A few years ago, Meg and I visited our son Rob and his family in Frederick, Maryland. We were less than 30 minutes away from Harper’s Ferry, which was a key city in colonial days and is brimming with history. It is now a national park. No one lives there, but it has lodging, lots of shops and restaurants and sites to see. I could go on at length about why to visit it, I loved it, but we’ll focus on just one thing we saw there.

On the east, Harper’s Ferry comes to a point. If you stand on that point, you are in West Virginia. To your left is the Potomac River, and across it is Maryland. To your right is the Shenandoah River and across it is Virginia. In front of you, those two famous rivers come together. They do not continue as Potomac and Shenandoah. No, they come together and the Potomac continues to our nation’s capital, Washington D.C.

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Last Sunday was a wonderful day! We baptized little Alice Floyd. Today is a wonderful day as we baptize little Marin Motis. Sometimes I think I should bunch baptisms together, but, honestly, I’d baptize someone every Sunday if I could. It’s one of the very best parts of our life in Christ.

The decision to be baptized is huge, as is the decision to baptize a child. We place a lot of emphasis on that decision and the promises we ask the candidates to make, or their parents and godparents to make on behalf of a child. We take very seriously our collective responsibility as witnesses and our promise to “…do all in our power to support this person in her life in Christ.” “We will!” Then we renew our Baptismal Covenant with them.

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We pick up today’s Gospel right where we left off last week. Jesus has just raised a 12-year-old girl from death to life and healed a woman with a hemorrhage in Capernaum. In each case, faith led to healing.

Now he has made the trek to his home town of Nazareth, about 26 miles to the west and up 1900 feet into the hill country of Galilee. Although today Nazareth is a bustling city of over 83,000 people, back then it was a village of about 500. That’s 1/10th the size of Fort Meade. And it’s about the size of Church of the Good Shepherd.

I don’t expect you all know each other, but imagine if the whole town was this church, and this church was the only church and the only gathering place in town, besides the well. You’d know everyone and they’d know you. And not just who you were. They’d know your personality and character. Many would have watched you grow up. They’d know your stories as well as you do - maybe before you do.

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