The initial purpose of this blog is to share my reflections from parish newsletters over the years.  The following was published in the January, 2010 issue of The Prophet, the monthly newsletter of St. James Episcopal Church, Keene, NH.

Just east of Rt. 9 in Stoddard, the Stone Arch Bridge spans the Contoocook River.  On my trips to Concord, I usually pass by it with a quick glance.  In early December, for the first time I pulled off the road into the small parking area by the stream.  The water roiled under the two spans, the river swollen from new rain.

The bridge, older than St. James’ 150 year old stone structure, stands above the rushing waters, held together by gravity alone.  No mortar binds stone to stone.  Each was chosen or cut to fit so that in lying beside, above or below its neighbor, the entire structure could stand without further help.  Gravity, that force we associate with things falling down, has here enabled the bridge to stand for more than 600 seasons, resisting frost and flood.

The writer Brian Swimme has likened the universe-wide power of gravity to the power of love.  In the larger cosmos, gravity is not so much about falling as attracting.  Objects in space are drawn to each other, as people on earth are drawn to each other.

The community of St. James, like the stones of that double arched bridge, are drawn to each other by a force beyond ourselves.  We are each of us individuals, and yet we are together, and together we can remain strong in the face of many challenges.

What do we call this shared power in our Christian tradition?  We have many names: love, faith, hope, gratitude, joy, or service, to name a few.  Here I will call it the power of Baptism. We tend to think of Baptism, when we consider it at all, as an event.  Someone baptized you, perhaps a long time ago.  But let us think of Baptism not as an event, but as a force.  When that minister said to you, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” and brought a stream of water onto your head, God propelled you out from that place with the power to connect.

We gather together through the power of our shared Baptism.  We serve together, pray together, learn together, live and die together through this power which binds us and makes us strong, but also leaves us free.

On Sunday, January 10, we will celebrate the power birthed through the Baptism of Jesus, streaming forward from that moment to this, binding all those who believe in him together, leaving us free to be who we are as beloved children of God, yet bound to each other in love and service.