"A Baptism to Remember”
A sermon by Sid Burgess for Edgewood PC, Birmingham, AL
Fourth Sunday of Easter, April 18, 2010-04-19
Text: Acts 9.1-20
Last year, while we Presbyterians were celebrating the 500 anniversary of John Calvin’s birth, our Roman Catholic sisters and brothers were celebrating the bi-millennium of the birth of St Paul. According to Vatican sources church historians place the birth of the Apostle Paul between the years seven and ten of the Common Era, or A.D. Pope Benedict proclaimed the Pauline Year to run from June, 28m 2008, to June 29, 2009. I am not aware of anyone baking a cake for St. Paul—imagine one large enough to accommodate 2,000 candles— but the Great Apostle did get a national shrine. As the Pauline Year was drawing to a close the Vatican designated the Cathedral of St. Paul in Minnesota, considered one of the top five cathedrals in the country, as the first national shrine in America to honor Christianity’s most famous convert.
Today’s first scripture reading gives us the dramatic story of the conversion of Saul on the road to Damascus. This account begins with mean old Saul, “still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” and ends several days later with Paul proclaiming, “Jesus is the Son of God.” I like Flannery O’Connor’s commentary on this scene. She writes, “I reckon the Lord knew that the only way to make a Christian out of that one was to knock him off his horse.”
Well, never mind there is no mention of a horse in the story Luke tells. Joe Harvard of the Durham Presbyterian Church in North Carolina says Flannery guides our attention in the right direction. “The main character in this and every conversion story is God. It is God who changes lives.”
African-American preachers sometimes pepper their preaching with the question: “Can I get a witness?” God needed a witness to the carry the good news of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, to secular power, and to the people of Israel. God chose someone who has been a witness against the followers of Christ to become a powerful witness for Christ. Looking at Saul’s conversion from this perspective, the story is not so much about Saul as it is about the way God works to change lives.
As the Book of Acts recounts the history of the Church God is on quite a roll, beginning with 3,000 converts on the Day of Pentecost. Next comes the missionary work of Philip in Samaria, where Simon the Magician and many others believe and are baptised (8.4). Next up is the Ethiopian Eunuch, followed by Saul, followed by the Roman officer, Cornelius. “In all of these stories, God touches the lives of unlikely people from diverse backgrounds to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth.”
Enough about them comes the cry from Church of today. What about us? Why have so few of us ever had a dramatic encounter with the Risen Jesus—like St. Paul on the way to Damascus? What’s wrong with us that no apostles have come calling—no Philip, no Peter?
My friend, Joe Harvard, says these questions reveal our “faith inferiority” complex.
“It is important to remember,” Joe writes, “that what happened to Saul was noteworthy precisely because it was not typical of the way most people become converts.” Thank goodness, most of us do not have to be “knocked off a horse,” to use Flannery’s imagery. Thank goodness God does not always have to hit us upside the head with a two-by-four to get our attention. Thank goodness a little bit of love goes a long way—the love of parents, pastors, and choir directors; the love of deacons, elders, and Sunday school teachers, youth leaders and camp counselors. “Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling” works for most of us.
Even so, we should remember that God is still full of surprises. God can still be counted on to break the mold, to issue the challenge, “Follow me,” in exciting new ways.
When new friends of Edgewood prepare to meet with the Session to be taken into our membership, I always warn them that I will ask one simple question: “Tell us about your baptism.” Over the years Session has been privileged to hear a rich variety of stories. For some, the narrative begins, “I don’t remember, but they tell me . . . .” For others, the story begins, “I will never forget. . . .” For most the setting was a church, but for a few it was a river. Some of us are “cradle Presbyterian”—born and reared in the great Reformed tradition. God has summoned others of us into this fellowship from Baptist, Methodist, Roman Catholic and Episcopal variations on the standard theme.
When it comes time for her to tell her story, Marlene Schroll-Clark will have quite a tale to tell. You see, three-year-old Marlene is the niece of Anna and Eric Velasco, first cousin of Max and Leah. Marlene and her parents, Anna’s brother, Alex and his wife, Sibylle live in England where they are members of St. Guthlac’s Church in Leicester. Alex and Sibylle want Marlene to be baptized in the presence of extended family. But getting this big bunch of folks across the Pond would be a daunting task. So Aunt Anna suggested that Alex and Sibylle petition our Session to conduct Marlene’s baptism here at Edgewood, as Alex and Sibylle already had plans for an extended visit his spring. Anna referred her brother and sister-in-law to our webpage, and they liked what they saw about our little church. Of course, since we are Presbyterians and, thus, committed to doing all things “decently and in order,” there were problems. Our BOOK OF ORDER requires that at least one parent of the child to be baptized be a member of the congregation. Easily enough, Session could receive Alex or Sibylle into our fellowship—even if it for a brief time. More difficult, however, is the pledge each Presbyterian congregation is to make whenever a child in baptized, namely that we will all help to nurture the child in the Christian faith. In the Reform tradition the congregation takes on the duties that other Christian traditions assign to Godparents. So, how could we make such a commitment on behalf of child who lives an ocean away?
But what if we were to conduct this baptism on behalf of the congregation of St. Guthlac’s Church? What if I were to stand in for the pastor and you, for the congregation? We proposed this idea to Marlene’s pastor, Richard Bonney, and he responded enthusiastically.
(Session, by the way, loved his title; he is the Rev. Prof. Bonney, and his title is Non-Stipendiary Priest and Officiating Minister, Church of St. Guthlac, Parish of Kingdom, Church of England, Leicester, UK. In her minutes clerk of Session Julie Metheny speculated, “Methinks the good Reverend may have been offered an impressive title in lieu of an impressive salary.”)
So today we will be conducting this baptism on behalf of the pastor and congregation of St. Guthlac’s Church, where a welcoming ceremony for newly-baptized Marlene will be held when the family returns to England. I think we can consider this the first trans-Atlantic baptism in the history of this congregation, perhaps even in the history of Presbyterians in Alabama.
Speaking of history, I suspect some of you are curious to know about St. Guthlac, not exactly a household name here in the States. But if you ‘google’ Guthlac you will find that he, too, has quite a story to tell. Early in his life—some seven centuries into the Christian era— Guthlac was a soldier of fortune. He soon saw the error of his ways, gave up his arms, and entered a monastery. He became so committed to the monastic life that he determined to pattern his life after early Christianity’s desert fathers. Guthlac left the relative comfort of an abbey in the Midlands of England to take up the life of hermit on an island off the eastern coast. An early biographer says Guthlac dressed in animal skins, and the only nourishment he took was a scrap of barley bread and a small cup of muddy water after sunset. The birds and the fishes became his familiar friends, while the fame of his devotion brought throngs of pilgrims to his cell.
All of which is to say, three-year-old Marlene has a distinguished Christian lineage. From St. Paul to St. Philip to St. Guthlac, from the Protestant Reformation to the Church of England and to the Presbyterian Church USA, she has centuries of Christian martyrs and saints, and common folks, too, who—through Christ and him crucified— have found a sacred connection, a faithful relationship with Holy God. There shall be no “faith inferiority” complex for this child— nor should there be for any child of God.
To be sure, Marlene’s unique baptism will be one to remember, but so too is your baptism. All of us have a baptism to remember, for baptism is our “bond of unity in Christ.” Our baptism “points us back to the grace of God expressed in Jesus Christ, who died for us and was raised for us.” And our baptism “points us forward to that same Christ who will fulfill God’s purpose in God’s promised future.” Until that future—the reign of God upon the earth—is realized, the people of God are to follow the instructions first given to St. Paul on the Road to Damascus: “Get up, get going, and listen for what you will be told to do (see v. 6).
To the God of all grace, who calls you to share God's eternal
glory
in union with Christ, be the power forever! Amen. 1 Peter 5:10,11