No doubt some of you are disappointed that
we are not celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany today. We celebrated that on the 6th, the
date when the Church celebrates the Epiphany of our Lord, because we are
gathered today for a very special event.
Probably a couple months after my arrival, Sophie began asking and then
nagging me about baptizing her. Each
week, as I laid my hands on her and blessed her, in place of giving her
Communion, she would get this annoyed look on her face. Sometimes afterward, she would verbalize her
displeasure. Though she comes to Advent
with her grandmother, it was necessary in my mind that her parents’ consent to
her desire to be baptized. So many
decisions are made without parental consents these days, and I think the Church
has no business wading into those activities.
Maybe it is the right pastoral response for families today; maybe it is
simply a father of seven railing against the trends of society. Time, I suppose, will tell.
In any event, during some our conversations
about her desire to be baptized, Sophie would sometimes express a worry that
she was missing something or that she was somehow in danger. Trying to remind a young girl, even a girl as
precocious are our dear Sophie, that God knows the heart was quite a
challenge! I learned from my discussions
with her that she had similar ones with a number of people around here,
particularly those who work with Children’s Chapel and with Godly Play. In many ways, you all who have worked with
her over the years, who have answered her many questions, who have tried to
channel her inquiring mind and enthusiasm into those areas of her life over
which she had control, and who have nurtured her love of God, ought to be
celebrating today, for you have recognized in her the truth of the prophet
Isaiah.
Sophie, in some ways, today is incredibly
unique. With your parents’ consent and
support by their presence, you are being baptized into the family of God. Some in the world out there might want to
teach you that the family of God has no problems, no miscreants, no sadness,
and nothing of which ever to be ashamed.
Those who have taught you, though, I think have done a good job. I think you have learned that God takes
normal men and women, normal girls and boys, and works through them to grow His
kingdom and to reveal Himself to the world around them. Today does not mark some specific day in
history when you were protected from bad things by God. Quite the contrary. Today marks the day that you chose to call Him
Lord, to be baptized into His death, to pick up your own cross and follow Him,
and to trust that, from this day forward, no matter what happens to you, so
long as you are faithful to Him, He will redeem you and give you a double
portion share in His glory for all eternity.
It is an amazing promise from an amazing God for a beloved daughter!
Perhaps those of you present have wondered
about your own commitment. Perhaps you
have wondered whether God really will redeem your suffering. Perhaps, you have never given the daily grind
of life a second thought. Isaiah reminds
us of our importance to God. “I have
called you by name, you are Mine.” All
of us who have been baptized into His death and raised with Him to new life
share in the inheritance of Israel. It
is likely that the prophet was speaking only of what you and I consider to be
the Old Testament people of God.
Certainly, His image of passing through the waters evokes memories of
the Exodus through the Red Sea. We
cannot help buy remember how He stopped the river Jordan as He ushered Israel
into the Promised Land. Maybe the flame
not consuming us reminds us of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. No doubt the call of the children from the
east, west, north, and south speaks to the end of the Exile.
But, buried within the words of the
prophet are also deeper words, words that sing to those of us who claim Him as
Lord, the new Israel, of our future and our hope with Him! Raging waters speaks to the chaos of the
world. God does not promise that chaos
ends on that day when we call Him Lord.
He promises only that the chaos will not overwhelm us and that He will
be with us during those chaotic moments of life. Each one of us, including little Sophie this
morning, are precious in His sight. The
world may claim we are crazy, simple, gullible, stupid or worse, but the Lord,
the Savior, has declared each one of us precious in His sight. Nothing, nothing can ever take us from Him or
Him from our side. And even if the chaos
of the world would seem to be victorious over us, we know better. Just as baptism marks our share in His death,
so does it mark our share in His Resurrection!
One day, as the prophet so beautifully declares, one glorious day, even
if our death will cause it to seem to His enemies and ours that He and we lost,
He will call us from the ends of the earth, all of us whom He formed and
created for glory, to join Him for ever!
“But now thus says the Lord, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed
you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have
redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine,” Sophie, and Mine,
Adventers, now and for all eternity.
That is the promise she is given this day, and that we all remember and
celebrate in our life together. Amen!
Peace,
Brian†
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