Dear Westwood Church Family,

Last Sunday and this coming Sunday, we have the privilege of baptizing babies during our Sanctuary worship gathering. It’s always a joy to me to get to welcome new people. It’s easy to gaze with love and delight at a baby, and a radical gift to believe that (if we can look at young children with that kind of joy) this is how God looks at all of us, all through our lives.

Plus, at baptism, we get to remember the promises that are at the heart of our community of faith. The vows we ask of parents and sponsors (or of people old enough to answer for themselves at their baptism or confirmation) are big:  

Do you renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness,
reject the evil powers of this world,
and repent of your sin?

Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you
to resist evil, injustice, and oppression
in whatever forms they present themselves?

Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior,
put your whole trust in his grace,
and promise to serve him as your Lord,
in union with the Church which Christ has opened
to people of all ages, nations, and races?

What significant promises, and what needed reminders that church life, our lives of faith, and all that we’re doing as a community is an embodiment of something really significant. It is a way of pushing back against evil, of acknowledging and turning away from harm past, of claiming freedom and power, of joining a Church (with a capital C, as it’s much more than the institution or place we usually call our “church”) that is expansive and inclusive beyond our apprehension.

Then (and this was the part that seemed most powerful to me this past Sunday), we make promises to be the kind of community that helps raise others up in this beautiful, liberating, transformative faith. The whole congregation makes a promise like this:

With God’s help we will proclaim the good news
and live according to the example of Christ.
We will surround these children
with a community of love and forgiveness,
that they may grow in trust of God,
and be found faithful in service to others.
We will pray for them
to be true disciples
who walk in the way that leads to life.

God knows that we need a community to show us what love and forgiveness look like in our own lives. That is a significant part of what the church is here to do; we are a community of practice, both in the sense that we’re doing the thing (love and forgiveness) and that we’re also still building our skills and improving our techniques.

On days when so many things are heavy on my heart, and there is such need for people of faith and compassion to stand up against “evil, injustice, and oppression” (including war, racism, economic exploitation, and greed), I am grateful to get to do so in belonging with this community of hope and faithful practice. I know that the gospel calls us to surround not only these children, but also the children of strangers – and even our enemies – with compassion and love.

As we welcome and celebrate baptisms – and other little children, as well – may we be encouraged to live out the good news of our faith with conviction and hope, with an eye to the generations who will come after us all.

grace and peace,

Pastor Molly