SERMON
PENTECOST 7 Year A 3 July 2005
May our hearts and minds open to your truth, God of love
and mercy. Amen.
During this month of July we will be baptising the two
newest members of our congregation, Christian Chen and Helen Jordan. I say
‘we’ deliberately, because there is a very real sense in which we can say
that we are all
baptising these children. Although I will be the one who actually puts water on
Christian this weekend and Helen in a fortnight, who anoints them with chrism
oil and who welcomes them into the church, I will be doing so on your behalf.
Christian and Helen’s parents and godparents will be
making solemn promises to nurture them and raise them knowing about the
Christian faith. This does not simply mean that they should teach them about
Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and teachings. Or that they should tell them
the stories about the great saints of the faith over the last 2000 years. It
also means that they should show the children what it means to be a Christian.
The children will have the clearest picture of Christianity if those around them
live godly lives.
In the Letter to the Galatians, St Paul describes what this
might look like. He says that the fruits of the presence of God in our lives are
these: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness
and self-control. (Galatians 5:22). Daunting, isn’t it? Particularly if you
are sleep deprived, juggling older children who are adjusting to this new centre
of attention in the family, and coping with whatever post-natal hormonal storms
your body is dishing up. The fruit of the spirit flow from your own relationship
with God and new parents often find that attending to their own spiritual
well-being is a long way down on the action items list.
But the responsibility for modelling Christian lives does
not rest solely with parents and godparents. It is the responsibility of
everyone of us. I spoke last week of our role as the forerunners of Christ –
this operates within our families and the church as well as in relationship with
people who are not Christians. We are judged by the quality of our love. More
importantly, God is judged by the quality of our love.
There is an African saying that it takes a village to raise
a child. Our children can benefit from being around all sorts of different
people – it opens their eyes to other ways of being, gives them windows into
other worlds, introducing them to attitudes, pastimes, ways of relating that are
not part of their immediate family’s lives. It encourages flexibility and
resilience. The neighbourhood in which I grew up operated as an extended family
– it was a great gift to a shy child from a small family to be welcomed into
some of the sprawling and exuberant households near us.
As we meet here each week to worship God, we are a witness
to God’s action in many different lives. We are a diverse group of people held
together by one thread – our Christian faith, and in our diversity we bear
witness to God’s encompassing love for the whole of humanity. How we live that
faith is not simply between us and God, it has implications for the people
around us and particularly for the children around us. What we do, what we say,
what we value, will help form their idea of what God is like.
The current focus on the individual is a modern take on
life, a way in which our Western understanding of the world has evolved over the
last few centuries. In Christian terms it is evident in a preoccupation with
individual faith and individual salvation. Earlier epochs were much more aware
of the communal dimension to life, to relationships and to faith. Jesus’
attack on Chorazin and Bethsaida sits oddly on our ears – it sounds deeply
unfair that whole cities should be swept up into his condemnation. But it
reflects a different approach to life – communities as a whole have
responsibility for how they live.
[6 pm & 8 am: Our lives are, of course, neither wholly
communal, nor wholly individual. We live in the tension between a sense of
individual self and being in community. At different times in history and in
different places, one or the other becomes the dominant view. We are now living
in a highly individualistic culture and need to work hard to retain a sense of
the communal expression of being. In our life together as a church community,
however, we can explore its challenges and joys.
Today’s Gospel uses the imagery of animals yoked
together. A team of horses or oxen were held together by a wooden yoke in order
that their power could be harnessed and used to plough fields or pull heavy
loads. May we be held together, not by a wooden yoke, but by the thread of faith
in Christ and the bond of love, and may we find there rest for our souls.
Amen. ]
[9. 30 am: As we reflect today on our communal
responsibility to the children of our parish, let us rejoice in them and welcome
Christian Isaac Suu Sha Thet Chen for baptism.].