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God desires for our world to be a place of wholeness and health. Today’s readings reveal glimpses of this desired world and of the surprising ways that God is bringing it to fulfillment. We are called to live into God’s intention for us. What is it like to live our lives according to God’s wisdom? What might we see happening in our communities when we live in God’s wise ways?

Jane: On behalf of the Board of Westminster United Church, I present the following persons for initiation into the body of Christ through Baptism:

Ella Grace Hoffarth daughter of Albert & Tanya Hoffarth	William David Scoble son of Kevin & Angela Scoble	Matraca Jasmine West daughter of Trevor & Lana West

Birthdays: Lana Blatz, Elnora Heine, Doris Humphries, Jean Jans, Anna LeClair,

The best portion of a good [person’s] life

is the little, nameless, unremembered acts

of kindness and love.

William Wordsworth, English poet (1770 – 1850)

by Neil Young

Was he thinkin' about my country or the color of my skin?
Was he thinkin' 'bout my religion and the way I worshipped him?
Did he create just me in his image or every living thing?
When God made me (x2)

Was he planning only for believers or for those who just have faith?
Did he envision all the wars that were fought in his name?
Did he think there was only one way to be close to him?
When God made me (x2)

Did he give us the gift of love to say who we could choose?
When God made me (x4)

Did he give me the gift of voice so some could silence me?
Did he give me the gift of vision not knowing what I might see?
Did he give me the gift of compassion to help my fellow man?
When God made me (x4)

In the preparation for baptism, the parents of those being baptized are asked to reflect on why they are considering baptism. In fact they are asked to write down the statements that express their answers to such questions.

Most often responses will include: “We want to raise our family in a Christian Environment.” And when asked, ‘What plans do you have for helping your child grow in the faith and deepen her/his commitment to Christ?’ It isn’t uncommon to hear responses like: We plan to “Attend church on a regular or as possible basis, conduct our life in a Christian manner and lead by example.”

I think most of you who have presented children for baptism or have had your parents present you for baptism will resonate with those answers and all answers that speak to similar wishes.

Often, what is behind such responses are the great historical markers of our faith, things like the 10 commandments, some of the stories we may have learned in Sunday school or some of the principles that we would like to believe this nation was founded on.

Whenever we encounter those messages, in movies, books, songs, gatherings of worship, we feel that we are developing on the themes that have been handed down to us by faith ancestors much as Moses was to have handed down the ten commandments to help a people conduct themselves in ways that are sustainable, orderly, progressive.

Succinct blocks of text like the Ten Commandments were “the bits” of influence that stood for generations to inform, inspire, challenge and encourage people much as this generation often finds those qualities and characteristics in the media of our day.

I don’t think that one replaces another but instead that each contributes to the whole of our experience and creates windows of light that can speak to our souls in the here and now.

I grew up through my teens and later listening to Neil Young and others…Jane went to high school with Neil at Calvin in Winnipeg. Many think he can’t sing at all, and perhaps they have a point, but he manages as Joni Mitchell has to strike a cord with listeners that touches their hearts.

Recently, I encountered a new album of Neil’s and in it he is revisiting the themes of earlier albums and he must be feeling older because her is very nostalgic for the prairie past that helped shape his life.

One song on that album I think is particularly appropriate as we gather in yet another service of baptism and as we welcome these young lives…especially as we journey through Lent and think about the deep themes that have not only been a part of our lives but the lives of the faith ancestors that have gone before us.

The Blessing of New Life and brushes with death often cause us to rethink our lives and the sense of wonder because God is in our lives. Neil Young experienced such a rethink a year ago this month when a brain aneurism nearly claimed his life…out of that grew more than one song, but this one I would like to share with you, this baptismal Sunday, “When God Made me.”

"When God Made Me" by Neil Young

Was he thinkin' about my country or the color of my skin?
Was he thinkin' 'bout my religion and the way I worshipped him?
Did he create just me in his image or every living thing?
When God made me (x2)

Was he planning only for believers or for those who just have faith?
Did he envision all the wars that were fought in his name?
Did he think there was only one way to be close to him?
When God made me (x2)

Did he give us the gift of love to say who we could choose?
When God made me (x4)

Did he give me the gift of voice so some could silence me?
Did he give me the gift of vision not knowing what I might see?
Did he give me the gift of compassion to help my fellow man?
When God made me (x4)

The Psalmist says, Before I was formed in the womb, you knew me, God. God didn’t know us as a list of dos and don’ts, not as a machine to be programmed but as a heart to be loved and nurtured, a life to be blessed and molded through that blessing into something wonderful and free and whole.

The anthem today speaks of Children coming unto Jesus for a Blessing and experiencing the warmth and laughter that can lead one into a place of health and grace.

The Lenten journey we make with Jesus reminds us that there are times when tempers flare, when we do need to stand up and be faithful to what lies within but we also need to be sensitive to the God that invites us into God’s communion, and that can take on a completely different look, a softer, gentler, welcoming space.

There isn’t a lot about the commandments that is soft nor is there much about the turning of the tables in the Temple court that is soft but faith isn’t only lived in the soft places but also in the hard places, not only in the places that test our mantle but the places that give us gentle blessing.

Each of these young lives today, Ella, William and Matraca will encounter the soft and hard place the places of conviction and the places of blessing, the places of reflection amid life’s trials and the places of wonder amid the spirit of God’s leading.

We who gather this day hope that we can journey with them, at least part of the way and to offer them the love and wisdom that we have inherited from those who have gone before us.

And we hope, for some of that journey, to be able to take them by the hand, and walk with them as those guided by our God, those invited to share the table of our God, those called to feed on the manna, the heavenly food that only God can offer.

And we hope that along the journey we may sense together the strength of God among us and with us throughout our lives.

We also journey in the hope and promise of those who have gone before us and the assurance that is ours as persons open to experiencing God’s love and blessing.

Funny thing about the blessing of these little one…yes, in some wondrous way they are blessed by God in this special service, in some manner beyond our knowing—but in a similar way and in this place and time they are also a blessing to all of us who capture a glimpse of the light within them—the promise of hope—that vision still invites us to revisit our baptism and the promise that remains from God that declares that we are all a sacred body in Christ. And to that I can only add my AMEN! AMEN!

Matraca Jasmine West

Trevor & Lana West