“A Baptismal Letter on Mother’s Day”

by Bruce J. Johnson

May 12, 2002

Delaney Rose Card

Jack Michael Sherwood Rose

Madison Laurel Young

Quincy Robert Miller

Dear Delaney and Jack, Madison and Quincy:

Today is Mother’s Day, May 12, 2002. All across the country mothers are being honored for their devotion and dedication to their families in general but specifically to their sons and daughters like you. Here at First Church, Mother’s Day is also a family favorite for the celebration of the sacrament of baptism. So, today is a very special day in your life, for on this Mother’s Day, each of you, being such a source of great pride and joy not only to your mother but your father, have been brought to the sanctuary of the First Congregational Church in historic Coventry for your Christian baptism. You are accompanied by many, but not all, of your extended family. I see grandparents, aunts and uncles, in-laws and outlaws, brothers and sisters, cousins and family friends. Delaney, Jack and Quincy you have great grandparent here—four generations! I’m sure each of you has a party somewhere after the service. Have a good time and make sure that mom doesn’t have to work too hard. After all, it is her day.

As a pastor, I love being a part of people’s lives and knowing so much about them, especially on such joyous occasions.

Delaney and Jack I have been a part of your family’s life for some time now. Delaney I married your mom and dad here at the church on October 19, 1996 and baptized your brother Zachary on December 13, 1998. Your dad is a fireman and your mom is a teacher and we certainly hope that you burn with a desire for learning and that will include your quest to know and love God. Right now, you don’t have a house but you’re not homeless. Home is always where the heart is and your heart is among a host of people who love you very much. As far the house is concerned, it is in the works in Hampton.

Jack, I married your mom and dad on January 3, 1998 at the Norwich Inn and Spa in Norwich, Connecticut, during halftime of the UConn-Tennessee women’s’ basketball game. Now that’s pressure--- to do it right and still have everyone ready for the second half! We baptized your delightful big sister, Olivia, here on July 25, 1999 and you too, like your cousin Delaney, may be a period of transition in terms of where you will call home. Right now, it is Columbia where there are many Yankee fans but when you move north either to Massachusetts or New Hampshire to be near where your dad’s business opportunities flourish, it is not going to be easy. There are a lot of people up there who wear ‘red socks’ and have broken hearts and always seem to be waiting for next year! Don’t let that get you down—‘Carpe Diem’, seize the day in pinstripes!

Madison and Quincy, you and your families have just recently become a joy in the life of our church family. Madison, both your parents are grammar school teachers and your mom already teaches Sunday School while your dad is in church. Your brother Nathan a neat kid and attends both. Oak Leaf Lane is a lovely neighborhood here in Coventry, not far from the church just off Root Road. You are going to have quite a few playmates in the neighborhood but those oak leaves are a nightmare in the fall when they have to be raked up, and by the looks of the lawn, your dad needs some big time help with sweetening up the soil!

I’m sure that you and Nathan will want to give him a hand.

Quincy, your mom and dad were married on a sailboat somewhere in Florida. I saw all the pictures and it looked like a great time. There were so happy but that immeasurable happiness turned to the deepest of sorrows with the premature birth and then death of your brothers, Ryan and Reese after only a couple hours of precious life. Some things in life we simply can not explain. We can only accept them. Their deaths are one of those things.

The great novelist Earnest Hemingway once said:

“The world breaks everyone and some become strong at the broken places.”

This certainly applies to your parents, Rob and Pamela. They have become very strong at the place where their hearts were broken and that strength is what has enabled to feel such incredible love and gratitude for the gift they call--- Quincy!

You live in a house on Coventry Lake, actually right across from us. We can wave to each other from our decks. They love the water and wanted me to hang you over the side of a boat, baptizing you in the lake much like Jesus must have done along the shores of the Galilee. I suggested, though, that the water might still be a bit chilly and your new baptismal gown was simply too nice for lake water. Therefore you are here this morning and Ryan and Reese are smiling their approval as we celebrate a wonderful truth about faith and God’s love--- something they know already:

“Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”

(Romans 14:8)

So, Delaney and Jack, Madison and Quincy, as you all can see, we know a lot about you and your families, and baptism is one of those wonderful times when we get a chance to revel in all that is right and good about life and love, faith, family and friendship.

I have visited with you and your parents in preparation for this service and sacrament, and your parents have mentioned that you are wonderful babies…. That’s no surprise. I remember a terrific quote by a man named David Wilkerson. He once said:

“Love is not only something you feel. Its something you do.”

I like to say, “Love is as love does.”

On this Mother’s Day and the day of you baptism, we rejoice in all that loves does.

A few moments ago, you were baptized. We did this baptism after your parents acknowledged their belief in God and their faith in Jesus Christ and after they promised to raise you in a Christian home. All these are essential aspects of family life around your house.

In addition, along with promises made by your parents, there are those made by the community, now your family of faith. We stood and promised to help them raise you through our prayers and support, through worship and Christian education. You can’t image how we all feel, given this sense of belonging and shared commitment to each other. Perhaps someday when you participate, as we do today, you will know that same glorious feeling.

What make baptism so glorious are the truths it affirms. The central truth is that you are a gift from God, created out of love and for love. This means that although you have been entrusted to us, you do not really belong to us alone--YOU BELONG TO GOD. The essential relationship in your life must be your relationship with God and our responsibility is to help you discover, understand and deepen it so that it enlivens and enriches all other relationships. We will attempt this as members of your family; some bonded by blood, all by faith. The central theme of family life is love and the source of that love is God and the best expression of it is to be found in the person and life of Jesus of Nazareth, the risen Christ, to whom you are uniquely connected. As you grow up in the church, you will hear the words ‘Good News.’ When you hear them, they will always be referring to the ‘good news about God’s love in Jesus Christ.’ What is both good and news worthy about God’s love is that when you know it, feel it, trust in it, you get to feel whole, healthy, hopeful and very happy. You get to feel forgiven and safe, secure, free and filled with peace. Faith brings with it a joy beyond description. Without it, things can be pretty tough. Our prayer for you is that you will come to experience and rejoice in this love and believe me, for a lifetime, God’s grace will always be sufficient for you.

You need to remember this truth always. Too soon you will learn about September 11^th of 2001, a just few short months before you were born and how it changed a nation forever. We’re still trying to sort through the issues of just how much and in what ways. So much of the nation’s attention and indeed the attention of the world are focussed on how to respond to what we all call--- terrorism. On this the occasion of your baptisms, I want to share you a few thoughts on the subject.

1. Of all the scenes that I love to create for myself and in the process, make myself a participant, the scene that portrays Jesus approaching the city of Jerusalem sometime during his triumphal entry on Palm Sunday is one of my favorites. He stops and weeps over the city saying: “Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace.” I believe that Jesus continues to weep for us because we still have not found the ‘things that make for peace.’ Waging a war on terrorism- whether we are Christian, Jew or Muslim is not the answer. We call our Lord, the “Prince of Peace,” and we hope that his followers will be makers of peace, not war. His non-violent opposition to the ways and means of an oppressive and violent state was meant to show us the way to peace, through sacrificial love and forgiveness. As Christians, we aspire to confront evil with goodness, hatred with love and violence with non-violence. Soon you will be taking your first steps. Follow in His footsteps.

2. There is a line from the Gospel according to John that stands out as being the cornerstone of our understanding of Jesus and his way. The line, in fact, has become the motto for the United Church of Christ, the denomination of your family. It is part of a prayer Jesus offers in the Garden of Gethsemane. Its all about He wants for us, that we sanctified in the truth, that His joy be full and fulfilled in us, that His true purpose, i.e., that we be as one with one another just as Jesus is one with God and that we love one another as fully as God loves us become a reality. Children, Jesus took on the inequities of his day, speaking the harsh truth to those who excluded others because of health, wealth, looks, behavior and religion. His was the way of compassion and kindness, acceptance and inclusion. Although he spoke locally in his time and place, I'm sure that he was thinking globally, for everyone and every where. We need you to become loving and inclusive in your attitude and treatment of all people, no matter how different they may be.

3. Finally, the realities of our times can make them terrifying but there is a refrain from scripture that you will hear a number of times in worship and perhaps read often in Sunday school lessons, lessons that tell the story of His birth to the tale of his resurrection. The angels used the following when they spoke to the shepherds on a silent holy night and a risen Jesus used them when he addressed the disciples on dawn’s first light:

“Be Not Afraid!”

Let love do its work in your lives and live without fear, trusting in God and letting grace be sufficient for you.

I now close with these few final thoughts. Actually, they are not mine but those of an extraordinary person of our time, Dr. Elizabeth Kubler- Ross. In her last book called The Wheel of Life: A Memoir of Living and Dying. She writes on the final few pages of her moving memoir:

Thankfully, I have reached a level where I no longer have to come back to learnany more lessons, but sadly I am not comfortable with the world I am departing

for the last time. The whole planet is in trouble. This is a very tenuous timein history. Earth has been abused for too long without regard for any seriousconsequences. Mankind has wreaked havoc with the bounty of God’s garden. Weapons, greed, materialism, destructiveness. They have become the catechismof life, the mantra of generations whose meditations on the meaning of life have gone dangerously awry.

She then offers this piece of wisdom:

“The sole purpose of life is to grow. The ultimate lesson is learning how to love and be loved unconditionally.”

Delaney Rose Card, Jack Michael Sherwood Rose, Madison Laurel Young, Quincy Robert Miller, she’s got it right. Grow, grow, grow and learn well how to love and be loved unconditionally.

Always yours in Christ’s love,

Bruce J. Johnson, Pastor