Yesterday we had the perfect celebration of Advent at Forrest Hill UMC. We baptized little Matthew. It had been a long time since we had shared in an Infant Baptism. The family stood proudly by and covenanted to provide him with a faith filled home and the congregation promised that they would do the same. Big brother Ethan stood there proudly beaming. It was so powerful. Why?
It is really simple. “For God so loved the world that he sent his Son.” I was reminded that God chose to save the world through a baby. That God entrusted that baby to normal people to raise and love. In a sense Infant Baptism is the Advent story. “The word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.” This story is the model for all discipleship.
Our mission is to “Make disciples for the transformation of the world.” We do that one life at a time. It happens best in the context of faithful families and faith communities. We…no one else are charged with the rebirthing process of God’s children. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I know God does the saving, but we are entrusted with the birthing.
Did you know that 4 children are born every second?( That is over 128 million a year) They are born into all kinds of circumstances, but they are God’s children. God has asked us to take care of them and to help them know who they are and how God would have them live. (make Disciples) In short, our families and congregations should be constantly “expecting” and Baptizing God’s children. Are we? Some of God’s children have been born a long time and are waiting to be reborn. Are we ready to adopt them into our families and to love them to Christ?
Statistics say no. Half of our congregations did have a profession of faith! But a lot of those babies are going un-reborn! What if we put the energy and effort into raising God’s kids as we did into our buildings? What if we understood we were all trustees of these lives? What if all 4 of the kids born this second were born into the power of our Advent community? Are your families ready? Do they know their responsibilities as Christian parents? Are your churches ready with Sunday school and confirmation classes? Are our people prepared to share their faith in Jesus? This is our trust!
Making Disciples is simply loving the children of God all their life and into eternal life. Remember your Baptism! Be the community of the” Holy Family”. What better gift could we bring the “Christ Child” than a new brother or sister? What better gift to give than the life changing love of Jesus. We are the community of Advent…the King is coming…so are the children…are you expecting? I am! I am expecting the Mississippi Annual Conference to remember their baptism and to begin the work of being the family of God in the world. I am counting on you to share in the rebirthing process. By 2012 I believe we will welcome more professions of faith than we have in the last decade. In January we invite you to let us know every time you baptize a child or adult. We want to know every time there is a profession of faith. We will post on the web site a running total of these numbers each week…our “Human Life Exchange”! We will celebrate together the gift of the coming of Christ into the lives of people. I cannot wait to see how we embrace this challenge.
We are the community of the baptized!
We are becoming the Kingdom of God!
Let the children come unto us.
Please join me in prayer about this…but more than that, become the answer to those prayers!
Let us lead them to Christ. That, my friends is true Christmas!
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