ORDINARY SUNDAY 22
SUNDAY 28th AUGUST,
1988
(Parish Baptismal Sunday)
Do you turn to Christ? Do you repent of your sins? Do you
renounce evil? Do you believe?
Shortly we will be asking these four questions of the four
children that we are to baptize. Two of those children will be old enough to
provide their own answer. Two will have an answer made on their behalf by
parents and godparents. The questions are straightforward and unambiguous, yet
few things create more division within the Christian Church than the practice
of baptism. Baptism: the sacrament by which we are meant to be united.
We are not. The problem is not so much how we are baptized, though
that in itself causes some dispute, but when. When is it appropriate in the
Christian Church for members to receive this once and for all sacrament? The
two older children to be baptized this morning will be fully aware of the richness and awe of the moment that they are about to experience. The two babies will have no
idea what to make of it, what to make of a stranger in even stranger clothes
taking them and seemingly bathing their forehead. For that reason, some
would say, infants should not be baptized.
The very fact that there is no common
mind in the church on this matter demonstrates that the dual authorities of
written scripture offer no consensus, no unambiguous analysis of the issue. But
I want to explain to you the reason why I willingly baptize infants, older
children, and adults alike, and why I am willing to place only minimal
prerequisites on those coming themselves or bringing their children to be baptized.
In an ideal world I would like to see these children worshipping in our midst
every Sunday from this day on. It is not, however, an ideal world, and we are
not an ideal church.
At the heart of all that I believe about baptism is the
belief that baptism is not something that we do, or something that the priest
officiating does. It is something that God does. It is the sign of God’s love
for his people, and it is a sign that remembers and encapsulates all that God
has done for humanity since the beginning of creation. It recalls the murky,
sinister waters that move over the face of the earth in the opening verses of Genesis,
the waters that God tames. It reminds us of the fearful anger of God
represented by the flood, but also of his mercy in selecting Noah to offer
humanity a second start. It reminds us of the rainbow that concludes the flood,
for without the prism of water there can be no rainbow, no symbol of God’s
promise to humanity. It remains as of the escape of the people of Israel, following
Moses, from the pursuing Egyptians. It reminds us of the descent of the Son, the
pre-existent Word, into the watery womb of Mary, and of the waters of birth. It
reminds us of the enigmatic baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. It reminds us
of Jesus’ own descent through the waters of death, and the water that flowed
from his spear-pierced side. It reminds us of his glorious resurrection from
death, from the waters of death, and the new and inexhaustible hope that event
gave to his disciples.
This morning we will take four children out. We will baptize
them in the narthex, a reminder to us of the journey our Lord made from the
realm of God to the world of you and me. In their baptism they will be signed
with the sign of the cross. They will go out to the narthex as people loved by
God, and will return with us who have greeted them there with the welcome of
peace, return with us into the body of the church. They'll return as people
loved by God, but as people loved by God and called, together with you and me, called
to be signs to the world of God’s eternal Yes.
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