We have come this morning to welcome Louis and Clara and Olivia into the family of the Church, and to launch them by baptism into the lifelong adventure of the Christian life. We shall wash them in the water of baptism to show that they have been set free from the sinfulness that can so easily ensnare us, we shall give each of them a lighted candle as a reminder that they are to shine as lights in the world. And as each one is marked with the sign of the cross, he or she will be commissioned to ‘fight valiantly as a disciple of Christ against sin the world and the devil, and [to] remain faithful to Christ to the end of [their life]’.
Freedom – light – courage – service. Our hearts are full of great hopes as well as solemn commitments as we hold these little children by the hand or in our arms, contemplating their future with all its challenges and opportunities, its joys and its sorrows. So much to think about. But to-day our Bible reading about St Paul points us firmly in the direction of the commission which Louis and Clara and Olivia will receive to ‘fight valiantly as a disciple of Christ’.
In that endeavour Paul is a great role model. As a young man he was committed to the cause of suppressing the heretic Christian sect which seemed to be undermining the religion in which he had been born and brought up. But our God has a way of challenging those who take Him seriously, even if they start from a position of thoughtful, principled opposition. As we all know, Paul was stopped in his tracks as he rode towards Damascus. Blinded and helpless, in the darkness that suddenly enveloped him, he had to confront the truth about Jesus and his followers that he had been trying to avoid. Placing himself in the hands of those he had come to arrest and persecute, his sight was restored as he experienced the relief of admitting that he had made a terrible mistake. After two or three years of reflection and training he was ready to share with others his new conviction that Jesus was not so much the destroyer of the Jewish faith as its fulfilment. So he set out to visit the Jewish communities all around the eastern Mediterranean, eager to share with them the joyful truth that he had discovered. This got him into all kinds of trouble and danger, but his convictions only deepened as he found he could rely on Jesus his Saviour to stand with him in all kinds of adversity. Now, as his trial draws to a close, he knows that it will almost certainly end in his being sentenced to death, but he is not afraid, because he knows in his heart that even death will not separate him from the love of God, who will bring him safe home at the end of his journey.
Whoever wrote the letters to Timothy (and it probably wasn’t Paul himself) is looking back at Paul’s life from the end, rather than forward from the beginning, but the message is the same – our commission as Christians is absolute. It begins with the promises that our parents and godparents make for us, it grows with us as we assume more and more responsibility for the choices we make for ourselves. Later in life, as our mental and physical powers wane, we may feel that there is less and less that we can do, but those of us who are still on active service so to speak, know how much we depend on the love and prayers of some of our oldest and frailest members for encouragement, support and inspiration. In the Christian life there is no retiring age. However young, however old, we all have our own special contribution to make.
There is just one gloss that I would want to put on the words of the commission that we accept on behalf of our children at baptism. As one of my sons-in-law protested, it’s all very negative – fighting against sin the world and the devil – yet the world at least is not inherently evil. On the contrary, God made it, and saw that it was good. Jesus himself lived in the world, and loved it, enjoying (as we suppose) the satisfaction of his work as a carpenter, as well as the love of his family, and the company of his friends. I prefer to think of myself, as well as my children and grandchildren, as being commissioned not so much to fight against sin the world and the devil, as to fight for justice and mercy and truth. Of course, as we and they engage in the causes that justice and mercy and truth demand of us, we may well find ourselves fighting against sin, the world and the devil, because that is the flip side of the coin. At first in the playground, later perhaps in the staff room or the board room, we will be challenged to take risks, perhaps with our chances of promotion, perhaps with our standing among our friends and colleagues, perhaps with our income or our health, as we do or say what our commitment to justice and mercy and truth demands of us.
Why should we take such risks? Because we have discovered the one truth that really matters. It’s the truth that turned Paul’s life around. It’s the truth that the tax collector in our gospel story had discovered. It’s the truth that we hope and pray Louis and Clara and Olivia will all discover, that God loves us more than any words can ever convey. And we who are so much loved must play our part in sharing God’s love with others. It is because such love is potentially so costly, perhaps requiring us to risk all that we value most in life – at the limit even life itself – that Louis and Clara and Olivia will be marked with the sign of the cross, the sign of the love that held nothing back.
So we solemnly commission these children to fight valiantly for all that the love of God in their hearts will prompt them to fight for, knowing that in doing so they will have to confront the forces of sin, the world and the devil. At the same time we remind ourselves, as this month of stewardship and dedication draws to a close, that we too have promised to fight with them under the same banner. And so we pray that each one of us will one day be able to say with St Paul: ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith’.