Join Us for a Joyful Sunday: Infant Baptism & the Third Week of Lent
Dear Church Family,
This Sunday, March 23, we gather for a sacred and joyful occasion—the baptism of one of our youngest members. As we continue into the third week of Lent, we are reminded that this season is about renewal, waiting, and preparing—and what better way to celebrate these themes than by welcoming a child into the faith through baptism?
A Sign of Grace & Growth
Infant baptism is a powerful reminder that God’s love reaches us before we can even respond. Before we have accomplishments, before we can prove ourselves worthy, before we bear fruit—God claims us. This Sunday, we celebrate this grace and affirm our role as a faith community in nurturing and supporting this child and their family in their spiritual journey.
Lent: A Season of Preparing the Soil
Our scripture reading this week, Luke 13:6-9, is the Parable of the Fig Tree:
A man owned a fig tree planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. He said to his gardener, ‘Look, I’ve come looking for fruit on this fig tree for the past three years, and I’ve never found any. Cut it down! Why should it continue depleting the soil’s nutrients?’ The gardener responded, ‘Lord, give it one more year, and I will dig around it and give it fertilizer. Maybe it will produce fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down.’
This parable speaks to patience, grace, and the slow work of transformation. Just like a newly baptized child will grow in faith over time, we, too, are continually nurtured by God’s love. And just like the gardener in the parable, God tends to us, cares for us, and gives us what we need to bear fruit.
A Call to Rest & Renewal
As we reflect on this passage and the season of Lent, we are invited into a time of resting, trusting, and preparing.
Here in the Pacific Northwest, March is not the season of harvest—it is the season of preparing the soil. Gardeners pull weeds while the ground is soft and ready, knowing that the work done now will lead to growth later.
In the same way, Lent is a time to prepare our hearts—to clear out what is not life-giving, to nourish our faith, and to trust that even when we do not see immediate results, God is at work within us.
Come, Celebrate & Be Renewed
This Sunday is an invitation:
• Come celebrate new life. Witness the baptism of this child and be reminded of the grace that claims us all.
• Come reflect on where God is tending to you. What areas of your life need patience, rest, and renewal?
• Come worship, rest, and grow. Lent is a season of making space—for grace, for transformation, for the slow and steady work of faith.
We can’t wait to worship with you this Sunday. See you this Sunday
Blessings,
Pastor DJ
A note from the artist…
Fig Leafing
by Hannah Garrity
Inspired by Luke 13:6-9
Paper lace and watercolor
At our church retreat a few months ago, we offered a session on eco-spirituality. Our instructor led an exercise that focused our attention on a single, natural object. I selected a wilted flower. We were to draw it, then tell its narrative. We were to refer to it as a “one.” This one. We were to affirm the one and be affirmed by the one.
That exercise resonates with me here as I revisit the parable of the fig tree. In this circular image, two figures lean in over the tree; their heads are full of ideas for fruiting, their bodies are full of dead fig leaf patterns.5 Their ideas and dreams have not born fruit. They converse about how to cultivate growth. Then one pushes back against the other and creates tension, discord. From that tension comes an opening, letting the fig tree have its time and space to thrive.
In this paper lace piece, the fig tree is full of life, representing its potential when given the time and space to grow. As I wonder about God’s presence here in the parable, I see that the God figure could be the fig tree. “Let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it,”6 the vineyard keeper replies. As I breathe into the gift of another day, where do I see potential in need of my honor, my care, and the space and time to grow?
Or perhaps the God figure here is in the space between them all, between the three. The fig tree, this one, begins its leafing in the in-between. —Hannah Garrity