MEDITATION: Baptism… An Act of Self-Offering to God The Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost: November 2, 2014 By The Reverend Nathanael Saint-Pierre We invite you to worship and be in communion with us during our 8:30 and/or 10:30AM Service of Holy Eucharist to hear the full sermon. +++++++ Baptism… An Act of Self-Offering to God This Sunday, many churches are celebrating All Saints Day and are having baptism as it is a predetermined date to welcome new people into the church. I feel the need to talk about it in the context of my ministry at St A’s, but also in light of twenty years in different churches and dioceses. Twenty years of struggle to find the right formula. Sometimes, I am in agreement with those saying that baptism should not be refused and should have no fee attached; at other times I am all for a fee because at least people would understand baptism is not a one night stand (is the latter always at no cost?). I was even tempted to request a fee for baptism that would be refunded at every continuing attendance; my hope being that people would come to get their money back and by being inside they would discover the transforming power of the gospel, thus coming to church for the right reasons. If they don’t, at least the church would get a significant offering to carry on its mission (the offering the church receives nowadays for baptism is absurdly low). I often smile when, leading baptism instruction, I ask people why they want to baptize their children. The answers that I get are: “We want to keep our family tradition alive”, “My grandmother was baptized in this baptismal font” or “This is our home church”, or “It is nice to initiate our child into the church”. While I would not say any of these answers is wrong, I don’t think they express the fundamental reasons for baptism. I’ve seen people travel miles to have a baptism celebrated in the setting in which a great-grandparent was baptized. Although beautiful, the church does not practice baptism to perpetuate a tradition. We baptize our children to bring (offer) them to God and bring God to them. Baptism is not an encounter, but rather, the starting point of an ongoing relationship. Baptism is an act of adoption by which we become saints, thus the celebration of All Saints today. Baptism set us apart and, by Jesus Christ, makes us “worthy to stand before God.” The church, for many reason is losing ground and popularity. The secular nature of our society intrudes so much into our lives and kidnaps us to enslave us, leading us to the misconception that material wealth supersedes the need for an ongoing relationship with God in fellowship. People do not make church a priority anymore; church has become tangential to our lives rather than being the center. Since the sacraments of the church as well as the grace of God are for free, people do not attribute value to them. The social occasion for celebration is more important than the sacrament itself. When we see people not rushing into churches, it is not only because of the quality of the sermons. In fact, a good sermon that does not flatter people the way they wish, may push people away. We have become people who want to be told what we want to hear, not what is true and right. How is the church your home when you don’t regularly attend the church’s activities? How can you call it home when you don’t know what is happening? Home is not just a place where one sleeps from time to time. Home is the place where we live day by day. It is the place where together we are exposed to the apostles teaching and fellowship, where we break bread together and where we pray together. My hope for this sermon is that I’ll be able to communicate that 1. Baptism is not a one day deal but a life changing mystery. Baptism is a covenant in which commitment of both sides is essential. 2. One might have been homeless to think that because one is baptized in a setting it has become home. 3.We are all invited into God’s banquet. That’s does not mean we are allowed to walk in with inappropriate clothing and behaviors. Happy Christening Day to all the baptized. + + + + + + + St Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church 286-290 Henry Street New York NY 10002
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 17:26:42 +0000