I’d like to begin with 2 short stories about baptism. One day a father was in church with three of his young children, including his five year old daughter. As was customary, he sat in the very front row so that the children could properly witness the service.
During this particular service, the minister was performing the baptism of a tiny baby. The five year old girl was very interested in this, observing that the minister was saying something and pouring water over the baby’s head. With a quizzical look on her face, the little girl turned to her father and asked: "Daddy, why is he brainwashing that baby??"
And there’s another story. Before performing a baptism, the priest approached the young father and said solemnly, "Baptism is a serious step. Are you prepared for it?"
"I think so," the man replied. "My wife has made appetizers and we have a caterer coming to provide plenty of food for all of our guests."
"I don`t mean that," the priest responded. "I mean, are you prepared spiritually?"
"Oh, sure," came the reply. "In the house, I`ve got a barrel of beer and a case of whiskey."
Today as we celebrate the gift of baptism I want to think of 3 very short but very important points about baptism. Like in the 2 stories I mentioned it is very often misunderstood, or is used as just some sort of ritual, the sort of thing we should do, but the benefits and the privileges of baptism are much more than that.
The first thing baptism does is to make us a member of the family of the Church. People are often drawn to a particular Church because it’s the one they’ve attended all their life, or because they like it, some even occasionally like a particular Vicar, but in baptism we don’t become a member of a Church, but of the Church – the worldwide family of God.
Now as we look around here and in various other Churches we’ll find it’s often a pretty dysfunctional sort of family. It’s made up of all kinds of different ages of people, very different backgrounds, personalities, tempers, interests, even beliefs, but a family nonetheless.
A woman was at home doing some cleaning when the telephone rang. She ran to answer it, but tripped on a rug and, grabbing for something to hold onto, seized the telephone table. It fell over with a crash, jarring the receiver off the hook. As it fell, it hit the family dog, who leaped up, howling and barking.
The woman's three-year-old son, startled by this noise, broke into loud screams. The woman mumbled some fairly colourful words. She finally managed to pick up the receiver and lift it to her ear, just in time to hear her husband's voice on the other end say, "Nobody's said hello yet, but I'm positive I have the right number."
Families will have problems, they will even have disputes. There will be times of sadness, just as there will be times of joy, but though distance may separate us, we remain a family.
And the second point I want to think about is that we remain a family united, often not in the things we think, but in the fact that every one of us has the privilege of being forgiven by God. In baptism we are cleansed, washed, and given a fresh start.
Every one of us does things wrong from time to time, I less than most people, but even I occasionally do things wrong ! When God calls us into his family he wants us to come to him in whatever state we are in, even broken or dirty, miserable, whatever – he wants us to come to him, and ask him to make us better.
Because it is not through anything that we can do in terms of good works but because he loves us that God desperately calls us to be his family. Good works, greater love and understanding, the gift of compassion and so on, will hopefully all follow as a response to God’s love and his grace.
And the third and final point is also about being united as a family, because we are united, whatever our exact beliefs, whatever our thoughts, in our love for Jesus, and his love for us.
At baptism services the Great Commission is often read. The last recorded words of Jesus as told in Matthew’s gospel, ‘Go into the world, preaching the gospel to all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and remember I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’
The greatest gift of baptism is the greatest gift of life, and that is the presence of Jesus, walking alongside us, every moment of every day… It’s a gift that we often ignore, or choose to forget, but it’s a gift that can never be surpassed. As we continue this service, we will hopefully feel God’s presence here, but it’s even more important that as we leave here we still feel his presence later today, and tomorrow and so on, and we live in the knowledge, that whatever we do and wherever we go, Jesus goes with us, always loving us. AMEN
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