October 6, 2019
2 Timothy 1: 1-14
Luke 17: 5-10
By Rev. Jennifer Garrison Brownell
Rev. Sherry McGuffin, a pastor in Michigan, shares this story. She was working with a family who wanted to celebrate the patriarch of the family, a beloved grandfather, by having a family reunion in the summer time. So they organized and plan, but in the spring, the patriarch took ill and died. But they met anyone to remember him and to love one another.
It was decided that some of the cousins of that family, the youngest generation, would be baptized. So, 50 or 60 members of the family gathered at the lake shore. One of the kids was 5 years old. When he realized that baptism meant getting in the lake, he was not having it at all. I guess maybe he didn’t want to get his clothes wet. So he said to Pastor Sherry, “Ok, if I can baptize you, you can baptize me.” So, the child put water on the pastor’s head, then the pastor put water on the child’s head, and nobody got very wet.
Then, Pastor Sherry told the story we heard from 2 Timothy today. Once there was a young man. He was growing in his faith and learning how to be a person of faith. This young man, Timothy, got a letter from his mentor, friend and pastor, Paul. And Paul reminded Timothy to remember the faith of his mother and his grandmother. And, Pastor Sherry went on, that’s why we baptize one another. To remember the faith of those who have come before us.
This water, this water we shared today, and the love we share today is the same water and the same love that Jesus was baptized in. It’s the same water that our parents and grandparents were baptized in. It’s the same water that our children are baptized in. And our children’s children and our childrens’s childrens children. It connects all the generations in love, when we are baptized in this water.
And that five year old who had been so reluctant cried, “Wait a minute! This Jesus water shows how much I love Papa, and how much Papa loves me?”
“Yes, it does,” the pastor replied.
“Well, give me so more of that Jesus water!,” the child shouted and he threw his shirt off and he ran into the lake.
I tell you that story, because it is my prayer that we all could approach all the sacraments with that much enthusiasm and joy and understanding. This water, this Jesus water connects us to Christ and to all those mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters in faith who have loved Christ in the time that has come before. And this Jesus water connects us to all the children and grandchildren and grandchildren’s grandchildren who will come after.
We celebrate 2 sacraments in the United Church of Christ. One is baptism, which we celebrated today and one is communion, which we will also celebrate today.
In Holy Communion, we also are gathered at a table, not only with Christ, but with our grandchildrens grandchildrens grandchildren and our grandparents grandparents grandparents. This is a table of all generations. And today, on World Communion Sunday, we especially remember that this is a table for all the world. Wherever people gather today and remember Christ and celebrate the good news of the open table, anywhere in the world today, we are eating with those brothers and sisters in faith.
It is my friends, our joyful duty (ha! You knew I was going to circle around to duty eventually), to gather at this table. If we had a faith the size of a mustard seed, we could eat at a table where all are fed. If we had a faith the size of a mustard seed, whenever we gather around the baptismal font, we would know that all the generations are gathered around us. And then, at the table, at the font, we would throw off everything that binds us, all of our fears, and we would rush into the water together. That is our duty and our responsibility and our challenge and our deep deep gladness that is given to us in the sacraments as people of faith.