Yesterday we celebrated the baptism of Cipriano Almanza IV, a.k.a. Tato. It seemed for all intents and purposes that the baptism service was overcome by chaos, mishaps, and anxiety. But, upon reflection on this very special day I wanted to reframe our memories so that Tato remembers less our own incompetence and more the grace of God.
1 - The inflatable pool had an air leak. This we knew when we had planned the immersion baptism in our little Presbyterian Church, which is more accustomed to sprinkling or pouring baptisms. But we figured we would blow it up right before the service without any trouble.
Not so much.
We inflated the pool one "last" time about an hour before the service with a compressor. Thirty minutes later, Estela (Tato's mom) called me over to point out that the side of the pool was collapsing under the weight of the water and we almost had gallons and gallons of water pouring out onto our carpeted sanctuary. Thus began the ongoing ritual of filling and refilling the pool with the compressor until the service started.
The challenge then was that our service is not even the typical Presbyterian 1 hour... after all we are a bilingual church, and we are incredibly community focused... so our service are at least 90 minutes. At least. So, to avoid turning on the really loud compressor during the service, my husband Andy Wong would calmly walk to the front and blow up the pool. This created a great echo and you could hear the woosh of his breath every time he blew up the pool... He did this several times during the service so we had the rushing winds every once in a while.
Reframing: Another word for Spirit is wind or breath... And the Spirit is hard to contain, just like the air didn't want to stay in that pool. Baptism is about receiving and submitting one's life to the Spirit. We do not know where the Spirit will go or will lead us. The Spirit can also be heard in the love and actions of those around us, just like Andy's breath filling up that pool. God blows life back into us again and again and again.
2 - The pool also leaked water. So, basically we had an inflatable pool that neither held air nor water. Great. We only realized this 30 minutes before the service when the pool was already full. So, we needed to get this service done as quickly as possible to minimize the damage to the floor. Oh, and did I mention there was a live outlet under the pool? So, our last 30 minutes before the service we were also desperately trying to figure out how to kill that circuit on the circuit breaker to make sure the baptism wasn't electrifying for either Tato or myself. We did so, but only after having to sacrifice the "Jesus light" which is the lit stained glass window behind the pulpit of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. When folks complained, I explained that preventing electrocution of Tato and myself was slightly more important... besides the focus today was on the Spirit and baptism. Right?
As the service lingered on, the wet patch around the pool got bigger and bigger and more people started to realize our anxiety.
We did make it to the end of the service though and emptied the pool as quickly as possible with hoses, buckets, and eventually carrying the whole thing outside. Some of my work today is returning to the church to dry out that carpet. Sigh.
Reframing: Moving water is always important in the scriptures. It represents life and hope and movement of God. It reminds us of the Spirit hovering over the waters in creation. It prevents death. Baptism, likewise is about movement. The movement of the Spirit, and our movement in response. The water in that pool wanted to be moving, not contained... Our prayer is that Tato's faith in time will do likewise. It will not be contained and it will always be moving.
3 - Children love water. During the children's sermon I walked all the kids up to the pool and we had a long talk about baptism... The whole time my youngest son was desperately trying to get into the pool. He was throwing his toys into the water. All of the kids were touching it. There was a lot of high anxiety because the walls of the pool were pretty deflated at this point and we didn't want any of those kids to pull to hard on the sides of the pool. I ended the sermon quickly and the kids returned to their seats...
Still, during the rest of the service my little son Micah was returning to the pool and other kids would wander up... more anxiety.
Even after the service, as we sang the last hymn Micah and Susie Marie broke free from their parental supervision and made a sprint to the front (both are younger than 2). And as Andy chased them down, singing the second verse of Jesus loves me... he stopped. "Jesus loves me this I know, like he loved so long ago... taking children on his knee, saying let them come to me."
Reframing: Grace is irresistible. That's why we baptize infants and toddlers and little kids before they know what faith is... because they will grow up hearing and receiving and knowing grace and we are drawn to God's grace just like those kids were to the pool. We are drawn again and again to return to the waters of our baptism. We never lose our love for them. And that is a blessed thing.
4 - Tato freaked out when he got in the water. He helped me bless the water. He let me pick him up and put him in the pool. It was great. And then, as he looked out to the congregation in his swim trunks... he grabbed his shorts and said, "Oh no. I've got to pee." We ALL froze. What to do? And then, without missing a beat, one of our elders said, "Eh, it's a pool." And his aunt said, "Just baptize him quickly!" So, I put my arms around him, and Tato started to protest, "It's too cold. No! It's cold! I don't want to do it!!!"
I grabbed his nose and flipped him backward, and dunked him. He came out of the water screaming. I pronounced the Trinitarian baptismal words. Done.
Reframing: We don't always go willingly into the arms of God. Sometimes we get scared. Sometimes a bunch of folks are staring at us. Sometimes we don't think we can handle what God has in store. But there are always arms around us, whether we can see them or not. And thankfully, God's grace overcomes our fear and gets us where we need to be.
5 - After the proclamation, I realized I needed to act quickly and get this screaming kid out of the pool, so I started to pick him up and transfer him to the towel. And instead, Tato latched onto me. Dripping wet, he wrapped himself around me and my handmade stole and my lace pastor's robe. Dripping wet he embraced me, hiding his face from the world, resting his dripping hair on my shoulder. He refused to go to his mom. He wanted to stay in my arms.
Reframing the wet robe: Looking at all the worried faces in the church, I told them that in seminary I had been taught to never ever ever dust off your hands after communion or dry your hands after a baptism. "We don't need to wipe the Holy Spirit off." Tato didn't need that towel anyway.
Reframing Tato's complete collapse: When we are baptized we join Christ's family, and we become a part of the church. Suddenly, there is more than one mom or dad in our life... there are many arms to hold us. And when we are scared and cold and wet, we find the embrace of God in the Body of Christ. When we find that, we never want to let go. And we shouldn't. ever.
That hug was the most sacred moment of the service to me... as the air leaked out of the pool and the water poured onto our floor and ruined the carpet, as I laughed at the potential that I just baptized a kid by force in a pool that had some of his own pee, all I could see was that Tato knew the love and embrace of God in the arms of the one who had baptized him when he was scared to do it. Wow.
I pray that Tato is told the story of his baptism again and again and again... but not as a mockery of what went wrong, but as a testament to how God used a church that was willing to go all out to make sure he had the most spectacular welcome into God's household.
See what love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are.
