Musings: Notes From My Daybook

From Will Willimon, while he was chaplain at Duke University:

One spring break, I took a group of students on a retreat called, “Exploring the Christian Faith.” The retreat was designed for people “who know something about Jesus, but are not yet ready to put their money down yet.”
I told them, “I am going to use any means at my disposal — films, arguments, worship, music, Bible study — to arm wrestle you into following Jesus. But don’t get anxious, I am a United Methodist and the chances of my succeeding are fairly slim.”
On the first night, I showed the students a video of an actor reciting the Gospel of Luke, the very Gospel which we have read for today. At the end of two hours, after the video had ended, the group of a dozen students sat there in stunned silence. Then one said, “It is a great story, a really great story. Jesus is cool. But there’s one thing I can’t figure out.”
“Well, what is that?” I asked. “Perhaps I can help you.”
“Jesus is great, I just can’t figure out why all the Christians I know are so damn boring.”
“Now I am remembering,” I said, “why it was not a good idea to bring people like you on a retreat.”
As I recall it was that young man who, at the end of the retreat, said he wanted to be baptized. After another month of instruction, on the weekend of graduation, I baptized him. The rest of the group gathered to witness his baptism. The day of his baptism, one of the members of the group called me and said, “Dr. Willimon, just to put your mind at ease, I want you to know that I have made the arrangement for the post-baptismal party.”
“Party?” I asked.
“Sure. I’ve got the keg and everything.”
“A keg of beer?” I asked.
“It never occurred to me to get beer for a baptism.”
“Why are you always calling us irresponsible?” asked the student. “See? We have to think of everything.”
I believe that that was probably the first baptismal keg party in the history of the Christian Church!