Dear Parishioners and Friends of Trinity,

There are really two ways of dealing with failure, or the fear of failure, in our lives, and the first is to let it get us down. Failure can easily draw us into the mire of ineffectual guilt.

It becomes a destructive force in our lives when allowed to operate in this way. A little while ago Time magazine reported on a nervous motorist in Lambertville, New Jersey. This man, on being stopped by the police, explained that he had been driving on two hundred and twenty-four consecutive learner's permits over the last twenty-five years. He had flunked his first driver's test and had been unsure of himself ever since!

Many of you remember Karl Wallenda, who spent practically his entire life on a high wire, thrilling crowds with his daring high-altitude act. That all ended in 1978 when Wallenda plunged 75 feet to his death before an audience of thousands in San Juan, Puerto Rico. When Wallenda's widow began to sort out what might have happened that dreadful day, she noted that recently her husband had become more and more concerned with little details of safety. His precautions became a preoccupation. Instead of all his energies being channeled into performing his act, his purpose had now become how to keep from falling.

Out of this terrible story has come a new label - the "Wallenda factor." It cautions us to beware of being so afraid of failure that we dwell only on the negatives. Life is a risk we must take. While we should be careful in a prudent sort of way, we cannot allow ourselves to become paralyzed by the fear of failure.

The second way to deal with failure is to treat it as a learning experience. Thomas Edison once claimed that he probably had more failures in his life than almost anyone ever did. Yet, we do not remember him as a failure. He patented over 1,093 inventions in his lifetime. Yet, the truth is that he failed quite frequently. However, he didn't look on those incidents as failures. He would say on such occasions: "Now we know a thousand things that won't work. So we are that much closer to finding one that will."

The second way is obviously the better way of dealing with failure. The reason that we can treat failure not as an end of things, but rather as temporary, as an educational experience along the way, is that we were given an assurance, a long time ago, at our baptism. It is an assurance that is echoed in the writings of the prophet Isaiah. God declares to his people that He will prevail in the world through his agent, his servant. This servant will make justice shine on every race, never faltering, never breaking down. In the words of the prophet, "He will not fail." Jesus himself received the same assurance at his own baptism in the Jordan River. St. Mark recounts for us that "just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."

That same assurance, that same saving hope, is declared in every baptism. The sign of the cross is made on the foreheads of those being baptized and with it the words are repeated: "You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism, and marked as Christ's own forever." That action was not, as Mrs. Thomas Huxley once believed, "a kind of spiritual vaccination, without which youngsters might catch sin in worse forms as they grew up." It is, instead, a bold declaration that the same inexhaustible power which brought order out of chaos at creation, and which allowed the children of Israel to be led out of their bondage in Egypt into the land of promise. It is available to us today, if we would but learn to love, trust, and serve the Lord Christ. That is God's promise to us in baptism. Human beings may fail, but God will not. God stands with us in failure. He does not eliminate it; he simply makes it easier to bear.

In baptism, you and I are made a part of a community, which, through its faith and history and tradition, knows this to be of a fact and true. From this community, we draw our strength and our hope, and therefore can live in peace. It is a community which believes that victory and success is not measured in terms of merit badges, civic plaques, Pulitzer prizes, Dun and

Bradstreet ratings, championship banners, diplomas, Phi Beta Kappa keys, or any other such human creations. It is a fellowship that proclaims, "Is not life worth more than food, and the body more than clothes?" It is a community that believes that victorious living, as our Lord practiced it, is attained through the possession of such intangibles as faith, hope, love, wisdom, courage, understanding, and patience. Such is our community here at Trinity Church, and one which we celebrate not only in the season of Epiphany, but throughout the entire year as well.

Faithfully,

The Reverend Philip W. Stowell