The Baptism of Jesus
1993 (Year A), 17 January (Epiphany 1)
St Peter de Beauvoir Town
The potential for disaster at baptisms is enormous, much more so than at most other services. Everybody’s hopes and expectations are high. So many more people are involved than usual and of course children have the most wonderful names. A long time ago, ‘One poor babe,’ so a priest says, ‘had six names; they were too heavy a burden for the little one, who soon passed away from the earth.’ And you can never be quite sure whether you are intended to christen a child Ellen or Helen ... An old rector was exasperated by some fine names which were given in answer to his query, ‘Name this child,’ and exclaimed, ‘I’ll have no more of these fine names; I shall christen it plain, ‘John’. He rather regretted his rashness afterwards. He discovered the child was a girl’.
‘One day there was a christening and no water in the font. ‘Water, Sir’, said the clerk in astonishment. ‘The last parson never used no water. He spit into his hand. ‘You may well laugh, but I’ve got to the font here at St Peter’s and discovered in horror that there was no water. It never occurred to me just to spit.
Of course water is the most important symbol in the Baptism service, but there are others. There’s the signing with the sign of the cross. There’s the lighted candle. There’s the welcome and there’s the anointing with oil that was blessed last Easter and is now being used throughout the London Diocese.
And anointing has always been a hugely important religious symbol. Prophets were anointed in the Old Testament, so were kings – it was a symbol of their calling. Their being set apart for a special task. Kings and Queens are anointed now when they’re crowned in Westminster Abbey, again it’s symbolic – they’ve been chosen to fulfil a special function within society. And two children, Louise and Takeita will each be anointed twice in a few minutes when they are baptised.
So these two children are about to take their place in this ancient tradition. They have been called. They’ve been chosen to perform specific tasks by God. What those duties are at the moment is impossible to say. It is our duty, as the community of Christ in this place, to enable them to discover what their specific ministry will be. All we are able to say now is that they have been invited to join the Body of Christ in this place along with the rest of us for God has hopes for them. Today they are making a start.
They are about to be set apart as individual persons. Special and glorious in the sight of God. Persons set apart within a community which has itself been set apart to perform specific duties within the whole of God’s creation. And God has hopes not only for them but for the whole community. We are a community of Hope. Our hope encourages us to fulfil a whole variety of tasks. Just listen to some of them. ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
The church must heal in a world which is suffering all kinds of calamities. It must serve in a world where to be in control is a mark of success. It must be prophetic to a world which would prefer silence. It must care where there is none. It must be a place and a people of forgiveness in a world which cries always for revenge. And so it must hope in and for a world that has almost given up.
It must be brave and courageous for it must mirror the hope God holds out for us and for it. A person without hope is close to death, a community without hope no longer has any future. Hope is lived, and it comes alive, when we go outside ourselves and, in pain and joy, take our part in the lives of others. God has accepted us. He has anointed us. He has hopes for us. In spite of all the intimidation’s of our lives he keeps us alive and gives us courage to be. Therefore as we accept Louise and Takieta into our midst, let it be a symbol of our acceptance of one another and our hope for one another so that we can keep each other alive. We can keep each other invested with the courage to live as God would have us. AMEN