24 May 2009, 8.30am
Sunday 24th May 2009-05-25 Lee Gauld
In the name of God: Earthmaker, Painbearer, Giver of Life Amen
Today we welcome Eva and Ethan to be baptized into the family of God.
I want to talk today about what that means and I know that those of you who have heard some of this will forgive me if I say these things again.
When a child is born, especially that first child, it is for many parents a moment of awakening, an epiphany. Many of us are surprised by the depth of the unconditional love we feel. The love we have for our children leads us to reflect on our own lives.
Our childhoods, our adult lives, our relationships and careers have unfolded in particular ways. Some experiences have satisfied us in our deep places. Some have hurt or frustrated us. We've gained and we've lost, some times life has been costly and painful. Sometimes we have been disappointed in ourselves.1 Out of these deep longings, our hopes and dreams for our children arise. In this same place where we connect with our deepest selves, I believe there we are open to God.
Many parents who bring children for baptism find it difficult to articulate just why they are coming. But I believe it is most often a response to the God they have re -encountered in our innermost selves.
As Christians, we believe that we are made in the image of God. We carry that image within us - a wholeness, a possibility that sometimes we sense, it is our true identity and our life's goal.
Ethan and Eva carry that image within them too; that wholeness that calls them to be all that God has created them to be; to reach their full potential as human beings; to make their unique contribution to the world and to the community in which they live.
Baptism is the beginning of a journey. An adventure in which, with God's help, they will discover their own gifts, their own calling and grow into that wholeness that is God's promise and dream for them.
As parents, the love for our children leads us to reassess and expand our own values; Now we want the world to be a better place for our children. We want a world where relationships are more important than possessions; we want a more compassionate world that will care for our children; a less competitive world that will judge our children for who they are - not what they do or own. And then, importantly,we want that better world not just for our children but for all children. When we act on that reassessment, it is what in Christian jargon is known as repentance or perhaps, conversion.It is a rejection of narrow and superficial values and an acknowledgment that life is more than that; is a turning to wholeness, to the mystery and possibility that is life in God. Its something that in our life as Christians we are called to do again and again..
Of course, we know and today's gospel reminds us that we have to live IN the world. just as Jesus did. We know that he experienced the world as the curious mix it was and still is : brutality mingled with surprising tenderness; beauty juxtaposed with ugliness; depression rubbing elbows with unexpected joy. Jesus recognizes all these strange bedfellows.If we listen to today's gospel, Jesus does not say that evil won't happen or doesn't exist. But he balances that inevitable sadness with the promise of his presence
So baptism is not some kind of a "free-pass" to heaven. It is not a promise of a charmed life. Instead it is an invitation to a new way, a distinctive way of living this precious life that we have been given. It is an invitation to a way of being human that follows the radical example of Jesus, and it is an invitation to a new kind of relatedness to God, to each other and all of creation.
In this new relationship, God's presence is not to judge us but to hold us safe and to guide us into the wonder of all that we can be not just for ourselves but for the sake of the world.Michael Bruzzese says "Genuine faith is never a private matter, something hidden away in one's mind and spirit. Faith, when truly alive, has transformative power, both in the life of the individual believer and in the broader society.
One of the biblical images for the way God transforms us is the potter and the clay.. If we allow God to shape us we are like clay in the potter's hands. God patiently, gently shapes our lives into something beautiful and useful. If the events of our lives or the choices we make, put us "out of shape" as it were, God can gently rework the clay of our lives to make us into more than we can be on our own.
Do we want to be shaped by God?
The truth is that if we are not being shaped by God we are being shaped by something else.
To be followers of Christ takes commitment.
That is why we come here week by weekto get our bearings again; to bring our lives before God ;and to give thanks;to hear God's word in this placeso that we will hear God's word in the world in all the events of our lives;we come here week by week to be shaped and reshaped by God;to be reminded that we do not live for ourselves but that we are fed and sent out to be God's presence whenever and wherever possible in the world.
We welcome Ethan and Eva today, grateful that in their baptism, we too are reminded of the gracious love of the God who keeps calling us to the fullness of life that only God can give. Amen
1 Murry, Charlie sermon
2 Griswold, Frank Listening to the Ear of the heart
3 LectionaryReflection and Response etdiocese.net
4 blog?
5 Bruzzese, Michael Sojourners
