With You I Am Well Pleased

It's been raining a lot up here in Kaukauna.  Maybe that's why the image of baptism has come to mind.  We've been seeing A LOT of water around here. 

But it's actually the voice from heaven heard in the Gospel of Luke that has got me thinking-- as Jesus rises out of the waters of baptism the words come forth, "With you I am well pleased."

Maybe it's because I am being reappointed to a new congregation and leaving my flock at Trinity (and thereby getting a little sentimental), but I've had this passage running through my head in the last couple of days.

I'm in the Fox Valley, hanging out, and watching a good friend/ colleague/ officiant at my wedding (1998!) go on trial.  Yes, I have my eye on Amy, but I also have my eye on several of my parishioners from Trinity, who've come to be in solidarity.  Most of them had never even met Amy previously-- but had heard stories from me or read about her online.  And here they are-- hours from home, wearing rainbow stoles, and singing songs of Jesus.  Even my dad, a middle-aged, Midwestern straight guy is here.  Amy, of course, was his pastor for six years, but who would have thought he'd drive for five hours one-way and take three days of vacation to protest the Church with a bunch of GLBT-hugging Methodists?

As you can imagine, these are the dear people in my life, with whom I am well-pleased.  They are my parents, my parishioners.  They are my family of faith.  This experience is providing us a strange (even painful) place to share and grow together.  But I feel blessed to be here with them and Amy, and even more so-- pleased with our common witness-- sharing the soft rain upon our heads and being reminded of our heavenly calling.