Alena Joy Hofman was baptized yesterday. Baptizing Lanie was probably my favorite moment of my pastoral ministry so far. I love the imagery of baptism, especially infant baptism. God acts to claim us as His own, even though we are totally helpless. As our liturgy says, "For you, child, Jesus came into the world. For you He died and conquered death. All this He did for you, little one, though you know nothing of it yet." In baptism we celebrate that God acts first to deliver us and then calls us to follow Him, to truly live into our identity as His children. Baptism also reminds of our union with Christ. In Romans 6, Paul writes, "Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." Baptism is a sign and seal of our dying and rising with Christ. It's as if our old selves are drowned in the waters of baptism, as Jesus raises our new selves to life. As the hymn "Sing! A New Creation" puts it: Sing! A new creation calls us; God's Son, firstborn from the dead, makes the drowning which befalls us into cleansing birth instead. In order to make this imagery and symbolism of dying and rising more visible (since God gives us the sacraments to make His good news clearer to us), Tess and I chose to have Lanie baptized by immersion. It was a beautiful, meaningful moment. See for yourselves:
God holds out His promises in His grace. We have responded with a promise to raise Lanie as a child of God. Now we pray that God's Spirit will stir in her and lead her to claim His promises and receive His grace in faith. Grace and peace, BMH
Lanie woke up at 6:30 this morning. Tess gave Lanie her pacifier, and then turned to me and said, "Brian, do you want to get up and take her?" "Sure," I replied, "I'll take her, but I'm going to sleep for a little bit longer." By the time Tess had processed this, I was snoring again. Thankfully, Lanie took her pacifier and went back to sleep. When Lanie woke up again at 7:30, I got up without any trouble. Tess told me this story around 9:00 this morning. I had no idea. We laughed about the whole thing for a solid couple of minutes. I guess Holy Week must've really taken it out of me. Happy Easter everyone! Grace and peace, BMH
I listen to quite a bit of music on a weekly basis. I have music playing almost the entire time I'm writing each of my sermons. Tess and I have the radio on whenever we're driving out of town. We go through quite a few songs with worship services and other church activities. With all that music in my life, I almost constantly have one song or another in my head. Sometimes I sing them to Lanie or belt them out in the shower. And sometimes I start humming them without knowing it. I'll be walking along and find myself halfway through a verse or a few bars into a chorus. Normally that isn't a big deal, but occasionally I catch myself doing this while walking in a group of people. I snap back to focus from being in my own little world and find others giving me some interesting looks. A lot of strangers probably think I'm a little bit out there. Then again, I think most of the people who know me think the same thing. :) I often wonder if other people hum subconsciously. Anybody else want to own up to that? Grace and peace, BMH
Today is Major League Baseball's Opening Day. (Yankees, Rays, Giants, Diamondbacks, Cubs, and Cardinals fans, I know your teams played yesterday. I don't care. Today is the real opening day.) Opening Day is one of my favorite days of the year. I'd be up for making it a national holiday. (Side note: there are two kinds of people in the world: people who love baseball, and people whom I don't understand.) After about five months, my favorite sport is fully back. Over the next six months, I'll have 162 Brewers box scores to check. I'll keep tabs on batters' BA, OBP, SLG and pitchers' IP and ERA. I'll feed my interest in mathematics by looking up some advanced statistics like WAR, RC, and FIP. I'll start peppering my conversations with phrases like "runners at the corners," "hit for the cycle,""walk-off," and "suicide squeeze." I'll wonder if bringing the LOOGY out of the bullpen will turn those RISP into LOB. The Brewers will probably be terrible yet again, but I'll cherish each time Bob Uecker calls "Get up, get up, get outta here, gone!" and Bernie tumbles down his yellow slide. I'll dream about the smell of beer and brats on a sunny day at Miller Park. And I'll keep hoping that maybe, just maybe, the Brewers will bring home a pennant at some point in my life. For now, happy Opening Day, everyone! Grace and peace, BMH P.S. Here's an acronym guide: BA = batting average; OBP = on base percentage; SLG = slugging percentage; IP = innings pitched; ERA = earned run average; WAR = wins above replacement; RC = runs created; FIP = fielding independent pitching; LOOGY = left-handed one out guy; RISP = runners in scoring position; LOB = left on base. If you'd like more explanation, Google is your friend!
