Baptism

Baptism

“This dying and rising, this crossing over from death to life which happens at baptism, is not a one-off thing – but it is to be our daily vesture as Christians.” Br. Geoffrey Tristram, Society of Saint John the Evangelist, SSJE.org, “Brother Give us a word,” Daily Email. August 29, 2018, a daily email sent to friends and followers of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, a religious order for men in the Episcopal/Anglican Church. www.ssje.org,.

If we were baptized in a river or by full immersion, we might better understand this well-known theological concept of baptism as a dying and rebirth and compare it to our life in the world. There is something memorable about going totally under water in the arms of someone else, totally surrendering and wondering for a brief second if we will come back up. When we do have our heads above water, we cannot help but look around, shake our head of dripping hair and give thanks for being alive, a new beginning, a new start, a new you. For some reason we see the world a little clearer. Some of the fog is gone.

Each day a little of us certainly dies physically. Each day we try to learn a little more about surrender. My prayer is that each day a little of my character defects die or are chipped away. When that happens, I do indeed know resurrection, a new life, a life of peace and love and joy. But as so often happens, pieces of those character defects or sins seem to come right back like magnets to places in our mind and body and spirit where they so comfortably lived at one time. Sometimes they come back like some fiery ugly dragon from some place inside of us that we never knew existed, and we end up having to make more apologies than we did in the past.

Baptism in our tradition is a onetime thing, but dying and resurrection are a daily, sometimes hourly event. The concept that at baptism we see dying and resurrection is still important. I love Br. Geoffrey’s use of the word, vesture, meaning a garment that covers us, like a vestment. He is offering to us the opportunity to try to imagine wearing our baptism like a vestment throughout the day. An amazing concept!

As we watch infants, toddlers, youth, and adults being baptized, we might imagine their putting on a vestment to cover them throughout eternal life as a promise that they are marked as God’s own forever, and God is always with them in each dying and each resurrection in their lives. We hold on to this sacrament as an outward and visible both sign and symbol of our life in and with Christ in the world.

There are parts of us that are dying, but there are parts of us that need dying, and God offers resurrection to us daily at each death on both sides of the veil.

Joanna. joannaseibert

Mosaic Community

Mosaic Community

“When I am with a group of human beings committed to hanging in there through both the agony and the joy of community, I have a dim sense that I am participating in a phenomenon for which there is only one word...."glory." M. Scott Peck

rainbow

This morning I think of groups I am in, especially a Wednesday morning book group who has meet for more years than I can remember. We started in one church as an Education for Ministry or EfM group who later morphed into a Disciples of Christ in Community or DOCC Transforming the Literature of the Bible study group. We moved to other churches as the bishop reassigned me and continually collected different members. We continued to read contemporary literature and scripture and looked for patterns in the lives of those of our Judeo-Christian heritage that might speak to us today in modern language and agendas. Very few now attend the same congregation, and we are always enriched by people of other faith groups. We are now back meeting at our home by our fireplace in the den. My husband always had fresh flowers on the coffee table. There was something about meeting in a home as well as meeting with a group of people who have learned to accept and know each other so well they can easily ignite “God moments” in this eclectic community.

Another amazing image of such a community is a mosaic of pieces of cut glass of different shapes and colors. Each individual may be beautiful in his or her own right, but together a truly glorious multicolored image emerges.

I think of the story that I often tell children that was given to me so many years ago by Dean McMillin, another spiritual friend. God wanted to give part of God to God’s creation. God took a huge mirror, looked into it, and broke the mirror into many tiny pieces, sending them down to earth. God gave to every one of us a tiny piece, a reflection of God. We spend years trying to find that piece of God within ourselves, and when we do, we get so excited, “I have found God.”

That is where the journey stops for so many who try to make their piece, their image of God as the only image that is truly of God. But God calls us to another task. We are to fit our piece with that of others. As we fit more pieces of God that we find in others, our image of God becomes even larger.

We sometimes meet people whose image of God is so different, so foreign from ours. Sometimes these people are even our children! As we fit more and more pieces and see so many other parts that represent God, we come closer to their part way on the edge of our God image.

This is a journey of a lifetime, finding God in ourselves, connecting it to the God in others, and enlarging our image of God. A beautiful mosaic. It is called community.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Outrageous

Outrageous

“We have lost, I think, our proper sense of outrage, and what God does is often outrageous for no matter how much we think we know how God will act, God frequently acts in other incomprehensible and outrageous ways.” Br. James Koester, SSJE, from “Brother, Give Us a Word,” a daily email sent to friends and followers of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, a religious order for men in the Episcopal/Anglican Church. www.ssje.org,.

joanna campbell

What is outrageous! Every sunrise and sunset. The flowers and flowering plants and bushes and trees that appear in sequence in early spring, the crocuses, camellias, redbuds, forsythia, daffodils, tulips, Bradford pears, climbing wisteria, azaleas, roses, lilies, irises, magnolias, hydrangeas, geraniums, and finally the crape myrtle that last through the summer. Is there more? What about the yellow and red and orange autumn leaves on a crisp fall day? What about the secret waterfall that only you and a few friends and family know about? What about floating the Buffalo River? What about the view from Petit Jean Mountain or Mount Magazine? What about Two Rivers Trail along the Arkansas River?

I am just starting and talking about a small part of Arkansas, but I know each of you has many more outrageous spectacles to share.

I don’t know about you, but Outrageous meets me at every turn. When we look for her, we only have words of gratitude. Outrageous are our family members and friends who still love us even after getting to know us better. Even more so is the outrageous love of God. This is love that God gives us in so more ways than we cannot understand, knowledge too deep for words. As we try to stay connected to God and listen, we get little outrageous nudges, “not right, yes this is right.” Whenever I go again those gut feelings, I end up in a bad place.

I look back on my life and see that I have been so cared for even when I went down wrong paths. This is outrageous. This is the outrageous love of God, to stick with us in our one step forward and two steps back. We cannot comprehend it. We can only try in our feeble way to observe it and remember it and give thanks for the outrageous love and beauty given us.

Joanna. joannaseibert.com