Sermon 20th December Advent 4.
I’m so excited! This is my first Baptism in St Luke’s.
Ok So what is baptism all about.
Its about Belonging, its about Family.
In Baptism we the Church see Sian as part of our family. That’s big. Sian belongs to a family that stretches across borders and nations and continents and languages. It reaches from peaceful places through to war torn places. And it stretches back through time connecting us to the saints of old and forward in time to the saints that are yet to come.
That’s pretty awesome. Baptism is a big deal.
The Angel Gabriel comes to Mary and says his stuff. And the promise is that there will be through Jesus a new order, a new Kingdom that will never end, a new way of looking at life its meaning and purpose, a new way of living and valuing each other – that’s going to kick in.
We tend to shrug our shoulders at this point- in a ‘whatever’ sort of way – but this is the movement that will create schools and hospitals across the world that value all people (not just the rich), that will put an end to death by crucifixion, an end to leaving unwanted children out for the wolves. It will cause a peaceful revolution across the world and result in the abolishment of slavery.
We all take this for granted. But that’s because of the saints of old. And when we say ‘Its not enough’ – we still have too much struggle and strife, too much slavery, too much war – then that’s God calling us to do what we do best in this family of God, to bring a peace, reconciliation, healing to a broken world.
God calls us to this work.
Gabriel has two speeches in the bible. The first is to – well, Jesus has a cousin called John, the Baptist, and John’s Dad is called Zechariah – Gabriel goes to Zech and says You’re going to have a kid, he’s going to be a big part in the story, the life, of Jesus. Zechariah’s response is – I’m too old for this. Gabriel doesn’t take that reaction well and so makes Zechariah unable to speak for a few months.
Mary’s response is – I am the Lord’s servant.
I am the Lord’s servant / I am old.
The difference is in how we see ourselves. Mary sees herself as a servant of the Lord.
Zechariah just, only, sees himself as Old.
We would all understand if Mary said I’m just a teenager, I don’t have a job, I don’t have any money, any influence, I can’t do anything. Mary could have had a tonne of what you and I would call acceptable excuses but that’s not how she sees herself.
I am the Lord’s servant / I am old.
Reminds me of my Grandma – who when she was 90 would tell me how terribly worried she was about the old people who lived next door. They weren’t 70!
I think Angels come to us on a daily basis and they say ‘Have you seen this or that, can you have a go and do something, make life a little easier for someone?’ – and
we usually Don’t hear the Angels cos we’re busy, and if we do hear them We say Ah, can I do that later? Can you ask someone else. I’m getting on a bit. Its not really my scene. Or as Zechariah puts it – ‘I am old’.
Baptism is about Belonging to a fabulous family – that will drive you up the wall because we’re all a bit weird. And we argue about stupid stuff. But that’s how most families are.
Baptism is about belonging and belonging is about Promises. God parents and Parents – you have made some promises, well done. But what you might not have realised is that God has already made some promises first.
God promises to be with us always. He promises His peace, his Holy Spirit help in our lives, he promises forgiveness, he promises to take us to his heavenly home, he promises to give us a new heaven and a new earth. I could keep going.
God does not promise that life will be easy, that you’ll always have your health, your wealth. I’m sorry about that.
The first bible reading 2nd book of Samuel – God wants King David to see how God has been there for him throughout his life – God took David from being a shepherd boy and made him King – ok there were some scary steps along the way – eg David and Goliath – but God has been with David all the way.
So God goes on to say I will do this, I will do that, I will establish your family line forever. That’s a pretty big wow sort of promise. And Christians have seen that that family line connects nicely to Jesus and nicely then on to us, who are baptised into his family.
God has made promises to us. First.
And Now we make promises to God.
The Promises (who else here is a Godparent?)
We make promises that we are going to help our God children to grow up and understand that they are part of this amazing family, this amazing story,
So I did that by reading bedtime bible stories, just one bible story along with some of the ones – ‘Gruffalo’ and ‘Giraffes can’t dance’ – and as they grew up so the bibles got more words in them and less pictures. And I found it changed me. I got a better understanding of God and the bible and prayer.
And I’ve spent hours at night pacing up and down trying to get baby back to sleep. And it would stir up all sorts of emotions – quite often angry – I’m so tired I’m so cross why have you woken up again! – and then someone said Have you tried turning this moment into prayer. So I thought well that’s stupid but okay. So I would pace up and down and pray – for my parents, for my family, for – and it oddly calmed me down and maybe it also calmed some of my children down.
And I would bring them along to Church – bizarrely they would sleep through the really loud drumming! One of them stood on the pew once and pointed at me in the pulpit and said ‘That’s my Daddy!’ (proud Dad moment!) and they would be the worst behaved kids in running around and that made All the other parents else really grateful.
Baptism is about Belonging. May you feel that you belong, and may you help Sian to discover that she belongs here too.
Baptism about receiving the Promises that God has made – the gifts of God, the grace of God, the goodnews.
And its about living out that life. May you find as you read your bibles, as you pray, that Sian’s faith grows and may you find that also your faith grows.
Amen.