The Lord will guide you continually
and satisfy your needs in parched places
and make your bones strong,
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water
whose waters never fail.
12 Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to live in. – Isaiah 58:11-12 (NRSVUE)
In a twenty-four hour period last week, my schedule included: a pre-baptism preparation session, a confirmation class make-up session, a marriage preparation meeting, and a funeral. Talk about covering key markers of the full circle of life! From the beginning of life with the baptism of an infant to the maturing faith of a teenager readying themselves to take on the baptismal promises for themselves, to the joy of young adults committing to a life together, to resting in the baptismal promises as earthly life comes to an end. (This leaves a long stretch between marriage and funeral, where these rites are observed for others but not experienced for oneself. I do think celebrating more key moments of adult life through rituals is something that the church should do more of, but that is for a different time.) The gospel and the promises made in baptism truly remain throughout life, giving guidance in faith through key moments along the way.
I had never had all of those things in such a short span of time before. It was a powerful reminder to me of the privilege I have of walking with families through so many different moments of life. I am always thankful for that honor, to be sure, but having so many different ones so close together made my gratitude all the more palpable. Certainly as a pastor I have a unique level of access to the lives of families in these moments, but the privilege of witnessing so many different stages of life is a gift that comes to all in the church to some degree. Where else do we have all of these different events happening regularly? Most gatherings of people have at most one key life event that they mediate. Schools have graduations, for instance, but not the other stages. Hospitals have birth and death, but not many of the joys that come between those times. The ability to attend to all stages of life is a gift that is found in the church and few other places. This is a gift that is too often underappreciated. Add to that the church’s task of not just having these events but of naming the presence of God in these passages of life and that value of the church community becomes even more remarkable.
Several books and articles have come out in the past year noting the ways that the steady decline of religion in the Western tradition over the past two and a half centuries has meant a loss of community that has not been replaced by anything else. It has happened slowly, but the effects are increasingly obvious. People do not interact much with one another at all, let alone people of different generations, life stages, or other demographics. Life is divided into silos of experiences, and these experiences are largely private affairs. A radical reality of the church is the integration of people who are different in so many ways, sharing with one another some of their most important moments. We should not underestimate the power of those moments as a form of resisting the ways that our lives and communities become more and more fragmented and distanced from one another. What a joy it would be if having celebrations of all forms of rites from different stages of life was a normal week in the life of the church community.