and when the Sunday came for the Bishop to arrive and conduct the service, I was still concerned about her proper preparation--and whether she and her family would even show up. Then, just two minutes before the Baptismal service was to start, Patricia and her family came marching into church. She was transformed. Pat wore a frilly blue dress and had her curly hair combed beautifully. She walked straight up the aisle to the Bishop--said hello--welcomed him to her church and then led her family to the proper pew, ready to get on with the festivities.
Patricia was ready to be baptized!
I share this story with you this morning because it has helped me understand in a very powerful way what Baptism is really all about. It finally dawned on me, standing there with the Bishop in that little church one summer Sunday morning, with the mountain sunlight streaming through the windows, that I had not prepared Patricia for Baptism, she had prepared me!
For behind all that wonderful theology of Moses and the Red Sea, of John the Baptist and Jesus at the Jordan River, of dying to sin and being raised in Christ--at its very heart, Baptism is all about accepting this lonely and alienated girl into a loving Christian community. At its heart, Baptism is all about the wonderful transformation that happens when we say "yes" to God's "yes" to us.
This morning we will welcome Molly, Brian, Sean and Justin into that moment of acceptance. Let us pray for them and for us.
Lord Jesus Christ, we thank You for Your love for little children.
When You were here on earth, You welcomed those who were brought to You, took them into Your arms and blessed them.
May Your blessing be upon these dear children--whom we bring to You in Baptism to be received into the family of Your Church.
Grant that they may grow up to be faithful members of that family, and may learn to love and serve You all their days; for Your name's sake.
Amen.
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