Without realizing that we had a baptism this morning, one of you sent me a funny internet story that I’d like to share with you all. I imagine it will be especially amusing to all of you raising little boys. But it has special meaning for our newest baby brother in the faith, Gavin James.
After a hard rainstorm had filled all the potholes in the streets and alleys, a young mother watched her two little boys playing in the puddles. All of a sudden, she was quite alarmed to see the older of the two, a five-year-old, grab his little brother by the back of his head and shove his face into one of the pools of water.
As the younger boy recovered and stood up, dripping and laughing, she ran over to them shouting: “Why on earth did you do that to your little brother?”, as she shook the older boy’s shoulders in alarm, combined with relief.
“We were just playing church, Mommy,” he said. “I was baptizing him. You know--‘In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and in the hole he goes!”
You know, actually, in the United Methodist Church, we are given options as to the actual method of baptism we use. We can baptize by pouring, by immersion—in a pond or pool or river or water hole—or by sprinkling, which is what we usually do, to the relief of most parents and babies I might add.
Whichever method you use, the effect is the same. This new little one is welcomed into the Body of Christ, the family of the church. That water symbolizes ever-flowing grace of God, grace that fills him and loves him and heals him and consecrates him, and begins, even now, through the love and pledge of his parents and family, to form him into a brand-new disciple of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
How beautiful and profound it is to baptize or to remember our baptism on this Consecration Sunday when we dedicate our pledge and our lives anew to Christ Jesus and his church.
God’s grace continues to work in all of us to form us into more faithful disciples. That grace works in us all the time—when we are in prayer, when we are in worship, when we are in service and mission, when we are making choices and setting priorities in our lives. In everything we do and say and feel and think, God’s grace is working in us, from the time of our baptism through the time when we go from this earthly life into the life of everlasting joy, always working in us, to form us into deeper, more faithful living.
There was recently an article in the paper about some recent scientific findings about what makes us basically human. Seems that a team of anthropologists from Arizona State University working in the southern tip of South Africa found evidence of tools, art and seafood consumption going back over 164,000 years ago, far earlier than previously believed. A fascinating find! Tools, sure. These were rather simple bladelets, as they’re called, which, when attached to spears, enabled humans to accomplish more than they could with hand tools alone.
And art—they found red ocher pigment that would have been used by these early humans, to decorate their bodies, (we’d call it “make-up”!), to decorate their living quarters, and to communicate with others through the use of symbols. Tools, beauty, symbols…the use of these things help mark the moment when humans become human.
But seafood--shellfish to be precise? I had no idea this was a benchmark of humanness. Julia Child would certainly have agreed. She always said that she wanted oysters to be part of her last meal on earth. Well, yes, it seems that the evidence reveals that these earliest humans figured out how to cook shellfish over hot rocks which caused it to pop open, providing them with food through cold and dry periods when precious little other food was available.
Tools, art, symbols, shellfish. The marks of humans becoming human among a group of folks who could just possibly, the scientists conclude, be the ancestors of us all.
Of course, by now, some 164,000 years later, there are a few other qualities we would add to that list of “what makes us human.” And first on that list would surely be our capacity to give. As Winston Churchill put it: “You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give.”
And that is precisely the story of the life and teaching of Christ Jesus, a life defined by giving. It is the life into which we are baptized when that water is sprinkled on our head and we are sealed with the sign of the cross. “You make a life by what you give.”
There are so many ways to give. We hear some this morning in our stewardship witnesses: giving through supporting a single mom and her son, giving through organ donation and the power of prayer. There are many ways to give. For as the Scripture tells us, God has established a rich economy of gifts in this body we call the church. Each of us, through our baptism, has a place in God’s economy. Each of us plays an important part in the whole, employing our gift for others, as stewards of the manifold grace of God. God uses us as channels of grace and blessing.
Sometimes our giving for others takes a most unexpected form. After the catastrophic oil spill earlier this month in the San Francisco Bay, a trio of high-tech Silicon Valley thirty-somethings who love to surf were so furious at the slow and ineffective response of the authorities, they took it upon themselves to get out and clean up the Bay. Using Craig’s List and the internet, their efforts quickly resulted in hundreds of volunteers showing up to pitch in for what they’re calling “Kill the Spill.” The Coast Guard and other officials soon came to see that this effort was exactly what was needed. Rather than arresting these volunteers for trespassing on the “emergency area”, they began offering four-hour volunteer training sessions each evening—about how to best clean up the beach without causing further damage to it and how to save the hundreds and hundreds of oil-coated sea birds. “The number of people who wanted to help was overwhelming,” one said.
Perhaps these volunteers are responding to some sort of primal urge that our shellfish-eating ancestors planted in our hearts some 164,000 years ago. I think it’s something much more. I think God has given his people all the gifts we need to transform lives and transform this world. All we need to do is claim the gift and remember that we make a life by what we give.
You may not know that this beautiful sanctuary, our ark as we’ve called it, was consecrated 54 years ago this week, on November 22, 1953. That’s 54 years of this holy place nurturing God’s gifts, generation after generation. Baptized believers, who are dedicated enough to take an idea and combine efforts with others and follow-through with conviction and perseverance, in our church and in our larger community and in our world.
I recently read about a new United Methodist congregation in Houston, Texas that wants to be known by several things, including their passionate worship, their radical hospitality, their fervent prayer and study of Scripture, their risk-taking mission and service and their “extravagant generosity”. Their mission statement about that says: “We faithfully uphold our commitment to support the church with our prayers, presence and gifts. We selflessly give of ourselves, spiritually and financially, to build the kingdom of God.”
They’re mostly a web-church at this point, as they form and grow. So I sent them an email to insure them of our prayers. And to also tell them that they are not alone on this journey of faith. I told them that our 132-year-old congregation in our 54-year-old sanctuary may do church in a different style than would a brand-new congregation--but that we do it with the same gusto and passion for Christ. That we are as fervent about prayer and risk-taking mission and service and extravagant generosity. And that we will be blessed by their innovation and creativity, just as they are blessed by our heritage and our constant transformation.
God has given the gifts. God has formed us into faithful, extravagant, generous givers. And God is working in us still, by ever-flowing grace, to transform us into ever deeper, riskier, bolder faith. So that, increasingly, our lives are defined by giving, after the example of Jesus Christ.
Today, we dedicate our financial pledges and our lives anew to Christ Jesus and his church. May God continue to use us as channels of blessing. And may God’s grace continue its work in us, from the time of our baptism through the time when we go from this earthly life into the life of everlasting joy, forming us into deeper, more faithful living.
AMEN.
Notes:
LA Times. October 20, 2007, p. A26.. “Early Humans Found to Use Makeup, tools.”
LA Times. November 18, 2007, pp. B 1 & 4
Nu Faith Community. www.nufaith.org
©Patricia
Farris, 2007. Permission is given for brief quotation with attribution.
All other rights reserved.
"God Gives All the Gifts"