“WHO IS,
WAS, AND IS TO BE”
|
A
sermon preached at the Readings:
Isa 2:1-5, Matthew 24:36-44 |
I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord,
who is and was and is to come” (Rev 1:8)
Well
it looks like David Blunkett may get his way
and we will all end up with identity cards.
I don’t know how you feel about that –
·
You may say that is fine and helpful for good government,
and that I’ve got nothing to hide anyway.
·
Or you may fear what use this or a future government
might make of the information.
I guess it depends quite a lot on how far you trust
the powers that be
with your identity and the information about it.
All of which is perhaps a topic for conversation
over coffee afterwards….
In
the meantime today we celebrate the baptism of
Oliver Jack –
We give him his name and affirm & celebrate his identity:
We
rejoice that that identity is known
to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords,
in whose image he was made.
We rejoice
that our God has counted the very hairs on his head –
there is nothing he does not know or will not know about Oliver –
And
if being known through and through by God may sometimes seem daunting,
we also know that it is the route to forgiveness and acceptance,
to blessing and salvation.
Our
God is not a God who waits for children to become
adult or mature or faithful or saintly before he offers his love -
If he were to say that, which of us would ever know his love?
Rather
he says (and this is the joy of infant baptism)
“Even before you can even articulate who
you are, I know you,
I know who you are, I know your identity, and I love you,
and from the very start of your life
I offer you baptismal blessing and love and a place in my heart.
This
is the end of Domestic Violence Week,
and “Women against Violence” Sunday -
a day when we are asked to pray for the victims of domestic violence.
I
know as a fact that there are those of you here today
who are or have been victims of domestic violence.
I also know statistically that there will be many more here this morning who
(perhaps unknown to anyone else here)
have been victims of violence and abuse.
Let
me say this -
If that is you, I hope that if you have not done so already,
one day you will feel you can share that experience,
and find God’s blessing and strength to move on.
I
offer you this piece which I came across the other day.
It
is a suggested meditation for victims of domestic violence.
Its resonance with the baptismal service are clear –
Victims are invited to
“gather together a white candle, a small bowl of water and a stick of
incense.
Pick a quiet time and space.
Light the candle and incense and sit quietly,
letting all tension slip away and all worried thought leave your body/mind.
Dip your fingers in the
water and touch your eyes saying,
'Bless my eyes that I may have clarity of vision."
Dip your fingers in the
water and touch your mouth saying,
'Bless my mouth that I may speak the
truth."
Dip your fingers in the
water and touch your ears saying,
'Bless my ears that I may hear all that
is spoken unto me."
Dip your fingers in the
water and touch your heart saying,
'Bless my heart that I may be filled
with love."….
Dip your fingers in the water
and touch your feet saying,
'Bless my feet that I may find and walk
on my own true path.
Quietly reflect on the words
you have spoken
and feel yourself filled with a
peaceful, loving energy.
When you feel complete, put out the candle.
Empty the bowl and wash it carefully.
Diane Mariechild, Mother
Wit: a feminist guide to psychic development.
The Crossing Press, Freedom, CA, 1982, p
146 –
quoted in Healing
from Abuse for Women A pastoral liturgy
produced by The Liturgical Commission of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia
Each
of us has our own journey through life.
We
cannot promise or even expect that our journey
will not sometimes take us over rugged terrain.
But
whichever path we take,
our baptism marks God’s commitment to walk with us.
And if
some of us find that our journey leads us into dry and arid places,
well the water of God’s blessing will always be waiting
to spring from the rock in the desert as sure as it did for Moses long ago.
God’s blessing at the start of our lives–however young we may be
God’s blessing in the midst of life – however broken we may feel.
And of course, God’s blessing with us at the end of our life.
Oliver has a saintly namesake –
17th C Archbishop of Armagh and Catholic Primate of all Ireland,
and since 1975 honoured as a Saint - Oliver
Plunkett.
In many ways a fine role model for the Christian life,
Oliver Plunkett has much to say to our generation,
working as he did for reconciliation between the Irish Churches,
and held in affection by Catholics and Protestants alike.
It is to the shame of English Protestantism
that Archbishop Oliver was imprisoned in the Tower of London
on clearly fraudulent and spurious charges
by a court whose jurisdiction did not even run across the Irish Sea.
Oliver Plunkett wrote moving letters from his gaol,
as he awaited the journey to Tyburn and a martyr’s
death.
He forgave his persecutors
and wrote of his happiness that
in addition to the baptism of water
he was now to receive the baptism of blood.
Baptism
is symbolically dying and rising to new life in Christ -
And once death is defeated –
as it symbolically is in the act of baptism -
it is no more to be feared -
for the blessing of God is assured not merely in the dark journeys of this
life,
but in the final journey o’er the waters of death.
So
this Advent Sunday – when we think
of God’s coming into the World -
·
let us thank God that from the beginning of our life
(before we even knew God’s name or our own),
he loved us, and accepted us,
and came to us speaking our name as one who was dear to him.
·
Let us thank God that in the midst of our earthly life –
in the midst of the violence and discord and hurt of an often cruel world,
he continues to come to us and walk with us.
·
Let us thank God that when for us the end comes –
be it the end of the world for us all, or the end of our own individual earthly
life –
yet still shall the Lord be with us on our journey and at its ending.
So
a final prayer for Oliver –
May
your life’s journey (like that of your blessed namesake)
be dedicated to God’s work of love and peace, forgiveness and reconciliation.
And
wherever that journey may take you, through good times or ill,
may you learn to know and love the God
who from this day on walks every step of that journey with you.-
The God who is your Way and your End.
And
what we ask for Oliver, may it be true for us all.
Amen.