Creation/Baptism
1993 (Year A) 31 October / Pentecost 22
St Peter de Beauvoir Town
‘And God saw all that he had made; and behold it was very good.’ Only exceptionally rare parents, looking on their new-born children have not echoed those few words from the very bottom of their hearts. They saw what that they had made; and behold it was very good. And at that moment it doesn’t matter what appalling monsters the children might grow into or what pain and worry they might have caused already. At that point it was very good.
The moments are precious. When we recall them it’s through eyes dimmed by nostalgia. We forget the reality of the pain – we remember only the serene vision of motherhood or the proud father. Giving birth – creation, we remember as effortless. Just like the story in Genesis. All God had to do was speak and things came to be. That account of creation conveys an impression of easy control, of resources held in reserve and power unused. There’s no cost, no self-giving.
The birth of any child is a unique revelation of and in creation. They’re reminders, as if we ever needed them, that the aim of the creation myth in the book Genesis, wasn’t an attempt to give a factual account of creation. Whoever wrote the story wasn’t trying to say how easily creation came to be – rather they were attempting to answer the question why it happened at all. They were also saying that God’s creativity wasn’t a once and for all action, happening over an intensive six day working week. The story was written in an effort to clarify the relationship which human beings have sensed existed between the creator and the created. The relationship is one of intimacy. God in an on-going relationship with creation, constantly making divine disclosures in the midst of what has been so marvellously created.
The revelation provided by the birth of children demonstrates clearly that there is a cost and a pain involved in creation. In causing things to be. All parents know that. It has to do with behaving sacrificially. It’s just like the story a doctor tells of an operation, he saw as a young student in a London hospita1. ‘It was the first time that this particular brain operation had been carried out in this country. It was performed by one of our leading surgeons on a young man of great promise, for whom after an accident, there seemed to be no other remedy. It was an operation of the greatest delicacy, in which a small error would have had fatal consequences. In the end it was a triumph, but it involved seven hours of intense and uninterrupted concentration on the part of the surgeon. When it was all over, a nurse had to take him by the hand, and lead him from the theatre like a blind man or a little child.
The revelation, which is the gift of children, doesn’t end with the cost of it an. Parents don’t on the whole produce children and walk away from them. Producing them is as nothing for what follows. It is incredibly difficult to allow children to make decisions for themselves. Watching them get things wrong, hurting themselves and other people. Maybe there will be a time when it will stop but I guess even now I cause distress to my mother.
So it is with God. Children and the relationship which they share with those who care for them are reminders that God is present and participatory, in the midst of creation. That God has manifested love and wisdom, not once, but in many ways at many times. All of them unique. God has responded to the interests and questions of human beings; guided and prompted them to further insights; empowered them to realise new outworking’s of the redemptive purpose. Children are reminders that God remains present with creation inviting our co-operation.
It’s the hope and prayer of the church that Tom and Adaeze will take their part, alongside us in God’s creative process. That they in their turn will be able to recognise these revelations for what they are. They cannot do it on their own and so their parents and God – parents will make promises, in a minute or two, committing themselves to helping and encouraging them. And there are responsibilities for the rest of us. As we welcome them into God’s family we give thanks that they are for us revelations of God’s divine love and we pledge ourselves to care for them and enable them to become all that God would have them be. AMEN