Suffering Community and Baptism

1990 (Year A), 2 September /
Pentecost 13

St Peter de Beauvoir Town

Only masochists and sadists might throw parties where the guests are invited with the intention of having a bad time. Occasionally, on some dreadful evenings, I’ve suspected that I’ve accidentally stumbled into their midst, but normally, when asked to a party you go expecting to enjoy yourself. Well we have a party today, a celebration, and I sincerely hope we all have a good time at the baptism of Timeyin, Thomas and Shireean, but it’s probably a good thing that the children are too young to understand what’s going on or else they would be excused for thinking that they dropped in on the masochist convention, because the theme for this morning’s party is the suffering community.

It is not an image that we find easy to deal with. Christianity is supposed to make things easier rather than harder, one woman said as much at the service for the policeman who was shot in Haggerston earlier this week. Suffering is certainly not something anybody in their right minds would want to ask others to join in.

When we think of God, we think of it being a serene and effortless activity. All God had to do was speak and things came into being. The account of creation in the Bible conveys an impression of easy control, of resource held in reserve and power unused. In the end it will not do as an image of God and his self-giving in Creation. It’s all too easy, not messy at all. There is nothing of the giving of self, the cost that such self-giving incurs, for in self-giving there is suffering. So with what may we liken the reality of God.

A doctor tells of an operation which, as a young student, he observed in a London Hospital. ‘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 upon 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 outcome the operation was a triumph: but it involved seven hours of intense and uninterrupted concentration on the part of the surgeon. When it was over, a nurse had to take him by the hand and lead him from the operating theatre like a blind man or a little child.’

This, we might say, is what self-giving is like; such is the likeness of God, wholly given, spent and drained in that sublime self-giving which is the ground and source and origin of the universe. In this self-giving these children were formed and it is to this life that these children have been brought to be joined in baptism. This is the party which they’ve been invited to.

Of course there are those who invited to the party would rather not come, it demands too much of them, the cost and the suffering, too great the intensions too great. We’ve all heard stories where those who were invited began, one after the other to make excuses. The stewards of that party were told. ‘Go out into the highways and byways and command the people to come in so that my party might be full.’

The central action in the gospel story, is the crucifixion – the central message, one of indescribably intense suffering. Those who follow after can expect little else although there is the possibility of God transforming our suffering into a vehicle of glory. Through their baptism in a few minutes these children, will be bonded to Christ’s life and death and suffering.

This party is unique, membership is a joy, yet it will result in pain and suffering, for it seems to bring division, it demands our time and our commitment which we’d sometimes not give. It means that we work for the enrichment of our world rather than simply look after ourselves and our own. It holds out to those who are willing to accept this Divine invitation a share in God’s creativity and ultimate union with him. Our prayer is that this may be the outcome for these children now to be baptised. AMEN