August 6, 2023 - Tenth Sunday after Pentecost - The Baptism of Callum John Wyckoff Bennett: A Creator Celebration

Today we started the August with the Call Us Home setting for our worship service. A familiar, and very comfortable service for some. Doing the music in the whole setting for the first time in a while reminded us that with a congregation that constantly changes, congregational familiarity changes as well 

Photo by Ron Houser

Pastor Emillie started her sermon observing that our recent parable readings from the lectionary were both wonderful and challenging. We learn and relearn. We hear the familiar and unfamiliar stories of the parables. We trace the old ways of hearing those parables, and discover new paths within them.

Today became an exciting day for Creator particularly, as we celebrated the baptism of Callum John Wyckoff Bennett, grandson of Doug and Mary, This was, by the way, Pastor Emillie's first Creator baptism, Today became both wonderful and challenging as well. Callum's baptism fell on a day where the Gospel lesson starts with the news of the beheading of John the Baptist.

The gospel story starts us at a time of mourning for Jesus and the crowd that gathers, Jesus has lost a cousin and companion in faith. The people in the crowd, some of whom are John’s disciples, have lost a friend, mentor, leader, and, in some cases, family..

And while the crowd is waiting, we read that Jesus feels compassion for the crowd and heals their sickness. As the story unfolds, Jesus performs a miracle. With the five loaves of bread and two fish,which he blesses and multiplies, about five thousand are fed. What was initially a mournful gathering is turned into a banquet, totally unlike that of King Herod's with Salome, which prompted John the Baptist's life being taken,

Jesus turned s gathering, a crowd who were in mourning, into a celebration with this compassionate feeding of "about" five thousand. From Callum's baptism Creator's worship went from a note of mournful remembrance struck during the Gospel reading, into the transformative second part of this service where we made a declaration of faith and obedience. And finally, together, we shared the banquet God graciously provides us each Sunday that we gather.

Again, God gives us these unexpected and wonderful banquet opportunities.