TEXT: ‘’See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God: and so we are. Beloved we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be”
Well today, here at the Church of the Redeemer, (this special weekend celebration, ‘’For All The Saints’’), it’s a double ‘whammy!’ : Baptism and All Saints Day: two sides of the same coin for actually baptism and saints belong together once we catch a glimpse of that bigger picture, we call the Household of God and the Kingdom of Heaven.
O course, whenever a baby is born, one of the first questions must surely be: ‘’What are we going to call him: what are we going to call her?’’
And often the chosen name anticipates all kinds of hopes and expectations of who – as we say the child will take after. ‘’He takes after his Dad’’ – she has the looks of her mother – I wonder if he’ll follow in his father’s footsteps.
Because I think implicit in naming a child is another more subtle question – ‘’I wonder what she will grow up to be?’’
So when the babies are presented for baptism this morning, they will be named by those presenting them; BUT IN THAT BIGGER PICTURE they will be named again by the priest as he baptises them into another Name – baptising them ‘’in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; yes, indeed, another family name, the family of our Father in heaven ‘’after whom every family on earth is named,’’ and received into the household of God, with a whole new network of relationships, we call the Communion of Saints – about which a little later.
And so this morning, by name and named by parents and godparents, some four children will be ‘taking the plunge’(Claire, Jaxson, Isabella, Alexander) will be presented, for baptism, some smiling, some asleep through the whole process, and some doubtless protesting heartily : named from biology and birth, initiating and plunging each child into a family of relationships, – brothers and sisters and cousins, to which as we say they are related, – nature and nurture, genes and DNA biologically forming us and changing us as we grow.
But today is extra special an integral part of that bigger picture. First because of what we are going to do in the waters of the font shortly, and secondly as I said at the beginning – that double whammy – because it’s All Saints Day. Let me explain.
John – or Mary, your priest will say – ‘’I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. At that moment, your child will be named and renamed – the name you gave him or her but also wrapped up into the greater family name of God, the Father of us all. Yes, – seemingly born again of water and the Spirit, and as a child adopted by grace into the greater family of God as a son and daughter of our Father in heaven and as a brother or sister of Jesus the Son of God. Now that’s some family – and here on earth, in Sarasota, it’s the local family of the Church of the Redeemer.
And you know, when Jesus was baptized into the human family, the voice of his Father and ours was heard: ‘’You are my beloved Son and in you I come to take delight.’’ And so this morning – if only we had ears to hear – God our Father is saying to each child over the waters of Baptism those same words addressed to Jesus at his baptism: ‘’You are my beloved son – you are my beloved daughter and I’m absolutely delighted with you, and I’m head-over-heals in love with you.’’ How about that?! Conceived IN love; created BY love (God the source of all love) and created FOR love.
’See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God: But ‘that’s only the kick-start in each of us becoming the person we were created to be. For God as our Father like all proud fathers also has great expectations for what we will grow up to be and become, and has already given to each of these little ones, as we read in the Book of Revelation – another name which reflects the image and likeness – the family likeness of God our Father’s family, with the expectation that your child will choose, when he or she comes of age, to confirm and reaffirm all that we’ve done today, in Confirmation by the Bishop – yes, following in the footsteps and taking after our Father in heaven, as brothers and sisters of Jesus, with that true family likeness, as part of the greater family of God.
For, ‘’thus says the Lord: I have called you by name and made you my own.’’
So yes indeed, ‘’’Now are we the children of God, adopted this morning into God’s family, with a name know to God alone – yes, indeed, but – and this is the intriguing bit this morning – ‘’but it does not yet appear what we shall be’’ – how we’re going to turn out, as we say. Only God knows for only he knows what he created me to be – yes, before I was in my mother’s womb. I thought when I was growing up I would be a concert pianist following in the footsteps of my musical parents But God, thankfully had other ideas.
And so finally, what about those saints, with a capital ‘S’? not at all, men and women, as you might have supposed, who are holier than thou or so heavenly minded as to be of no earthly use. No! Far from it! Saints are simply men and women who have become neither more nor less than what God first created them to be. They’ve opened up to God through prayer and worship and service to God in others throughout their life, allowing God to transform them into the family likeness of his Kingdom. As St. Catherine of Siena said: ‘’Become what you were created to be and you could set the world on fire.
In one of the Narnia stories of C. S. Lewis, the little girl says to her aunt, ‘’When I grow up I want to be just like you.’’ ‘’No,’’ the aunt replies, ‘’When you grow up you must become just like you.’’
I love that story of Margaret Thatcher, our one-time distinguished Prime Minister of blessed memory, visiting an Old People’s Home where many were suffering from senility. Talking with one old lady, perhaps a little condescendingly, she is reputed to have said somewhat impatiently: ‘’Do you know who I am?’’ ‘’Oh,’’ replied the lady, ‘’Oh, that’s all right dear. Have a word with Matron she’ll be able to tell you who you are and sort you out: don‘t worry!’’
Yes, indeed in order to rediscover our true identity we need to have a word, not ‘’with Matron,’’ but frequently with God and be in a relationship with him, the only One who truly knows us as we were created to be – to know who we are and who’s we are where we ultimately belong. – not only biologically by looking at our family tree with our name on our birth certificate; but also learning to know God through Jesus and the workings of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, born again by water and the spirit, nurtured with the sacraments of the Church, called by God with a name known only to him and written in the Book of life, finally known as we are known, by the only One who knows us as we truly are, named and belonging for ever to the greater family of God on earth in his Church and finally in heaven in the communion of saints.
Because, as members of that cosmic family we are also part of what we call the ‘’Communion of Saints”- Saints with a capital, ‘S’. They’re real people, fully alive, firing on all cylinders, (you might say) ‘capital people’, who by the grace of God have finally become , neither more nor less, what God from the beginning first created them to be – the split and image of God their father, bearing his likeness. We call them Saints: and you and I, by the grace of God, together with all those to be baptised today, can become one too.
So – ‘’FOR ALL THE SAINTS’’ it’s a great day – not least for these little saints in the making, who are taking the plunge today – ALL SAINTS DAY. ALLELUIA. AMEN.
Sermon preached by the Rt. Rev. Michael Marshall
The Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
All Saints’ Day
1 November 2014