11 Pentecost

August 20, 2022

Isaiah 58.9b-14; Hebrews 12.18-29

+ As we prepare for our new Baptism window, which will be installed within the next few weeks, and as we all prepare for yet another baptism on September 11th, it’s good to take a look at some things.

In anticipation of that window, we have been working hard at making our baptismal space in the narthex look good.

We now have those beautiful art pieces from Sue Morrissey there.

It has been eight years since we dedicated and blessed our new font.

I am so happy we did it.

It is a beautiful addition to our church.

And I hear so many compliments on the beautiful baptismal bowl  from people who visit.

In these either years, we’ve had a lot of people baptized already in that font.  

The baptismal font is a very important symbol for all of us  who live out our baptismal covenant on a daily basis.

As you all know, no doubt, one my personal heroes in the Church is one of the greatest  (no, I would say the GREATEST) Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey.  

One of my favorite stories about Ramsey is how, when, after he had become a Bishop in the Church, visited St. Andrew’s church in Horbling in England in which we was baptized in 1904.

There, he asked to see the baptismal font.

Standing there, he began to cry and was heard to murmur:

“O font, font, font, in which I was baptized!”

As Geoffrey Rowell wrote of that incident: “[Ramsey’s] deep sacramental sense and understanding of baptism as being plunged into the death and Resurrection of Christ, which was [and is] at the heart of the Church’s life, comes out in that moment of time.”

As you know, baptisms are one of those events in my life as a priest that I particularly rejoice in.

Last week in our Gospel reading, we heard Jesus talking about a baptism by fire, and how fire is a sign to us of God’s amazing and all-inclusive love for each and every one of us.   

In my sermon last week, I mentioned that when were baptized in those waters, we were also baptized in the fire of God’s spirit, into the fire of God’s all-consuming love.

And what do you know? Today, in the Letter to the Hebrews, we hear another fire reference to God. We hear,

“indeed our God is a consuming fire.”

In baptism, we realize how much of a consuming fire God actually is.

As paradoxical as it seems, we realize that in those waters, a fire was kindled in us. God’s fire was kindled in us.

And, to be a Christian, to be a follower of Jesus, means being aflame with the fires of our baptism.

But if we left it there, we might still not understand the true ramifications of our baptism.

One thing you all know I enjoy doing here at St. Stephan’s is inviting people to explore other areas of the Book of Common Prayer, other than just our section concerning Holy Communion.  

So, let’s do so again today.

Let’s take a look at the Catechism again.  

There we get the answer to the question:

“What is Holy Baptism?”

If you look on page 858—there you will find the somewhat definitive answer.  

On page 858, we find this answer:

"Holy Baptism is the sacrament [a sacrament is an outward sign of God’s inward grace—the outward grace in this sense being the water] by which God adopts us as his children and make us members of Christ’s Body, the Church, and inheritors of the kingdom of God.”

It’s a really great definition.

 Holy Baptism is not then just a sweet little service of sprinkling water on a baby’s head and dedicating them as we would a boat.  

 It is a service in which we are essentially re-born.  

 If anyone ever asks you, “Are you a born-again Christian?” you can tell them, in no uncertain terms, that yes you are.

 You were re-born in the waters of baptism.

 It is the service in which we recognize that we are truly children of a loving God—a God who truly loves us.  

 We have been washed in those waters and made alive in the fire of God’s love and made new—specifically we have become Christians in being baptized.

But, the one point I really want to drive home this morning is that last part of the definition from the Catechism. In baptism we become “inheritors of the kingdom of God.”

We are given a glimpse of this Kingdom of which we, the baptized, are inheritors in our readings from both Isaiah and Hebrews today.

In Isaiah, we hear the prophet saying to us:

“If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.”

Now, that’s some beautiful poetry, if you ask me.

“…your gloom [shall] be like the noonday.”

But more than that, it’s just so wonderfully practical.

When we follow Jesus—when we love God and love our neighbors—we are truly saying, “Yes, we are inheritors of the Kingdom of God.”

But, what does it mean to be an “inheritor of the kingdom of God?”

Being an inheritor of God’s kingdom means living out those promises we make in our baptismal covenant.

It means proclaiming by word and example the Good News of Christ—that good news being Love God/love others.

It means seeking and serving Christ in all persons and loving everyone as we desire to be loved.

And it means striving for justice and peace.

And it means respecting the dignity of the every human being.

And by doing those things, we are truly being the inheritors of that kingdom. This is what it means to be a Christian.

It is not just saying, “I accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior”

It is not just saying, “I belong to the one true Church, and that there is no salvation outside of this Church.”

It not denying people the Body and blood of Jesus in the Eucharist because they don’t believe what we believe.

It is not doing terrible things in this world over and over again, then thinking we can just say, “oooops, sorry” and then go back and do it again.

It does not mean just being nice and thinking good thoughts all the time.

Being a Christian means both believing and then acting like one.

Being a follower of Jesus means that we understand fully that something truly wonderful and amazing happened to us when we were baptized.

In that baptismal font in which we were baptized we were truly “buried with Christ in his death.”  

In those waters, we shared “in his resurrection.”

And through those waters—and that fire of God’s love that was kindled in us in those waters—we were “reborn by the Holy Spirit.”

This is not light and fluffy stuff we’re dealing with here in baptism.

It is not all about clouds and flowers and sweet little lambs romping in the meadow.

It is not just “feel good” spirituality.

It is the greatest event in our lives.

It was a life-changing moment in our lives.

And this God we encounter today and throughout all our lives as Christians, as inheritors of the God’s Kingdom is truly, as the author of the letter to the Hebrews tells us today, “a consuming fire.”

God doesn’t let us sit back and be complacent.  

God is not all right with us when we do bad things in this world, when we don’t respect the “worth and dignity” of others.

God is like a gnawing fire, kindled in that holy moment, deep within us.

God shakes us up and pushes us out into the world to serve others and to be the conduits through which God’s kingdom—God’s very fire of love—comes into this world.

Baptism is a radical thing.  

I don’t think we fully realize that sometimes.

It changes us and it transforms us.  

And it doesn’t just end when the water is dried on our foreheads and we leave the church.

It is something we live with forever.

In Baptism, we are marked as Christ’s own forever.

Forever.

For all eternity.

And nothing we can do can undo that.

That’s why I love baptism so much.

That’s why it’s so important to remember our baptism.

My hope is that when we look at the font here at St. Stephen’s (whether we were baptized in it or not) we will see it  with special appreciation and will be able to recognize, in some way, the beauty of the event that happens here on a regular basis.

My hope is that, when we dip our fingers into that bowl of water and bless ourselves with that blessed water, it will remind us of that incredible day in which we too were baptized.

I hope we can all look at that place in which baptism happens here at St. Stephen’s with a deep appreciation of how, we too, on the day of our baptism, were changed, how God’s consuming fire was kindled in us  and how we  became children of a loving, inclusive God and “inheritors of the kingdom of God.”

We are inheritors of that unshakable Kingdom of God. 

All of us are inheritors of that Kingdom.

No matter who we are.  

For that fact let us be truly thankful.

Let us, as the author of Hebrews says to us today, “give thanks, by which we offer to God, an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire.”

And let us, in turn, share that consuming fire we have inherited from our God with others.

Let us pray.

Holy God, Consuming Fire, instill in us the fire of your love. Let us burn brightly in this world, emboldened by the fire you instilled in us at our baptism. Make us the equals of what we promised when were baptized, that we may set the world on fire with your love; in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.