Fourteenth after Pentecost, 2009

Baptism of
Natasha Kathryn Huen


RCL Proper 18B

Proverbs 22: 1-2, 8-9, 22-23;
James 2: 1-17; Mark 7: 24-37






Good morning—and it is I know a special day for Natasha and her family as we celebrate Holy Baptism this morning, and for all of us, as this is always one of the happiest of events in the life of the Christian community. I know there also is celebration in heaven. Angels and archangels marking the event with all their celestial hymns of thanksgiving.

All praise and thanks to you, most merciful Father, for adopting us as your own children, for incorporating us into your holy Church, and for making us worthy to share in the inheritance of the saints in light; through Jesus Christ, your son, our Lord. Amen.

The lawyers among us will say a sermon is unnecessary. Res ipse loquitur. The action speaks for itself, beyond any words we might add.

But as we prepare to come to the font I would point out that the lessons we have just heard this morning speak to the very center of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

We follow him in life, we die with him in his death, and in his resurrection we encounter the promise of our eternal life--and what all that does with us and in us and for us is give us a new heart. No longer the heart of our broken humanity, self-centered, turned in on ourselves, but now the heart of Jesus himself, in us. A heart that speaks in the language of justice and mercy, forgiveness and renewal.

So we hear in the sayings from Proverbs, all about generosity and hospitality. So in James, of course, with the call to put the love of God into action. And then in the famous healing stories, the daughter of the Syrio-Phoenician woman and the man who couldn’t hear or speak.

We almost get a sense of a dam bursting, the abundant, free love of God pouring out and overflowing through the person of Jesus to bring healing and restoration and new life. No border, boundary, wall, limitation able to hold it back.

This is what it’s all about this morning, for Natasha, her family, and all of us. The good and perfect gift of God’s love, available in Christ. We would open our hearts, our minds, our lives to him, to receive that gift.

From our Catechism: What is the outward and visible sign in Baptism? The outward and visible sign in Baptism is water . . . . What is the inward and spiritual grace in Baptism? The inward and spiritual grace in Baptism is union with Christ in his death and resurrection, birth into God’s family the Church, forgiveness of sins, and new life in the Holy Spirit.

And that is for all of us, our past, our present, and our future.

All blessings and peace, graciousness, and welcome, in the generosity of our Lord and Savior. I would now invite Natasha and her family and godparents and supporters to come forward to the font.

Bruce Robison