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Sunday July 23, 2006 - Proper 11, Year B

A few weeks ago
I was sitting next to a friend at a conference.
She writes children's books,
and when the speaker
quoted the somewhat obscure writing of the famous Irish author, James Joyce,
I saw her suddenly begin to scribble in her notebook.
By the end of the session
she had the text
of a new children's book.

It began something like this.
Here comes Abigail, acting.
Here comes Benjamin, bouncing.
Here comes Charlie, chattering.
And so on through the alphabet.
Until the final page. Here comes everybody;
Here comes the church.

Because that's what the church is,
at least the way the New Testament thinks about it.
They had no buildings, no red brock or stone
with tall steeples and altars up front.
Early on
they would meet in synagogues;
when they were no longer welcome there
they met in people's homes.
It wasn't until the third century,
200 years after Jesus had died and risen
that the first buildings set apart for Christian worship were built.
Until then, and long afterward,
when you said church,
people didn't think of a building
but a group of people
who had in common
the fact that they worshiped God in Christ.

And even now
the word church has two meanings.
One is the building;
the other, the group of people who meet together in that place to worship God.

In other words,
we are the church.
All of us
who have been baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
all of us, everybody,
we are the church.

And today,
we will welcome another member of the church.
Brenna Elizabeth
will be baptized. She'll become a follower of Jesus,
a child of God,
a full member
of this thing called the church.

The church
is what our second reading is about today,
a reading that seems particularly appropriate when we welcome a new member.
It's from the letter to the Ephesians.
The apostle Paul wrote this letter to one of the new born churches,
and he started his letter
by reminding them
of how it all began.
Way back, back before they were born, or their parents, or their parents' parents.
Way back, before the very foundation of the world
God had planned and called and chosen them
to be holy,
to be blessed.
Not because of anything they did — they weren't even born yet —
but because God loved them.
They belong together, they are the church,
not because of anything special they've done,
but because of God's grace.

And in the same way,
God has planned and called and chosen us,
to be holy
to be blessed.
To be the church.
Not because of anything we've done,
but simply
because of
God's grace.

Little Brenna is called and chosen — along with all the rest of us!

Albert, Alice, Alma,
Ann, Andrew and Andrew, Alexis, Aaron, Angelo and Angela,
Four Bills and two Bobs, Bonnie, Brooke, Brian, Ben, Becca and Barry and Brian,
Chris and Carolyn, Carston, Christopher, Charlotte, Cheryl, Connie, Caleigh, Christine and Carol.
Here comes everybody;
Here comes the church.

And the apostle goes on to explain
that it's like we're adopted, adopted by God.
Jesus is God's son, and invites us to be brothers and sisters, tied together not by blood or even legal papers
but tied together
by our common faith in Jesus.

David Debbie and three Denises,
Dennis and Dillon and Eleanor and Evelyn,
Ed, Elaine, Everett, Edie,
Edward, Elisabeth, Edith, Ellen,
Erica, Elyse, Fred and Grace,
Ginny, Glory, Gerard and Howard.
Here comes everybody;
Here comes the church.

But while God takes the initiative,
there's something we all have in common too.
We've heard the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ,
and we've believed,
and we've been marked as Christ's own forever,
the people of God.
At the end of the baptism, after I've poured water over Brenna's head,
I will take Chrism, holy oil,
and mark on her forehead
the sign of the cross, the sign of Christ, the sign of the church.

Jim and Jacqueline, Jonathan and Joanie,
Joanna, two Johns, Jill and Joey,
Jason, Jen, JoAnn, Joe,
Jerry, Juliana, Jo and Jack,
Jennifer and Jason and Jeannette.
Here comes everybody;
Here comes the church.

It was dramatic, the way the early church
did baptisms. We just pour some water, enough to get the baby's head wet.
But archaeologists have unearthed some early baptismal fonts,
and they weren't stone bowls. Instead
they looked more like graves.
Because baptism
isn't just
a nice ceremony
to welcome a baby.
This is serious stuff.

The way the early church understood it, the way the Christian faith has traditionally understood it,
we humans
are in a mess. We get caught up into evil
whether we like it or not. We make mistakes, we screw up, we fail.
We never quite get
to experience life in all it's goodness.
We get caught up in death.

But the good news is that somehow — and we don't quite understand how or why —
somehow, Christ's death
set us free from getting caught up with death,
Christ's resurrection
invited us
to join him in new life.

That grave shaped font
was a symbol
of death and resurrection,
and when the newly baptized person
came up out of the water, up out of the grave,
they knew
that they
had joined Christ in new life.

Buried and resurrected: that's the church!

Kristina and Kris, Katherine, Kelly and Kathleen,
Lynne, Linda and three Lauras,
Matthew, Maggie, Matt, Margaret,
Marie, Melissa, Mahala, and Maria,
Marie, Mark, Meghan and Michelle.
Here comes everybody;
Here comes the church.

All that I've talked about so far
is background to today's reading.
It begins
by talking about the circumcised and the uncircumcised,
those new Christians
who had been Jewish
and those new Christians
from other religions.
It doesn't matter any more, says Paul. It doesn't matter.
Whether you're Jewish or not, slave or free, male or female,
none of that's important.
Christ has brought you together.
That's what you have in common. You belong to Christ, and you belong to one another. So whether you're old or young, not matter what race or ethnicity you are, how much money you earn, how much education you have, long time Christians and brand new explorers.
none of that is important
when it comes to the church.
We're all in this together.

Nick, Nicholas, Natalie and Nicole,
Nancy, Olivia, Paige, Paul and Penny,
Ryan, Robin, Rebecca, Ron,
Raewynne, Robert, Ray and Ray.
Here comes everybody;
Here comes the church.

And what's more, we're citizens, according to Paul, with all the rights and responsibiltiies that go with that. And even more,
we are saints.
You might have thought
that saints are just famous people,
extra holy
with a direct line to God.
But we are saints, each and every one of us, the holy people of God.
And you never know, if we try a little
we might even begin
to live up to that name.
And we're member's of God's household, the privileged ones
who get to see God up close, who get to have a word in his ear.
Doesn't matter if you think you're low or high on the sanctity scale. We all belong. We're all
the church.

Sandy and Sandy, Sarah and Sarah, Steve, Sallye, Stephen, Sharon,
Stacey, Stephanie,
Tom, Tina, Thomas, Troy, Tom,
Val, Victoria, and Will, and anyone else I've forgotten!
Here comes everybody;
Here comes the church.

And Christ
is at the center of it all. The cornerstone, the one that keeps us all together. No matter how different we are, no matter how much we disagree,
we belong together
because we all belong to Christ.

And today, as we baptize Brenna, we open our arms to her and say, "you belong to Christ
and you belong
to the church. To us."
And she'll join Jaidyn and Maria and Ethan and Jack, Gabrielle, Evelyn, Rochelle,
Eavan, Alex and Tristan,
all the babies who have been baptized here this last year,
and all the rest of us.
We'll welcome her
into the household of God,
we'll mark her with the sign of Christ,
we'll see her numbered
among the saints.

Look around you.

Here comes everybody.
Here comes
the church.

Sermon ©Raewynne J. Whiteley 2006