Welcome to the Body of Christ!!

Yesterday we were blessed to welcome two new members to the Body of Christ.  Jason and Parker are 7 year old boys.  Why were they not baptized sooner?  Well, life often gets in the way, and simply put, the boys' parents just let it slide, as so many of us are prone to do, even with the things that are of such importance.  Bottom line:  the boys kept asking when they would be baptized.  And from day one of my arrival to this wonderful parish, we've been talking about it.  Finally, it happened yesterday, and it was glorious!  Not only was it my first time baptizing someone in the context of a parish--I've already done a river baptism--but the asperges that followed were filled with tears from folks who later told me how much the day meant to them, as it brought them back to their own baptism, how we're all part of this great big household of Christ.  As I told them in my sermon, "Today is a big day!"  It sure was.

What might be most surprising to me was that the boys' parents insisting that they not take communion before they were baptized.  Kids much younger than them were receiving, but those kids had been baptized, and Jason and Parker had been taught that baptism was what gave them their ticket to receive the bread and cup.  It wasn't that they weren't welcome at the table; in fact, they had always come up and reached their hands out, even though they knew they would be receiving a blessing.  They understood the importance of baptism, understood that it is what makes us Christians, makes us the Body of Christ.  These 7-year old boys got it that we eat the Body of Christ because we ARE the Body of Christ.  Augustine of Hippo would be especially proud!

There's been so much said about the reception of communion without baptism, what some people call Open Table.  I'm not going to devote a great big post to all the reasons why Open Table is wrong.  (The VERY short version of that post would be that we already DO celebrate Open Table, as we open it up to ALL baptized Christians!!)  Instead, I simply want to raise up the example of Parker and Jason, two little boys who understood just how important their baptism was.  Not only did it mean that they belonged to Jesus forever, but it meant that they got to receive the very best gift that Jesus can give us in this mortal life:  himself, present in the very real stuff of this world, in wine, water, and wheat.  These kids get it!  They get how the two sacraments are connected.  They get how they put us into a relationship with Jesus.  And they get that, just as Jesus got his water bath before the holy meal, we are supposed to do the same.  They get it!

To my clergy colleagues who worry about offending someone, who fear that explaining the significance of baptism before communion might alienate someone or confuse them, I say this:  you're doing it wrong.  It's as easy as that.  You're not devoting the time and attention that it takes to explain why we do the things that we do.  And you're letting your own ego, your own fear of alienation, get in the way of being an effective pastor.  If folks in our pews do not understand the connection between baptism and communion, it's our fault!  We have done a grave disservice by not emphasizing the connection between these two sacred moments.  We simply cannot have one without the other!  Blessedly, Jason and Parker and their mother understood this.  She easily could have "forgotten" that they weren't baptized and let them receive on my first Sunday here.  But she didn't.  She took catechisis very seriously, and because of that so did her boys.  And as a result, their experience at the Holy Table from this day forward will be made all the more special.

If a pair of 7-year olds can get it, so can anyone else in the pews.  So can clergy.  It really is that simple. It's up to all of us, clergy and lay folk alike, to make the effort to understand who we are and the significance of our actions.  Those actions, after all, speak way louder than words, and if do not get why we act the way we do, then those actions are, at best, hollow or, at worst, heretical.  Thanks be to God for Jason and Parker and what they and their mother showed me about taking this journey seriously.  Welcome to the Body of Christ!