Love Letter to Max Baptism of Maxwell Zachary Williams Psalm 23; John 10:22-30

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Carmel Phillips
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1 Love Letter to Max Baptism of Maxwell Zachary Williams Psalm 23; John 10:22-30 Psalm 23 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; 3 he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long. John 10:22-30 At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly. 25 Jesus answered, I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father s name testify to me; 26 but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father s hand. 30 The Father and I are one. Oh Max, you don t even know what all the fuss is about. You won t remember this day, I think. I hope that you ll know about it because you ll be back in this place often, among these people that claim you today. But whether you end up being an Easter-Christian kind of boy, or a Sunday School teacher/elder/the church is my second home kind of a boy like so many in your family, God has claimed you before you were even born. And today, we celebrate we celebrate the fact that you are living into the identity God gave you in one of the many ways you will throughout your life you are becoming part of the body of Christ. It will take you a lifetime at least to live into that identity, and today is the first step, which your parents are claiming for you. Maxwell Zachary Williams, you are a child of God. This is a love letter to you. But because of what we will do in just a few minutes in his baptism, claim you as our own, it is from this church too. It s based on the psalm that we know so well, so after I read line, I m going to ask all of you to repeat it with me; you ll find it right there on your bulletin. And because this letter is based on the psalm, and that John reading we saw acted

2 out just a few minutes ago, this is also a letter from God. And in that sense, it is also a letter to me, and to you the people of Calvin, because that is what Scripture is, God s love letter to us. Say it with me. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Max, you are going to want so many things in your life, some of them good and some not so good. You are pretty easy to please now, with a favorite toy and a full belly, but in about 8 years, it will be harder. You are going to want all kinds of things: an itablet (or some such thing that Apple will invent that we can t live without) or a pet snake or trips to Kings Island. Your parents will indulge some of those wants maybe. And in another 8 years or so, you ll want different things: a snazzy leather jacket, or a tattoo, or a girlfriend so sweet and pretty you can t take your eyes off her. Those will be more tricky kinds of wants. And later, you ll want bigger and better toys: a boat, or a trophy home, or movie theater in your basement. I hope you ll find a way to get some of those things, or at least some of what you want, because if you re creative, they can be used to gift other people. You can find a way not only to make yourself happy, but to share your abundance. But I ll tell you a secret you ll still want more. Because no matter what you buy, your deepest need, the one you might not even recognize when you are 9 or 16 or 35, is to be connected with the holy. To know God and yourself in a way that is complete and true. And when you get to that point, but you re not quite sure how to close the deal, come to this place, the church. You ll find arms wide open to greet you. It won t matter what you re wearing, or what you re driving, or what you bring with you, because this is the place where none of those things matter. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; 3 he restores my soul. Even in this place, we are busy; sometimes you ll find that the meetings and discussions and schedule of church seems like it s even busier than the rest of the world. You may end up just avoiding the church all together at times, thinking that a true rest involves just taking it easy on Sunday mornings. If that s what you want, God is going to let you have it. But know this that sense of spiritual calm, of knowing who you are and who loves you and what you need to be happy, is a gift from God that can t be gotten or earned, only received. So when you re ready to be still and reacquaint yourself with the one who knew you before you were born, who knit you together in your mother s womb, who created you in his image, come to this place and worship. Let the holy roll over you and breathe and pray and sing and love. Remember that you may be important and busy and have a million responsibilities, but in this place, in God s house, you are also part of the family and we will love you and feed you and lead you to living water, you don t have to do anything. You don t have to do anything. And then when you are restored and reenergized, don t worry, we ll put you to work! Because this is a large family as big as the whole world, and there are always others who need rest, and peace, and to drink deep from still, cool waters. He leads me in right paths for his name s sake.

3 On this day, we mark you with Christ s cross, we name what you already are a child of the covenant, Christ s own. It is a powerful name to live into. Wouldn t it be great if today we just rolled out a big long path, the right path, a yellow brick road kind of path, and pushed you along on your way? There will be times you don t live up to that name, Christ s name. You may find yourself so lost you can t even find your way back to church. But one thing we know about God is that God knows about the wilderness. God knows what it means to be thirsty, and made fun of, and abandoned by friends, and God also knows what it feels like to walk a path that appears to all the world to be the wrong one, the unpopular one, the dangerous one. God knows because God did all those things and then died on that day when it seemed that Jesus disappointed the whole world. But what Jesus did was transform the world. Jesus saved the world. When Jesus rose, he proved that there is nothing that is so lost it can t be found, nothing so broken it can t be fixed, and nothing so strong that the power of God can t overcome it. So Max, go ahead and wander a bit, sometimes we need to do that to find ourselves. And know that because you are God s, claimed by Jesus, you will never be truly lost; the right path is not really so much of a road as a person the person of Jesus who walks with us and has told us that he is the way, the truth and the life. 4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me. You ve probably already learned a little about this valley by learning what a scraped knee or a just too hot bath feels like. And if you aren t already, I bet at some point you ll be scared of the dark, and need a nightlight, or a parent in your bed, or the reassurance there aren t monsters in the closet. When you re older, you ll get hurt in so many ways your heart will be broken, you will have people you love die, you might find yourself without money, or dealing with an illness or disease that is too much pain for one person. Even worse, sometimes you ll cause that pain yourself. You ll find yourself terrified, crying in the darkness, which is made ten times more terrible because you marched right into the middle of your mess. But today your parents will renounce that darkness. Your church will say something that you will have a hard time believing in your life that evil has no power in this world. We say it not because we ve somehow made it happen, but because God has shown us that it happened once and for all almost 2,000 years ago. It would be nice if there were no darkness. It would be nice if we were never scared or sad. It would be nice if we never had to say we re sorry and feel silly trying to make things right with our best friends or our parents or our partners. But God doesn t save us from darkness as much as lead us through it. And the rod and the staff those big sticks that seem so threatening and confining out in the big bright world of fields and flowers the rod and the staff actually keep us from accidentally stepping off the cliff in the darkness. Sort of like your parents arms when you re at the park, all you want to do is squirm out of them and run, but when you re sick or scared, all you want to do is sink into them. So Max, when you are at your worst, whether it is your own fault or someone else s fault, find your way back here, or to any church, even if you haven t been here for a long, long time. Because when you re in the dark, all those arms (these arms!) that may feel so demanding or limiting or holier than thou at other times will be reaching out just to hug you, to fold you in them and make you feel safe, and to remind you that even when you fall into the darkest valley, even when you find yourself in the deepest hell, God goes with you, and you are God s child.

4 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Now among other things, you are a Williams and a Lang and you are Presbyterian so I think you must somehow be bred with the knowledge that church and food go together. It s true we learned it from Jesus, who got in trouble for eating and drinking too much with all the wrong people. You ll usually find food in this place You re already learning the draw of fellowship hour downstairs. When you re brave enough to come up for the children s moment, I ll give it to you now and then. When you somehow sense that there is good food and grace to be had at communion you ll taste that juice and bread that mysteriously tastes different than any other you ll have outside the walls of the church. I hope you ll be around for youth group lock-ins and pizza and Easter egg hunts and dollar dinners and bonfires with hotdogs and marshmallows. And whether you are still a member at Calvin, or belong to another church, or somehow get invited to the home of a Christian even when you re no longer feeling like one yourself, I hope you ll find someone who hosts Jesus-style: who takes bread and wine and all kinds of people and an ordinary night and makes it something so memorable that what you want to do is recreate for the rest of your life. Oh, we re good at setting the table around here. And when we re at our best, it doesn t even seem to matter that we re a little mad at the person next to us because he makes more money and always seems to show off about it. We don t notice political differences as much as we do in other places. In fact, if we look around God s table, we see people so different from us that we might even be offended if there weren t such good food and such a gracious host. And that host, God, loves us with such muchness and abundance and completeness that it pours over us. We don t just get what we need, but so much more that it seems a shame to waste it and we find ourselves smiling and toasting our whole side of the table, and wishing that it extended to infinity and promising God that next time, we ll invite more friends to the party. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long. Max, I hope you ll learn to live in God s house and love God s people as part of the Calvin family. If you let them, these people will do their best to love you, to be family to you, to pick you up when you fall down, to remind you who you are and what you are called to. We ll do our best, but sometimes we ll mess up. We are, in the end, all of us, sheep after all; there is one shepherd, the good shepherd. But know this: whether you learn to love this place and the people here or not, you belong to God. Whether you wander into the darkness or desperately seek the light, you are a child of the covenant. If you find your home here on Sundays, you ll not only be a part of receiving that covenant, but teaching others about it as well. And even if one day you run as far and as fast as you can from this place and from God, you are not alone. You may not recognize it, but because you are God s, you are led by that shepherd who laid down his life for you and even if he has to chase you until you are too tired your legs just give out, goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life. Maxwell Zachary Williams, you are a child of God, Welcome home!

Wesley United Methodist Church Rev. Beverly E Stenmark Looking for Love Look for the Shepherd Text: I Samuel 16:1-13 Psalm 23 John 9:1-39

Wesley United Methodist Church Rev. Beverly E Stenmark Looking for Love Look for the Shepherd Text: I Samuel 16:1-13 Psalm 23 John 9:1-39 The image of Jesus as a Shepherd, or the image of God as shepherd