Lily's baptism (October 26th, 2008)

Lily was baptized at Peace Lutheran Church in Abbotsford on Sunday, October 26th. We had so many family and friends there that I swear we took up half the church! Thank you to all those who came (especially those who travelled-(Great) Grandma and Grandpa Lengle, Don Martin, and the Buston Family). We came back to our complex and had a nice lunch. There are many things I wish we had made time for! I feel bad that there are no pictures of Lily with family, especially my grandparents! It was such a hectic day and Lily was sooo tired. Anyways, we felt very blessed to be surrounded by so many people that love Lily and wanted to welcome her into God's family. :) Here are some pictures of the day. (thank you to Lily's Auntie Gail for taking so many pictures!!)

Waiting for church to start

Lily also waiting

Pastor Christoph

Being baptized

She didn't cry at all!

She was looking up at us the whole time.

All done :)

Introducing her to the congregation

Mommy fixing her hair

The blessing

The sign of the cross

The baptismal candle

She really wanted the candle!

Us and the pastor

Godparents: Auntie Karen and Uncle Jeremy
Proud Grandparents :)

Lily and Dadda

Lily and Grandpa Lengle

Love this picture!

The church

Lily with Grandma Mitchler at lunch

Playing with Uncle Keith

She had to change out of her pretty dress because she had an "accident"... luckily we had another white dress on hand to play in :)

Lily LOVES balloons!

Uncle Jeremy feeding her cake she probably shouldn't be having
But she liked it :)

Silly girl!

Love this face :)

Playing with Great Auntie Jackie :)

I love the light from the window in this one

Lily, Amanda and Sarah :)

The favours we gave away as a thank you

Pastor Christoph Reiners did such a fabulous job. We really enjoy him. The sermon he gave that day included Lily so perfectly. We really appreciated his thoughtfulness. So, here's the sermon for those who would like to read it. :)

Transferred to Sunday, October 26

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Psalm 46

Romans 3:19-28

John 8:31-36

The younger we are the free-er we are. Of course, as much as we cannot go back into our mother’s womb, as the Pharisee Nicodemus attested, so we can neither stay little nor go back to being little, as tempting as at times it may be. But then, we have grown too old to still understand the struggles of childhood. Being a child is not easy, it’s just different from being an adult. However, there is a wonderful freedom you have as a child. I don’t mean the freedom from what we grown-ups define as responsibility, of having to show up for work and having to pay your bills.

Consider children as young and younger as Lily, they are free. Free, at least mostly, from fear because she knows that her parents are always there for her, laying the foundation for a faith in God that knows that God will always be there for her. Free from buying into the materialistic paradigm that more and bigger is better, or from the achievement paradigm that one only counts for something if one can produce something.

For the most part, I would assume, Lily doesn’t buy into that, and that is why she is free. She is free from what restrains us and keeps us in check. The more bills we have to pay the less we think about the things that matter, like God and each other. And yet, once one thing is paid off we usually get ourselves into greater financial commitments. The more we fall victim to the illusion that a higher standard of living (more stuff) means a higher quality of life the further we wander from the truth. The harder we try to prove ourselves, to receive acceptance, appreciation, and approval, the less we believe that God already accepts, appreciates, and approves of us (not to be confused with approval for everything we do).Our job as parents and church is to keep Lily free. Right now, not just her smiles, but her very presence and existence are enough to tell you and us that she counts for something because she is. What is it that defines her existence? Not the rhythms of her physical life, of eating, sleeping, and digesting, but that she is loved. Loved by God and loved by you, whom God has partnered with.

Chapter eight in John’s gospel begins with the story of the woman caught in adultery. Jesus is teaching at the temple and the Pharisees find a sinner and bring her to him. They interrupt the sermon and ask him whether he agrees with what the law prescribes in cases like this one: the death penalty. Jesus lets them talk, bends down and draws in the sand. They seem to have it all figured out, why did they come to him? They don’t let up. Finally, tired of the talk, he straightens up and says matter-of-factly, ‘Those without sin should now carry out the punishment.’ He holds up a mirror, and one by one they leave.

Only Jesus and the woman are left and the first thing he does is point out that her accusers are gone, and that he will not condemn her either. Instead he calls her to a new life. The section we have before us today is his commentary on the event.

His commentary is no lesson in being good, though goodness is not. There is no moral exhortation of what is bad and what is good. Instead, Jesus speaks about being a disciple. Being a disciple means to remain in his word, which is much more than having memorized Bible verses or having turned his Word into a rule book. Remaining in his Word, is to remain in him, to drink from the deep well of life in God.

One thing that has always bugged me about the proclamation of some is the declaration of the lives of others to be empty. I dislike a proclamation that says, ‘you need God’ in such a way that it is an unsolicited and unqualified judgement of me (even though the statement that I need God is true), complete with the implicit assumption that they are OK and that God is on their side. It’s not the statement that I need God that bothers me but the lack of humility of those proclaiming it. They make life so simple and so black and white. If you can be religiously occupied, then this would be it.It is possible to be wrong even when we are right. If we speak the truth without love and humility, we are wrong no matter what it is that we say.

When I spoke about Lily’s beautiful freedom for God, I did not deny that she is born into a fallen world of which she is a part. However, acknowledging that, I chose to emphasize her openness for God, her likeness of God as a person created in God’s image.

There is something fascinating in our passage. John says: Then Jesus said to those who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (v. 31-32)

Jesus does not pick on those who have fallen down, he does not single out the most obvious of sinners who make for easy target practice. Instead, he forgives and reaches out to those who have so obviously fallen while he challenges those who have come to believe in him.

Jesus’ treatment of both, those who were obvious sinners convicted of obvious sins, and those who had come to believe in him, while different, has the same aim.

The adulterous women (I think we all have always wondered about the man) was occupied with and enslaved by her sin, or her cover-up, her secret life, and so on.Those who believed in Jesus were occupied by being right, pious, and of good stock. Neither was free, neither was open for God, neither was able to drink from God’s well. Neither was as free as Lily: child of God, ready to be surprised and amazed by God.

We today may call ourselves children of Abraham, or children of the Reformation, maybe children of the enlightenment, or maybe just children of capitalism and of the free market, but we are no more free than the people in the story: woman, Pharisees, and even those who seemed to have gotten it (those who believed in him). Our hands and hearts are pretty full with entitlements, securities and insecurities, fears, wants. It is to us to whom Jesus speaks, it is us whom Jesus invites to the freedom of life in him:

Then Jesus said to those who had believed in him, ‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’

Amen.