Today, we will go to the font to celebrate the great
sacrament of baptism.
At the dedication of the rebuilt Houses of
Parliament in
We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.
I have seen many different fonts in many places,
from a huge full immersion font made by Jacuzzi (I’m not kidding…) in a new Roman
Catholic Church in
One of the features of St. Matthew’s that commended
it to me when I first came here was the location and dignity of the font. This weighty
piece of Italian marble dominates our view as we enter the church from either
door. Its placement at the entry to the body of the nave reminds us that we
enter into the body of Christ through the waters of baptism. Its raised
platform makes it visible from throughout the building as we turn to the back. This
visibility and solidity lends dignity to a sacrament that for many years was
all too often taken for granted, a private and routine, requiring little real commitment.
Recent decades have seen a dramatic
shift in how our church approaches the sacrament, elevating its seriousness,
and bringing it back into the public eye. We now celebrate baptism at the main
service, as the whole church welcomes its new members. (Nonetheless, we still
occasionally receive requests for private baptisms, which have been against
church rules for over thirty years. Old habits die hard…)
When we heard today’s epistle
lesson, we might be excused for thinking that Paul was downplaying baptism, but
in fact his meaning is quite the opposite. He is glad he did not baptize many
of them, because it would only have added another source of division to an
already divided church. Baptism should be a source of unity—we are all baptized
into Christ, and Christ is not divided. And we proclaim the one message about the
cross, which is “to us who are being
saved … the power of God.” For Paul in this letter, everything comes second
to the call to be united “in the same
mind and the same purpose.”
The sacrament of baptism is a once and for all time
event. We do not repeat it, even when a person later falls away and returns to
the church. Also, the Anglican Church does not require re-baptism of a person
coming from another Christian denomination. As the Nicene Creed says,
We (I) acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness (remission) of sins.
The Creed emphasizes a particular purpose for the
sacrament, but there is much more behind it. John the Baptist baptized as a “token
of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” but he pointed to the one who would
come after him—Jesus—who would “baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit.” Baptism
wipes away our sins, thereby presenting God with a clean slate on which we may
with God’s help write the stories of our lives—our “Christ-stories.”
When we present a child for baptism, as today, we
have to help her write that story, so we make promises for her. We pray for
little Tamika that her story will be the story of a life lived with Christ, a
life of following Christ, a life of learning from Christ, a life of proclaiming
Christ, a life of being Christ for others.
Tamika can not do it alone—she needs companions and
teachers to help her write her Christ-story. She begins with a family, with god-parents,
and with a church that promises to help her live into the fullness of the one faith—a
life lived with that one purpose of which Paul wrote.
How do we understand that purpose? What does the
Christian life look like? Let us turn for some help to our Gospel story, the
calling of the first disciples.
One of the first things we notice is that Jesus’
actions fulfill a prophecy—he is fully aligned with God’s will. Just so, the
life of the Christian is a life of seeking to know and to do the will of God.
Then we hear Jesus make a proclamation—a public
utterance that is intended to be heard far and wide. So if Jesus is
proclaiming, we ought then to be listening to what he is telling us. Too often,
we don’t listen well, or we have our reception tuned to something else. Jesus
says “Listen up, folks!” So the life of the Christian is one of listening for
the Word.
And what does Jesus say? Two things—first we hear
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
Turn yourselves around (that’s what repent means),
because the time is now. Don’t wait for the convenient moment—it may never
come. Jesus always calls us NOW, the time when the kingdom is at hand.
Then we hear him say to the fishermen,
Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.
Just so, we are called to follow, imitating the
example of Simon Peter and Andrew, of James and John, leaving the old life
behind, and following the one who calls us to fish for people.
Each time we walk into this church building and see
the font we should remind ourselves that we also entered into the life of discipleship
through this same water. We entered into a life of seeking to know God and to
hear Jesus’ call, a life of self-examination and repentance, a life filled with
passion for the gospel and for sharing it with others.
Our lives have a God-given purpose, empowered by the
Holy Spirit. May all of us, with little Tamika, continue to live into this
calling, as we hear Jesus say to us, as he said to the fishermen in
Follow me.