Sunday was a delightful day for my wife and me: our godson was confirmed in the Christian faith.

The day was dark and rainy, actually rather gloomy; but the confirmation brightened every part of the day. What happened with Brent is what should always happen after baptism: his parents and his church community nurtured him in the faith, so that on Sunday, he claimed for himself the faith of his baptismal day. We were so proud of him and happy for him and his family.

He knows this is not the end, but a really big step along the way with lots of steps still ahead. We listened to him express his faith in his own words – with a smile on his face! We heard his mom tell with pleasure that he’s been the reader of Scripture lessons at worship– frequently. We saw him surrounded by Christian family and friends who care about him.

Not everyone has what Brent does – a caring, Christian family and a small, close-knit congregation. That’s why too many children who have been baptized never make it to church worship, Sunday School, and confirmation classes. What could be assumed a generation or two ago – that a baptized child would be brought up in the faith – is no longer the case.  A sad situation. The reasons are many – and challenges for all of us who believe in Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life. But today’s not the day for that discussion….

Today we give thanks for Brent, his faith in Jesus, and all who surrounded him and led him to take another step on the journey of following our Lord. Best wishes, Brent. As the lines of an Irish prayer have it: Christ on your right, Christ on your left, Christ before you, Christ after you…May Christ always be your companion.

On the commemoration calendar of the Lutheran church (ELCA), today we remember Dietrich Bonhoeffer, theologian. On this date in 1945, he was hanged on Nazi gallows for his involvement in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

A pastor-teacher in Germany in the 1930s, Bonhoeffer has been my ministry’s inspiration. His writing on grace and baptism in The Cost of Discipleship almost 75 years ago, for example, set me a long and continuing course of lifting up baptismal spirituality, beginning with a master’s thesis at Luther Seminary.

Mindful that Bonhoeffer’s pastoral ministry took place while Hitler consolidated power and went to war, I offer a few of his words that first stirred me (and many others):

Cheap grace is the mortal enemy of our church. Our struggle today is for costly grace.

Cheap grace means grace as bargain-basement goods, cut-rate forgiveness, cut-rate comfort, cut-rate sacrament; grace as the church’s inexhaustible pantry, from which it is doled out by careless hands without hesitation or limit. It is grace without a price, without costs….

Cheap grace means justification of sin but not of the sinner. Because grace alone does everything, everything can stay in its old ways….

Cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without repentance; it is baptism without the discipline of community; it is the Lord’s Supper without confession of sin; it is absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without the living, incarnate Jesus Christ….

[Costly grace] is costly, because it calls to discipleship; it is grace, because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly, because it costs people their lives; it is grace, because it thereby makes them live…. Above all, grace is costly, because it was costly to God, because it costs the life of God’s Son…. [Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Volume 4, Discipleship, pp. 43-45]

Let that be enough for now, the right note to sound here in Holy Week which is truly about costly grace.

In my last post I said would tell about an important ministry in the church designed about marking milestones in people’s lives.

Remember: milestones are those occasions in our lives where something important happens, often meaning a real “before” and “after.” These milestones might include events celebrated in the home; others in the congregation (or community as well). The Christian ministry of milestones takes place in the recognition and the ritual, keeping close the Christ connection: that we are “in Christ” even as we leave behind the old and face the new.

Who among us doesn’t recognize the importance of getting a driver’s license? It’s a teenager’s dream! Of course my beloved aunt found it pretty exciting at 65 years as well. Here’s a definite before and after. A real milestone filled with promise and responsibility. A Milestones Ministry recognizes this – deliberately.

If anyone that deserves credit for lifting up this element of baptismal spirituality, it’s The Youth and Family Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They are at the center of exciting work to pass on the Christian faith especially within families and congregations. Check them out. They say:

A faith milestone is a marker along life’s journey that says, “This is something important and God is here, tool!” It’s time to pause, to share the joys and sorrows, to give and receive support.

As you might guess, some milestones are very public, such as high school graduation, and others more private, such as parents sending their child off to school for the very first time. So they may call for different kinds of celebrations, more public in the congregation or more private in the home. The Youth and Family Institute recognizes the differences, and it works with congregations to find their own pathway into this local ministry.

The opportunities to mark milestones are many. I know a congregation that for many years has given handmade quilts to its high school graduates on a special Sunday. I just served a congregation, Holmen Lutheran, that has been presenting the baptized with faithchests® to keep important mementoes and items for growing in faith through the years. Then there’s my personal experience: when I retired recently, my congregation celebrated, remembered, and did a Ritual for the Closure of a Ministry.

With Milestone Ministry, there’s a real sense of “before” and “after,” as I said, but in the words and the rituals, we realize there God is here too. Over the expanse of time, we truly we grow in faith and experience belonging to God.

“The Gospel of Will Smith” from the December 8 issue of Newsweek is an interview of searcher who is comfortable in his own skin.

His films like “The Pursuit of Happyness,” “I Am Legend,” and “Hancock” are into the tougher side of life. That’s where Smith wants to go. He says that he loves “the nature of humanity’s search for meaning. For me,” he goes on, “I’m certain about my relationship with the model of perfection of human life that’s laid out with the life of Jesus Christ.” Then he goes on to add, that it’s being at home in that basic relationship that takes away his fear of sitting “in a mosque or a synagogue or a Buddhist temple.”

Here’s another way to be a Christian. Be so anchored and secure in your identity as a follower of Christ that you can be open to others and their beliefs. The object is not first to convert them or convince them of your truth, much less put them down, but to listen to them and maybe even learn from them.

As I read the full interview with Will Smith, I admit that I don’t always see life quite like he does. But there’s good stuff here! Like “Life is all about death and rebirth and how do we manage to deal with those things when they happen. And not just death in terms of life. You know when you lose your job or your house – that’s a death of something that is a part of your life. How do you manage that?” Will Smith goes after these things in his films

I found this interview fascinating because it’s filled with baptismal spirituality, especially our dying and rising, as in the last paragraph. It’s also about who we are. In our baptism our identity as a child of God is secured, and when that identity is really lived out, it can – as Will Smith indicates – open us to the world and other human beings without fear and defensiveness. I believe that baptismal spirituality can mean for us both a committed heart and an open mind. Will Smith appears to be a good example. He makes me want to go and see another movie.

Now that was fun! I’m talking about the book signing I was privileged to have this past Sunday morning with the folks of my congregation. The ninety minutes between our two Sunday services were filled – signing for half an hour, then talking about the book for 15 minutes or so, and then signing again. What a joy to share this day with people who support my ministry.

I had a chance to talk about this favorite subject of mine, but in retrospect, I just scratched the surface of what I wanted to say. I guess that’s what happens when something’s become so deeply imbedded in your life. If I were to summarize the core of my motivation, it would be that deep in my heart I hope that baptism will become more closely connected with discipleship – and especially that baptism and discipleship are never separated. 

In the tradition and practice of my Lutheran church where the baptism of infants is the ordinary experience, it’s obvious that a baby knows very little about discipleship – well, nothing really. So the future is needed for discipleship to happen, a future with that little one surrounded by people of faith who keep telling her that she is a child of God and helping her understand and practice what that means. This sounds a lot like my book’s subtitle, doesn’t it: “living in baptism every day.” 

A few days ago I learned that there are about 70,000 baptisms annually in our Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. If the average ELCA congregation is still around 500 members, that’s the equivalent of 140 congregations. What if all those baptized children also become effective disciples of our Lord? And what if the hearts and lives of the parents and sponsors who surround them are changed and motivated and empowered to live new lives of faith and love? Think how many people are affected.

 When I think these thoughts, I remember again why I wrote this book, Water for Your Soul. Here in baptism God reaches into human lives with such grace and love that, tapping into it and living it daily, we are blessed – and changed – and can make a hopeful difference in the world as people of Christ.