Quick Summary:

(NOTE: This sermon, preached on the occasion of the baptism of a young woman new to the church, focuses on baptism.)

It all starts here, as we wade in these waters:
• Christ’s claiming of us, and our journey with him;
• God weaving us—our individual stories—into the grand story of his amazing grace, and fitting the pieces of our lives together in this grand puzzle—this grand experiment called Christian community.

It all begins right here in these waters where God washes, forgives and frees us to be the persons he’s created us to be. When we stay close to these waters, when we wade in these waters, we will discover our purpose in life, we discover our passion, we discover our vocation.

And here’s the reality: the world doesn’t want us to go there.
It doesn’t want us to go there because the world has other plans for us. It wants to be in charge of defining us; it wants to tell us how much we’re worth; it wants to keep us on the merry-go-round of looking for love and belonging in all the wrong places.

While God loves the world, the world wants nothing to do with God. And it is willing to do whatever it takes to pull us away from God...But we who have entered these waters have one voice and one voice only to follow.
Listen! Can you hear it? YOU, CHILD, ARE MY BELOVED DAUGHTER! MY BELOVED SON! That’s God talking! And don’t let any one, any way, any time, tell you any different.