Sunday 12th January 2025 – Baptism of the Lord

Isaiah 43: 1-7
Psalm 29
Acts 8: 14-17
St. Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22

“For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour.”
Isaiah 43: 3a

I can no longer remember the name of the movie from years ago, but there was an extremely funny scene of a young man who wanted to date a young woman in a neighbourhood family… The young man had not been brought up in a faith-filled family, but he knew that the young woman and her family were Christians. He figured, if I learn more about Christianity, then perhaps this young woman will be more likely to go on a date with me!…

So, the young man enlists the help of the young woman’s younger sister, to teach him all about Christianity and the Church… However, the young man doesn’t know that the younger sister is envious of her older sister, and so she decides to play a prank on the young man… She earnestly tells the young man that if he learns all about Christianity and the Church, then he is certain to get her older sister as his girlfriend… However, she warns, there is a lot to learn, and a lot of rules; he will have to study very hard!…

Well, the young man was quite besotted. No price was too high to win the young woman’s heart!… The younger sister begins telling him all kinds of rules about being a Christian – anything that came into her head. The rules were absolutely silly! – directions about the correct order to eat one’s vegetables at supper; details about a dress code; peculiar ways to address adult family members; and silly examples like these…

As we can imagine, great confusion develops when the young man tries to put these rules into practice, which as first makes him think he must study even harder, before all is revealed…

The story is fiction… But I suspect that for some people outside the Church, there is a sneaking suspicion that being a follower of Jesus somehow involves all kinds of mysterious rituals and rules… For Anglicans, it probably doesn’t help that some of us use special names for parts of the church building, and some of what we use inside it – the thurible might be used by the subdeacon wearing a tunicle upon the third-highest gradis which is his alone to use, below the Byzantine-style clerestory…

It’s not a new problem either!. In the early years of the Church, rumours about the
celebration of Holy Communion, the Holy Eucharist, led to the conviction that Christians were somehow cannibals when they worshiped, as they ate and drank of Christ’s Body and his Blood…
In fact, however, I think the gospel story at its core is extremely simple: What about God?; and, How do we respond to God?… That’s it! First: What about God? What do we believe God is like? Christians say, Get to know a person – Jesus of Nazareth…

Second, How do we respond to God? How do we respond?… Christians don’t respond to God by an intricate set of rules or behaviours. Instead, we’re invited… – to trust… To love… To let go… That’s all! That’s the core of the gospel – to have some sense of what God is like, and to learn to respond in our lives…

We don’t have to figure God all out in our heads before we believe. Rather, it is when we give being a Christian a try, after that, then some things in life begin to make sense… As the Medieval teacher St. Anselm of Canterbury wrote, “I don’t understand in order to believe. I believe, in order to understand…”

All of us are faced with these same questions – What is God like; and how do we respond to God?… For some of us, these questions were settled a long time ago… For others of us, these may be very real and active questions which we’re grappling with right now, in one way or another… I hope we can be reassured that we’re in this gathering, this parish community, not because we all have our lives completely together!… We’re just learning together what it looks like to respond to God in Christ right here, right now; and we are helping one another home…

For some of us, questions about faith were settled a long time ago, and we’re just learning to love deeper. For others of us, these are real, active questions, which we are grappling with right now… For yet others among us, there are responses we haven’t made yet; but one day, by God’s grace in Christ, they will be…

I think this is particularly true of children in a Christian home – that is, in a home in which the parents (ideally, both parents) are learning how to turn to and follow God together. At first, for a small child, they come to St. Brice’s because it is their parents’ faith… Our prayer, our desire, is that children will take on their parents’ faith for themselves – that the younger generation will be humble, joy-full followers of God through Jesus Christ…

What comes most of all are hearts and lives which are open to the work of God among us and within us…

However – let’s pay attention that God has given us bodies, and a natural world in which to live… We can’t see one another’s hearts – only God can do that… But we have practices as followers of God in Christ in our common lives together. Obviously we read and learn the scriptures together, the Bible… We pray, and we worship together. Among these practices are the sacraments – Holy Baptism; Holy Communion; and other sacramental rites. Jesus himself taught us to practice the dominical sacraments, to participate in them. And God is at work among us by his Holy Spirit, to help us respond to his presence and his love…
Observing the outward practices of the Church are not a guarantee that everyone is filled with God’s love – but they sure help!… God is being faithful for his part. We are learning to be open in response, to let God work in our lives, so we can be beautiful in response to him…

(In a few moments, God willing, Matthias Goodleaf is going to be baptized. Remember, it’s God who starts first, who takes the initiative… God is starting something new in Matthias, and Matthias is being welcomed into the family of God, the Church… Parents and godparents are affirming our faith in the Lord Jesus, and our desire to share this with Matthias, so he may learn to take on the fullness of the baptismal promises for himself…

So, is Christianity meant to be complicated?… I don’t think so. There are lots of practices which Christians have, but at the core, being a Christian is just 2 steps, I believe – learning who God is, and learning to believe and to live in response to this… This is a process for us all. Some of us are long-term followers of Jesus Christ; others are at different points along the way. Matthias is just starting this spiritual journey, and that’s fine. You and I can help Matthias and his family, by praying, and supporting each other – a journey along the road of faith.)

Thanks be to God.