Deans' Note November 14

This Sunday, after a long time of waiting through Covid, we have the joyful opportunity for the baptism of a child into the new life of Christ. Matt and Susy Jimenez will bring one year old Elisa to the font where she will be placed in the water baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity and anointed with oil. All these elements are symbolic, but baptism is not a metaphor.

When Elisa is plunged into that water as most of us have been, something real happens. We become children of the covenant and of God, and part of a new creation in Christ. On Sunday morning we will say that Elisa and all of us have been sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ's own forever. Just like the people of Israel left Egypt and slavery behind, we leave behind the old world order and our slavery to sin and begin a new journey into God's new creation. We are somebody different after we are baptized than before -- we belong to Christ and we all are on a journey of transformation, to become who we are uniquely created to be. That's why we can't think of Christianity as a hobby or the church as just another voluntary organization to which we belong. Being Christian is a life long vocation to which we give ourselves.

So Sunday, when together we renew the vows of our baptism, we recommit to our vocation and our destiny. It will be a wonderful day finally we welcome this little one into the life of Christ and the family of the Church. We encourage as many members of our community as can to be there physically to support Matt and Susy in their vocation as parents and to support one another in our common journey. We are all traveling this road together, marked as Christ's own forever.