Ordinary Time

Earlier this summer (in late June) Michele Ready and I participated in the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in San Jose, California, representing Riviera Church as volunteers for the Covenant Network of Presbyterians (see RPC web site for links and info). One of the tasks I was privileged to accomplish was to address two different committees of the Assembly on matters related to congregations which have diverse membership, including membership of lesbian and gay families. There were a variety of overtures addressing the place of LGBT persons in Presbyterian Church life: the social witness response of Presbyterians toward equal civil rights for LGBT families and their children in the U.S.; as well as how to provide fair support for all individuals, couples and families in churches, crafting a congregational life that reflects the inclusive love of God for all. One of the committees was especially concerned with marriage and legal rights of families and children in our congregations … and how advocating for equal civil rights and adopting more inclusive policies at the national Presbyterian Church level would affect the common life of local Presbyterian congregations. For my two minute speech (yes, I actually made a two minute sermon!) I chose to share about the four baptisms Riviera celebrated in 2007. Here’s what I said:

Thank you for making time to hear testimony from Presbyterians whose lives are affected by the actions you will take regarding the participation of GLBT people in Presbyterian congregations. Many of today’s witnesses have spoken eloquently about their partners in life, and how important the blessing of church community is to sustaining a healthy, faithful, covenanted relationship. I would like to speak about children, particularly, the four children who were baptized last year in Riviera Presbyterian Church in Miami, where I serve as pastor. The first little one baptized is the adopted daughter of a couple in our church. She was brought here from Kazakhstan, and we were thrilled to celebrate the beginning of her faith journey with Riviera by adopting her into the family of faith through baptism. I’m grateful that Morgan’s mom has joined me at GA this week, volunteering for our denomination; a choice she can make without anxiety since her co-parent, her husband Robbie, has the legal right to have adopted their daughter and see to any legal or medical concerns she might have in her mom’s absence.

This is not, unfortunately the case for the parents of our next two baptized children of God; twin boys for whom our congregation watched and prayed during their biological mother’s pregnancy. The parents of these beautiful boys worked extensively with me and with others to set up legal and practical parental access to protect the children and their family: since the non-biological parent is a woman, the state of Florida does not permit her to adopt her sons, nor hold legal custody of them. She must carry a paper around (as do other parents in our congregation) giving her permission to pick up her child, or approve medical treatments if necessary.

Whenever the boys are in church for communion Sunday, their moms bring them forward to receive a blessing…reminding all of us how precious the lives of our children and their families are to a healthy church. The fourth baptism was blessedly uneventful, which was in marked contrast to that of her older sister, two years previously. The older sister was diagnosed with some congenital heart difficulties that caused her to be born early and very small. She was in neo-natal intensive care unit the first couple of months of her life. The session gave permission for me to take an elder and baptize this little one in the hospital because we were certain she needed, and we needed, the claim of God to be on her fragile young life. The day we baptized her was the first time she was permitted out of the isolette that had protected her from infection while she gained strength and size. It’s fitting, we thought that this child leaves an isolette-literally, her isolation-into the arms of the family of God, making promises on her behalf. We had to receive special permission for extra people to be at the baby’s bedside…and there was a question whether both parents could answer the baptismal questions for their daughter…because, since both parents were women, the non-biological mom’s presence at the crib of her daughter was only given by the kindness or whim of the attending medical personnel, as lesbian or gay non-biological parents cannot adopt the child of their life partner. How strange that this sacrament of becoming family of God, should be threatened with fragmentation because of the unequal and unjust legal treatment of GLBT persons and their families. As Presbyterians, when a congregation stands to affirm its responsibility in baptism, we do so on behalf of the whole church. Please help Riviera fulfill its baptismal promises to these four beautiful children, and vote to support equal rights for GLBT families and couples. Thank you.

I was doing some reading on the sacraments recently, and came across this notion about what it is we do in baptism: that is the church’s responsibility to teach our parents that the sacrament of baptism does not so much anchor our children to a Rock as it casts them on the waters to commit age-appropriate crimes of passion and acts of subversion for the sake of God’s justice. And it went on to encourage congregations to help their young parents see baptism as an act of introducing their child to meaningful participation in the body of Christ, the church.

I liked that notion very much, because after twenty years at Riviera, I have the privilege to see how some of the children we have initiated have turned out: as young adults committed to justice, to kindness, to making a difference in the world … as young people whose friends and companions come from all walks and ways of life. These kids you have raised in the church know what matters, and they know how to love and care with openness and justice.

So I have confidence in how these four children of last years baptismal class will turn out. They will be well taught by our Sunday School teachers; welcomed in worship, nurtured by the older children who are a part of their family of faith. Baptism, after all, isn’t holy magic: it is the concerted effort of parents, children, and the church family to see to it that a child learns with their life to reflect the path of Christ. If we do our part to make sure our children always feel welcome in church; if we attend church and Sunday School frequently enough that our presence makes an imprint and a difference in their lives, and as we do our parts as older children and adults to nurture little ones along the path of Christ; if we do this, Riviera and its young will continue to be an important part of the light that shines even in darkness.

Shalom, Laurie