Petra,
As your parents one of our duties is to provide you with the things you need in life as well as to provide you with the occasional luxury, the occasional gift, the occasional non-necessity. It will often be joyful and sometimes stressful. Sometimes you will be grateful for what we give to you but sometimes that gratitude will be hard to summon.
The gift we give to you today is a gift that was given to us. The community of God to love and support you and to receive the love and support that you will grow into.
But that is a strange thing to say as it is rather incorrect. We cannot give to you this gift because in a way we have no power over the giving, much in the same way you currently have no ability to reject the gift. As the saying goes, "the best things in life are free" and indeed this thing you are being given today is radically free and certainly the best.
And we kid ourselves when "we," your parents, or "we" the congregation, or even "we" the church are deluded into thinking that anyone but God can give this gift. It is the gift of adoption into God's family. It is the gift of entrance into God's kingdom. It is the pledge of the church to love and care for you as best it can. But mostly it is a promise that the God who created you, found you before you even knew to look for him, surrounded you with the church led by the Holy Spirit, that this God sent his Son to the cross so that he may enjoy your presence with him in this life and the next. This is, of course, what we celebrate today knowing that as we baptize you into this community we can be assured of it's headship and victory over death that defines it's existence.
Now hear this verse as a blessing personalized for you Petra. It is from a book that is attributed, or at least dedicated, to your namesake, the rock of the church: 1 Peter 4:7-11
The end of all things draw near. Therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for your prayers. Above all keep your love of others constant because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to others without complaining. Just as each one has received a gift, use yours for serving others, as a good steward of the grace of God to you. If you speak, let is be as the oracle of God; If you serve let it be by the strength of God, so in all things God will be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom is the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.
Petra, receive this gift of baptism into God's family the church. It is given to you by your Holy Father who has been, is and always will be with you.
