2nd Sunday after the Epiphany-Year A

2nd Sunday after the Epiphany Year A January 15, 2023 A letter to Mason Lanier Johnston upon the occasion of your baptism Dear Mason, Today is an exciting day in your young life! It is the day that you are being baptized into Christ’s body the church in this special place where your mom grew up and where your parents were married. It is the day when your parents and godparents will make promises before God and this congregation about how they will raise you and how they will teach you to live. It is the day when they will acknowledge on your behalf that God has already called you and claimed you as God’s beloved and that you will live your life accordingly. And it is the day that this congregation will promise you and your family that we will support you as you grow in your faith in Christ, no matter where you go or what you do. Because you see, sweet Mason, being baptized changes us. In and through our baptism, we become who we already are; we become more fully who God has created us to be. The baptismal covenant that your parents and godparents will say on your behalf this day, that we will all say alongside them and you, and which we will all continue to renew together again and again throughout the years means that we live life with a different sort of intentionality. And through baptism, we are bound together in community through the body of Christ, not just with all those who surround us now, but also with all those who have come before us and all those who come after us by these promises to this way of life, this commitment to following this path. In and through our baptism, we are called by God to continue to be transformed, to be open to God’s work in our lives, in the lives of those we love, and in the world around us. And we need each other to see, sometimes, how we are called; to understand things about ourselves that we cannot always see or understand. In his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul is writing to that community there. He’s gearing up to let them have it because they have been fighting and acting up, and he’s not at all happy with what they’ve been up to since he’s been away. But first, before he does this, we have our portion for today, where he reminds them about what he loves about them. He holds up the mirror before them to show them and remind them of the best of themselves. This is one of the gifts of Christian community—that we can see and recognize and name things for each other, speaking the truth in love, that we can’t always recognize in ourselves. Paul also reminds the Corinthians that God has already given them all the spiritual gifts or the tools that they need to be in community and to share the good news of God’s love for all through Jesus. So, today, sweet Mason, we give thanks for you and your baptism. We promise that we will help you recognize things about yourself that you might only be able to find in and through Christian community. We will help you remember that you are called and claimed as God’s beloved, to live your life accordingly, and to trust that God will give you the tools that you need in order to do this. And we will support you as you grow, nurturing you in the faith and helping you to see the ways that God is at work in your life, in the lives of those you love, and in the world around you. Your sister in Christ, Melanie+