Entertaining angels

Genesis 28: 10-17. “Jacob’s ladder” is one of those memorable bits of the Bible where the role of Angels is as a precursor to an encounter with the Divine. In both Hebrew and Greek, messenger and Angel are the same word, so the difference between an angelic or human messenger is provide by the context

Hebrews 1: 5-14. The qualitative difference between Angels and Jesus is being expressed here. The redemptive and authoritative person of Jesus as Son of God is being compared to Angels which are “Spirits in the divine service” of mankind

John 1: 47-51. “Angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” recalls Jacob’s ladder in Genesis and means that these messengers from God will deliver God’s words directly to Jesus. Angels again seen as messengers or intermediaries from God.

Angels in the Judaeo-Christian tradition have always represented a direct link to God.

Jacob’s vision of angels precedes God standing right beside Jacob to assure him that his destiny is secure – that God will uphold his side of the agreement with him and this led Jacob to name the place where it happened Bethel – Beth- el – the house of God.

That leads us naturally to Jesus in the gospel story telling Nathaniel that he will see “Angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man”, meaning that instead of God being located in a place – Bethel – He is located in the heart of Jesus Himself who mostly referred to himself as the “Son of man” after the prophesy in the book of Daniel.

And in the book of Hebrews it importantly emphasises the surpassing importance of Jesus in the economy of salvation, who although he was in human form, (lower than the angels in Hebrew’s description) in his work and divinity He is higher than the angels.

It is after all Jesus who in his sacrificial death came to redeem and save the world and, in his resurrection, to assure the world of the hope of a bright and blessed future in a new creation.

Significantly, In both Hebrew and Greek, angel and messenger are the same word, so anyone who comes with a message of love or comfort or insight is an angel.

Later in the book of Hebrews it says this (13:2)

“Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers because in doing so you may be entertaining angels unawares”

Hebrews acknowledges that a human being can be an angel, a messenger from God” because God uses people to communicate his will, comfort and wisdom.

Instead of seeking out heavenly spiritual experiences that simply satisfies our own needs, we can choose to be a messenger of God ourselves.

We can dispense God’s love and grace in a word of love, encouragement, an act of charity or service. Kindness to people is an act of God.

In such cases we can pass over from being a messenger to actually embodying the message.

Every church building embodies a message from God. Their mere existence is a message that God matters, is worthy of respect and worship. Even those who never cross the threshold of a church understand that message.

We, the people of God are messengers of God when we dispense love, mercy and forgiveness, kindness, patience and self-control.

We can be the angel that people encounter unawares.

In the talk on Angels at the literary festival the claim was made that belief in Angels rivals belief in God nowadays. Even 7% of atheists apparently believe in Angels. One reason offered for that is that Angels come bearing nothing but grace and love and protection and make no demands.

Well, It is a fact that when one facet of the Christian faith is neglected it pops up somewhere else in a more pronounced form. When the word of God was neglected, for example, that spawned the reformation and later, the evangelical movement within mainstream denominations.

When the Holy Spirit was neglected, that spawned the Pentecostal churches and the charismatic movement.

You could say that when the churches concentrate too much on moral rules and judgement, the response is an increased belief in totally grace filled, protective angelic beings. One remembers Robbie Williams major hit “Angels”

One sermon I made near the start of my ministry here is that fully Christian ministry has to integrate all those parts of the faith that have become almost semi-detached from and within mainstream churches.

We need emphasis on the Bible. We need emphasis on the Spirit. We need emphasis on forgiveness and repentance and morality.   And we also need emphasis on the qualities embodied by the belief in angels. The Grace, unconditional love, and care of angels, but attribute that Grace love and protection to its proper place – God, who is Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

In the midst of wolves

Sunday 22^nd September – Trinity 14 – Proper 20

Amos 8: 4-7. My favourite prophet. He is direct and brutally frank about how God views people who treat others to whom they feel superior with contempt. He assures them that God sees all and in Christian terms we want them to see the error of their ways and repent. Swearing by the “pride of Jacob” is an unusual phrase but it is probably used to describe the land of Israel.  

1 Timothy 2: 1-7. We should pray for everyone because God desires everyone to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. Here we also have a rationale for all civic services, prayers for the Queen etc. that can rankle with both catholic and protestant alike. But as social enfleshed beings we have to live in the societies in which we find ourselves and whatever we feel about the social order of the day or what we might want to defend or change, God requires that we pray for all people, and to live in peace as far as it is anything to do with us.

Luke 16: 1-13. A difficult parable to unpack but one firstly must assume that dishonesty is not being praised, but rather shrewdness or prudence. Jesus noting that in a crisis, worldly people are much shrewder that the children of light. In the “crisis” situation of the inbreaking of the Kingdom of God Christians need to be much shrewder and decisive in making positive decisions and using worldly wealth to further the aims of the Kingdom.

“Behold I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, therefore be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16)

A wonderfully shrewd statement made by Jesus there in Matthew.

And it is Prudence or shrewdness that is being encouraged by Jesus in our gospel reading today and Jesus notes, I think accurately, that the worldly wise are much shrewder than the people who generally follow God. Our judgement can be clouded by being too starry eyed and idealistic.

A common statement about some people is that they are so heavenly focussed that they are no earthly good. They also can have their goodness presumed upon as well and get walked all over. Part of the Christian response is not to become either gullible or a doormat. At the same time, we must guard against becoming overly cynical and suspicious. Somewhere in the middle lies wisdom.

It is always hard to pin down where that wise response lies because every decision we make is dependent on specific circumstances.

Honesty and straight dealing and dealing with others charitably are the bedrock of the Christian way.

This has always been a main part of the Judeo-Christian tradition of course and Amos, writing 750 years before Christ, the very first of the Old Testament prophets, warns all people that treat their fellow men with contempt and cheat them and rob them are being judged by God and their deeds won’t be forgotten.

Christian wisdom must be based in revealed truth of course, and one of the most basic truths that it can sometimes be hard to accept is that God desires the salvation of all people. God came to save the whole world, not little bits of it, or those bits that respond in a certain way.

We heard in a magnificent presentation yesterday at the literary festival that this is one of the main reasons that Christianity spread so quickly. It was universal. Everyone was included. Christianity successfully overturned the general societal assumptions that “might is right” and that some people are intrinsically worth more that other people, laying down the principle that would eventually lead to the notion of universal human rights. King and slave, Jew and gentile, man and woman were all on the same level in God’s eyes.

Repentance, (Greek – Metanoia), is the central demand of the gospel for those that accept the gospel in this life. Consciously turning your life around to face God. Part of that repentance is having the difficult job of praying for those people we don’t like, or don’t like us, and those who do contemptable things in the hope that they see the light and change their ways.

Why? Because Jesus died for them as much as He died for you, that’s why.

In the same way, we pray for the existing social order, no matter what we think about the system or what we’d like to either defend or change.

In practical terms that would mean that even if you were an ardent republican and anti-monarchist, as a Christian you would still be required to pray for the Queen, because she is an individual, for whom Jesus also died, and she holds an important position in the social hierarchy. As I wrote this week, this is also the rationale for civic services where we pray for all local councillors etc.

We have to be wise in how we use our money, gifts and talents in a crisis and the underlying reason behind all this is that the ultimate crisis Jesus is referring to  is the upcoming crucifixion of himself, and the birth of the church, and the Kingdom of God.

“God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself” Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:19. Notice it is the whole world again God was reconciling himself to, not just good people or believers, and by extension we are ministers of that reconciliation.

As ministers of that reconciliation, we pray for the good of all people and situations, that God’s will is done – not our will – because;

“think no man unworthy for whom Christ was content to die”.

The free gift of Grace.

Exodus 32: 7-14. Moses haggling with God, imploring him not to destroy the Jewish people for building and worshipping an idol might lead some people to say that this was God before He became a Christian! Joking aside, at a deeper level, it is a warning against a religion that demands that the divine is always immediate, visible and accessible and one that sets store on a patient waiting on God

1 Timothy 1: 12-17. You can sense the intense gratitude Paul feels, that a sinner as great as himself could be so freely forgiven his past, so his life is set free to do the work God commissions him to do. It is this central fact of forgiveness that is available to all Christians when they fall and fail. To get up, dust yourself off and start all over again on a different path.

Luke 15: 1-10. Paul’s experience is pre-figured here in a couple of parables that tell of the joy God feels in finding something (someone) who is lost. For us as God’s agents on earth, finding such people, you have given them the gift of Life itself and we can share in that joy.

We have a gift for everyone we meet.

A complaint you sometimes hear from people is that the church is always making demands on people whether that be their time or their money.

But actually, we come bearing the greatest gift that anyone could possibly receive – the gift of forgiveness and life in all its fullness.

Paul, who we hear today fair bubbling over with excitement and joy described being joined to Jesus Christ as Freedom to rest in God’s Grace in Galatians 5:1.

If I were to describe what “Life in all its fullness” consisted of I’d boil it down to these essentials;

Firstly, your life has intrinsic worth, because you are created and loved by God. This means that your worth isn’t dependent on what other people or society itself thinks about you. For tech-savvy people it doesn’t depend on how many “likes” your social media post gets. We have an innate dignity, an innate worth that is independent of how other people rate us.

Secondly, you are a child of God. People have a tendency to think in terms of identity politics nowadays, defining ourselves by race, gender, sexuality, disability, class or social status. But as Christians we have an identity that supersedes and subsumes all those small subdivisions. We are a child of God. That is our identity. We pray to God as our Father, with Jesus as our brother, saviour and friend.

Thirdly, you have the basis of Paul’s gratitude in this extract today. Forgiveness and the ability to make a fresh start in a new direction after we foul up, fall, fail, make bad decisions, do things we are ashamed of. We are forgiven because of what Jesus did for us on the cross.

Lastly, we have the assurance of eternal life, because of the resurrection of Jesus. Death and suffering were borne but overcome. Eternal life, in John’s gospel also translates as a quality of life to be enjoyed now but is synonymous with and based on the vision of a new heaven and a new earth, where all pain, suffering and death are no more.

Innate worth, a child of God, Forgiveness and eternal life. These are the gifts that the Christian faith gives freely to all who accept that Jesus is the true Son of God.

These are the gifts that allow us to flourish in our lives.

These are the gifts that enable you to live life without fear and sets you free to fulfil your potential.

These are the gifts that propelled Paul on his missionary journeys and saw him through thick and thin. These are the gifts that propel every modern-day missionary and evangelist. They form the basis for every loving action and loving word of every Christian.

So you see, we come bearing Gifts. Free gifts.

We need to remember what we offer people as well as the demands we sometimes make. Sacrifices of time and money, and any other sacrifice we have to make are made in gratitude for what we have received, so that the church can continue to tell people what God has done for them in Jesus Christ.

Amen.

What is truth?

Jeremiah 23:23-29. False prophets and their “dreams” are here contrasted with the voices of true prophets. True prophets can be distinguished by the fact that true prophesy is like fire and a hammer – that is, words that unsettle and disturb, rock the established order, and unmask hypocrisy and injustice. True prophets can only really be discerned in hindsight, and in private may be wracked by self-doubt.

Hebrews 11:29 – 12:2. The faith (and the suffering) of all the Old Testament figures is given to encourage the faith of contemporary Christians. They are included and lauded not just as figures from a long dead past but as a present “cloud of witnesses” to whom the current crop of believers owe a debt of responsibility. All of those figures were driven by faith in God despite themselves never seeing the fulfilment of God’s will – Jesus Christ – “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (12:1).

Luke 12: 49-56. Jesus describes the reality of the situation that his message of peace will ironically cause division, even amongst families. His “baptism” refers to his crucifixion (and St. Paul also describes Christian baptism as being baptised into Jesus’ death). Fire is also associated with cleansing and more positively with the Holy Spirit. Jesus then derides people for being able to forecast the weather accurately but are blind to the signs of the times.

How do you know that what I, or anyone taking a service is telling you is the true word of God?

One answer to that is that within the structures of the ordination process, the church tries to ensure that within certain parameters like high or low church, or theological emphasis, they have confidence in the person chosen to try and accurately discern, reflect and interpret what the Spirit reveals to them.

In short, the church tries to weed out false prophets. There wasn’t any kind of process in Jeremiah’s time of course. Who was a true prophet and who was a false prophet was a very grey area. Prophesy itself came into huge disrepute so that what turned out to be genuine prophets didn’t actually want to be associated with the title at all.

Amos, one of the most respected prophets tried to distance himself by saying,

“I was not a prophet, nor a prophet’s son but a sheep breeder and a dresser of sycamore trees” (7:14).

One way that Jeremiah offers to discern a true prophet from a false one, is that a true prophet’s words are like a fire and a hammer. That is, the true word of God unsettles, disturbs, shakes the foundations, and confronts hypocrisy and injustice. Today we might say it speaks truth to power.

The honeyed words of the false prophets just say what they think people want to hear. Prophesy not from conviction but by focus group and opinion poll.

A great modern hero of mine was Harry Williams CR, a monk at Mirfield when I was there, since sadly died.

Harry had been a great and highly thought of theologian, preacher and teacher, and had been a fellow, lecturer and Dean of Trinity college Cambridge.

Right up until his nervous breakdown caused by his cognitive dissonance between his life and the gospel he was preaching.

When he had recovered after years of psychotherapy his true ministry really started, when he became concerned by true experience.

He vowed never to ever preach anything ever again which didn’t have its roots in true lived experience and he became a true prophet, rather than just a “dreamer” as Jeremiah calls it.

Words and ideas can purify like fire, and shatter peace like a hammer and this is what Jesus rightly prophesied when he said to his disciples,

“Don’t think my words are going to bring peace, it’ll be more like a sword. I will divide opinion, split families”. His words and actions weren’t designed to do that – they were words of love and peace – but he correctly forecast that discord would be a natural result, because words and actions divide people.

For us it means that as long as we are as certain as we can be that we are speaking truthfully and representing as accurately as possible the nature and purposes of God, we shouldn’t be either surprised or deflated if our words cause division.

One of the most pertinent questions in the whole new testament is posed not by Jesus or an apostle but came out of the mouth of Pontius Pilate, when he asked Jesus “What is truth?” (John 18:38)

This itself was a retort to Jesus saying he was a witness to the truth, and John’s gospel contains the answer to that question when Jesus says “I am the way, the truth and the life.” (John 14:6)

We worship truth, embodied for a while here on earth in Jesus.

The way of Jesus is the way of sacrificial love.

The truth of Jesus is that he is the eternal word made flesh.

And in that truth and love is revealed the true nature of being, of life itself, which is God, which cannot be destroyed.

Whatever else we preach, to be a true prophet of God we have to preach that. Only God can save anyone. If Jesus is the true son of God and God is one, then true Salvation cannot be found anywhere else except in God and the truth of God is made manifest in Jesus. In that way salvation being found no-where else is not a statement that excludes anyone but states a fact about God who is entirely inclusive no matter what religion or none that you follow.

Coming home.

Genesis 15: 1-6. This section provides the proof text to St. Paul that Grace preceded law in God’s economy of salvation because Abraham predates Moses (and the ten commandments) by several centuries. Abram believed God “and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness” (verse 6). That Abram continually doubted and questioned God though should encourage us. Faith is no easy option.

Hebrews 11: 1-3, 8-16. The Genesis reading is a good accompaniment to this reading from Hebrews which lauds the faith of Abraham among others. Without knowing that Abraham often doubted though, we could end up having a false view of faith as necessarily being full assurance all the time, which is unrealistic. We are human and subject to human frailty. But at our best, the vision of everlasting life in a new heaven and a new earth should spur us on to become the person God always wanted us to be.

Luke 12: 32-40. Jesus says to his disciples. First of all get your priorities right. The “treasure” that should be motivating us is of the Kingdom of God. This will have economic repercussions on our earthly treasure but the kingdom is all that really counts in the end. We are told then to keep awake, as a slave should keep awake for the return of his master in the early hours – so a warning against Christian complacency.

That we are saved by faith in God’s grace and not by following the law was absolutely fundamental to St. Paul and in his great treatise on the subject in his letter to the Romans, the incident we heard read to us from Genesis was pivotal.

Abraham had “righteousness” – that is declared right before God simply because he believed God’s promise, well before he was circumcised and certainly well before the written law which wasn’t delivered to Moses until many centuries later.

Being declared righteous includes being accepted and forgiven – a spiritual healing of the soul we call Salvation – the divine healing.

The author of the book of Hebrews also looks back to the example of Abraham amongst others as an example of great faith and verse one defines faith like this;

“The assurance of things hoped for; the conviction of things not seen.”

But if you are anything like me, that description of faith could be daunting because in reality faith oscillates and is stronger on some days than on others.

But a simple reading of the story of Abraham and Sarah reveals that while  their faith was often strong, the doubts and scepticism were constant companions as well. Which is good news for all of us that despite the doubt and scepticism along the way, God declared Abraham right with Him.

Jesus spoke some comforting words to his disciples, many of whom doubted Jesus even after the resurrection according to Matthew’s gospel and the words we heard today are ones we all need to hear,

“Do not be afraid little flock, for it the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom”

Having the kingdom – God’s Spirit working with your Spirit to bear fruit for you and the world is the only real treasure worth having because the kingdom is eternal. Our money and possessions stay here when we move on. “You can’t take it with you” as they say,

But the kingdom is an eternal transcendent possession. Fruit grown here will serve you for ever in your purse which is your soul. 

But living a virtuous, good life here is often hard. It is not glamourous or cool and life can grind us down, but the advice is not to lose patience. Keep faith and don’t tire of being and doing good or worshipping God. In the poetic language of the parable,

“Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit”.

For the promises of God contained within the Bible are that which inform our faith. And the person making those promises is important.

It is often reported that Jesus spoke, not as the scribes and Pharisees, but as one who had authority.

We are much more inclined to believe someone who is manifestly upright and wise and true and speaks with authority.

The promises of God in the mouth of Jesus have divine authority. He is a person to be believed and followed in full confidence.

That future that we cannot see, or even well understand, is described in Hebrews as a homeland. Finding God and his kingdom is a “homecoming” and discovering that God was there all the time, waiting for you is a description of salvation we recognise from the parable of the good Samaritan.  

And we all thrive best when we have a secure homelife. Finding God and his Kingdom is coming home.

Towards a new perspective

Ecclesiastes 1: 2, 12-14; 2: 18-23. This is an honest antidote to all those who say that the world naturally points to God. The author is a pessimist who is sensitive to the injustice of the world (4:1-3) and uncertain about organised religion (5: 1-6). Trying to find any meaning to life by human effort is folly, and human achievements are temporary, and life is unhappy. The “Teacher” ends up acknowledging the awesomeness of God and deciding that God doesn’t have to justify himself. That this tract is in the Bible at all is a testimony to the breadth and search for truth that the Bible encompasses.

Colossians 3: 1-11. All the morality that follows is dependent on verse 1 which says “If you have been raised with Christ”. The morality that follows is pretty conventional and one of the main messages is contained in verse 11 which says that in this renewal all differences between race and culture are transcended for those “raised with Christ”.

Luke 12:13-21. Luke is adamant that property and wealth are spiritually dangerous and this parable echoes Ecclesiastes in saying that effectively this is vanity because all lives come to an end. But there is no mention here of the good that money can do or how terrible poverty can be, and common ownership and a collective pot were ideals that were never taken up by the church. But how we use money can be seen as a prime indicator of where our heart’s loyalty lies.  

I have a confession to make. When I had a crisis of faith after encountering the wild claims of certain people on the charismatic fringe of the church, it was reading Ecclesiastes that brought me back into the church.

Its decidedly pessimistic understanding of our lot, human ambition, and apparent futility of life was a powerful corrective to the wild claims of magical healing, speaking in tongues, and people falling over that had such a negative impact on me at the time.

The very fact that such a book could be included in the canon of the Bible spoke volumes to me of a much more realistic, truth seeking version of the Judeo-Christian tradition that took opinion and testimony from all sides. That took contrary sceptical views and insights seriously. It took the search for truth itself very seriously. Apparently, this is the only piece of Ecclesiastes that is included in the whole three-year Sunday lectionary cycle, which is a shame.

The pursuit of truth is very important. Scientific truth, or spiritual truth makes no difference. One cannot be in competition with the other.

Getting to the bottom of the essential nuggets of truth contained within scripture is a part of my job description which I do to the very best of my ability.

Applying that wisdom and insight to our two other readings today what can we discern with any certainty?

Both of them assert that when we accept the truth claims of Christianity our values and way of looking at the world changes. We re-orient our outlook and ways of being and doing to reflect new information – new truths. This dramatic sea change the Bible calls Metanoia – which we translate as repentance. It involves changing our standpoint from a self-centred way of looking at things to a more God-centred way of looking at things.

Paul writes in Colossians that “if we have been raised with Christ” (ie, changed our view of the world) the following should happen, and then he lists a whole litany of things we should no longer do, a list which prioritises self-gratification over the good of all, mentioning everything from fornication to abusive language. The list is pretty uncontroversial in itself but are marks of the process of the re-orientation of the self.

One mark of that re-orientation is seeing all people whatever their race or culture as equal in the sight of God because God made all human beings in the image and likeness of God and Jesus died for the sins of a Somali drug dealer as much as he died for a English stockbroker. We need to be reminded of this radical insight into the truths of Christianity on a regular basis because it runs so counter to conventional human wisdom which wants to put everyone on a scale of goodness from 1 to 10. Shifting from human wisdom to God’s wisdom seriously taxes our ability to accept these kinds of insights.

Likewise, Luke’s gospel if taken too literally could be said to say, “Don’t ever plan or prepare for the future”, but that is not I believe what it is saying. As part of the re-orientation of our life should come the realisation that the proper use of the money we have is an indicator of where our heart’s loyalties really lies.  It is also a reminder that we are mortal and what God desires from us in our dealings on earth is respect for others, a concern for fairness and justice, using our money to further the kingdom of God no less, instead of our own kingdoms.

Discipleship is a word which we have heard of but perhaps haven’t realised that it is the task of every baptised Christian. Think of discipleship as you and God working together in your very being to gradually turn us around, to look at life, other people, politics, everything really from God’s perspective who wills the best for everyone and make that more and more, our perspective.

It is a narrow path to walk, and requires a certain discipline to make it happen but as Jesus said in Luke 17, the kingdom of God is within you and any change we want to see in the world has to start with us.

Immersed in God's Spirit

Trinity 6 (Proper 12)

I am at St. Peter’s in the morning and Karen is in the villages. We have a baptism in the morning service of Albie Kelly. The readings of the day are as follows;

Genesis 18: 20-32. In this important piece of writing, a moral question is being resolved by discussion, and in the discussion, it is God’s morals that are being investigated. Two moral absolutes collide; that wickedness must be punished, and righteousness should not be punished because of the wickedness of others, and in this case, it is justice for the innocent that prevails over punishment of the wicked. 

Colossians 2: 6-19. Paul is desperate to convey the fact that Jesus is the one thing (way) necessary to understanding our spiritual health and relationship to God. Nothing else is necessary, not religious rituals, angels, philosophy, or asceticism. We have direct access to God through Jesus without any other mediators being needed.

Luke 11: 1-13. The Lukan version of the Lord’s prayer is shorter and less well known than Matthew’s version and the rest of the passage encourages persistence in prayer and that God will and can only give good gifts which are all gifts of the Spirit.

When someone is being baptised, as when we ourselves were baptised, and as Albie Kelly is being baptised soon, we need to remind ourselves what we were, and Albie will be being baptised into, and what baptism itself signifies and Paul’s piece in Colossians today gives a good description of that.

Baptism literally means “Immersion”, though of course we will just pour water over Albie’s head today. It speaks of being immersed in God’s Spirit, that same Spirit that was so evident in Christ’s life and works.

That same Christ who Paul says today is all you need, to be healed, or made whole, or made clean, which are all ways for describing what the word Salvation means. The root of the word Salvation is “salve”, a word we still use to mean a healing balm.

We were baptised into the salvation of God revealed to us in the life, death and resurrection of Christ and the knowledge that this is all we need and doesn’t need any supplementary input, whether that be good works, the intercession of Angels, self-mortification or asceticism, thorough knowledge of theology or philosophy, nor attendance at certain religious festivals.

Some of those things may be good in and of themselves but they can’t add anything to what is already complete. Salvation – divine healing – is the ground, the foundation on which everything else is built. You can’t be “more saved”.

And baptism is the full and complete rite of initiation into Christ. The newly baptised have all the rights and privileges of incorporation into Christ, including the main one of being declared a “child of God” and part of the body of Christ, the church.

We baptise children as an act of faith in God’s prevenient Grace, a grand term that means that we believe that God always makes the first move and is working within an individual long before there may be any formal acceptance of the faith. We believe that our prayers for Albie are effective whether Albie knows he is being prayed for or not.

God is working within each one of us whether we are conscious of it or not.

We of course hope that one day Albie will consciously accept the baptism promises that will be made on his behalf today, but that is not a given. God requires us humans to do some of the heavy lifting ourselves. Baptism is not magic and God doesn’t force Himself into anyone’s life.

The truth only has the power of truth when it becomes true for you.

That is the role that faith plays in the human economy of salvation. The Baptism promises of God only have an effect on the life of an individual when they are believed and lived.  

God and his promises of love and commitment will need to be made known to Albie when he is old enough to understand. He will need to be introduced to worship and a worshipping community if he is to understand what those things really mean.

He will need the prayers and encouragement of parents, godparents and the church.

We thrive as individuals when we have the love, encouragement and support of others and of God and this is what the church at its best offers to its members. That was what was offered to us at our own baptisms and that is what is being offered to Albie later this morning.