"The Baptism of Christ", Daniel Bonnell
Today we’ve gathered to praise God, and to celebrate the sacrament of Holy Baptism.
Even though Brittany and Greg aren’t often here with us in body, they’ve been in our midst now for several years—not only as family members of the Andersons, but also in our midst as those we’ve prayed for, and continue to pray for, with great intention.
Greg, who is in the Army, is on our military prayer list.
And a few years ago now, we prayed for Brittany and Greg and Caroline as they grieved for their daughter Bella because she was stillborn and didn’t get to share their lives here on this earth.
And now for the past many months, we have prayed for Brittany, Greg and Caroline as they’ve awaited the safe arrival of Courtland James, who will become one of us, part of the body of Christ, in just a little while through the sacrament of Holy Baptism.
We’re going to promise to support him in his life in Christ, and to support his family as they bring Courtland up to want to follow Jesus in their own congregation back home in Fayetteville, NC, and here, when they can get back to visit.
Every human being on this earth grows into life held safely in the waters of a mother’s womb.
In this water of the womb we are baptized before we’re even born. In the water of the mother’s womb, the Holy Spirit of creation moves and brings the beginnings of a new life.
In the water of the womb, this new life is nurtured and fed and loved and rocked, floating in a sea of love.
All of us began life in this womb water, and this water of our mothers’ wombs is the first baptismal water we know—for it is in this water that we are baptized into the human family.
And when it is time to be born, we die to the safety of life in the womb.
As the water of the womb pours out, we pass through this life giving water into a new life outside the womb, life here on earth, a life which by its very nature includes not only joy, but also sorrow– a life which will ultimately end in death.
But death is never the final word.
The final word is resurrection.
Today, even though Bella, the sister of Caroline and Courtland, is not with us in body, we have no doubt that she is here in our midst as one of the resurrected ones in that great body of the communion of saints.
The communion of saints (and I love that expression—communion of saints—I can see the saints sharing eternity together in a communion of love and fellowship richer than any love we could ever imagine)—the communion of saints is always present with us, as near as the air we breathe.
The communion of saints is with us today as we gather around the baptismal font to welcome this child of God into a new life in the body of Christ.
The communion of saints is with us when we gather around the banquet table to receive the bread of heaven, this Sunday and every Sunday.
The communion of saints always gathers around us as we gather together as the Body of Christ.
And Jesus himself is here in our midst, not only in bread and wine, but also in this water of Baptism,
Because in this water “we are buried with Jesus Christ in his death, by it we share in his resurrection, and through it we are reborn by the Holy Spirit,” as The Book of Common Prayer puts it.
Baptism is a choice, not a given.
Brittany and Greg have very intentionally chosen for Courtland to be baptized.
They know that baptism is the beginning of being on the way with Jesus, just as the disciples were on the way with Jesus in today’s gospel. Ultimately, in spite of the dangers they faced as his disciples, they chose to remain on the way.
Jesus will lead us on this way of discipleship throughout our lives if we’ll let him.
And his way is the way of sheer, pure, unimaginable light and love.
Jesus is the one who is gracious, righteous, and full of compassion.
Jesus is the one who listens to us, and who never leaves our sides even when we pass through our worst times of grief and sorrow.
Jesus is the one who saves us from all the evil that surrounds us.
Jesus carries us past our sins and beyond our sorrows.
Jesus is the one who leads us into the peace that passes all understanding, into the life and safety of being at home in God’s very heart here on this earth, and through and beyond death.
Jesus is the one who rescues us from the worst sort of death—choosing to be separated from God for eternity.
And so today, Courtland, we thank your family for bringing you here to us.
And we welcome you, through these baptismal waters, into the way of discipleship, as we follow our Lord and Savior along the pathway of this life, with its incomplete joys and its death dealing sorrows, and finally, at the last, into the resurrection of God’s complete and everlasting and joyful love.
Amen.