Alas - many apologies to those who have been looking for a blog post. On April 22 we were in Calgary visiting my daughter and without a sermon topic to comment on the post got "post-poned". The following weeks were missed. This Sunday we are engaging in some traditional Christian rituals - baptism and confirmation. These events were once high points in a Christian's life and in the life of the church but they have been diminished. Confirmation classes have become quite small (three people this year) and baptisms are also few in number (this will be the only baptism I conduct during my ten months at St. Martin's).
On the one hand rituals in and of themselves have no particular magic. Traditionally, these events signified a deepening of one's faith. Over time they tended to become expectations of the wider culture, the "proper" thing to do. Now that the culture does not care about church life one wonders if these rituals might return us to some deeper thinking about what it means to make a commitment to the Christian way. In baptism and confirmation people publicly make a statement about their intention to live in the Christian Way. I sometimes think that we should be asked to make such declarations every week, even every day! It is so easy to live a life without reflection and without any conscious reference to our Christian values. Perhaps this week's service might encourage each of us to re-think what engages us about Christianity and how we might be more intentional about living in Jesus' way.
I'd be interested in hearing what you have to think.
