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Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost—Aug 12th, 2007—Baptism of Kyla Miller
Readings: Isaiah 1:1, 10-20; Psalms 50:1-8, 22-23; Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16; Luke 12:32-40
Rituals. Our society is full of them, and as Anglicans we are quite good at them. Perhaps it stems from our British roots: “John F. Parker in Roll Call tells the story that for more than twenty years, for no apparent reason, an attendant stood at the foot of the stairway leading to the House of Commons. At last someone checked and discovered that the job had been held in the attendant’s family for three generations. It seems it originated when the stairs were painted and the current attendant’s grandfather was assigned the task of warning people not to step on the wet paint. One British newsman, told of the situation, commented, “The paint dried up but not the job.” (cited by Maxwell, 152).
Allison and I discovered that even our Anglican youth are quick to embrace rituals—last weekend we were at Youth Synod and were forced to learn a few things. One thing we learned that the proper way to say grace at meals was to sing it—from “Johnny Appleseed” to “The Superman Song”, we got it in our heads that singing went with meals. And once eating we also learned not to dare to put our elbows on the table because if we did there would be eager young eyes ready to sing another song, pointing out your elbows, and there would be an accompanying punishment designed to embarrass you in front of everyone. I have to say I did pretty well and did not get caught…but it did take me a few meals back home to recover and eat at ease knowing I was safe from the glare of 50 pairs of young eyes watching my every mouthful!
I don’t know where these rituals started, or who started them, and it can be quite humorous when we sit down and try to figure out when we started doing them (like the attendant at the House of Commons in our opening story). But as our Isaiah passage points out to us today, it is important that we recognize why it is we do the things we do, because if we miss out on the why, then the ‘what’ we are doing is virtually pointless.
The people of God living in Jerusalem had done something to upset their God…he likens them to the wicked people of Sodom and Gomorrah and rejects their sacrificial worship: “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices…I have had enough of burnt offerings…bringing offerings is futile…I cannot endure solemn assemblies…your appointed festivals my soul hates…”
What was the big deal? The people of God were worshiping God in the way they knew how—in ways they believed he instructed them in. So why would God all of a sudden have such strong words for them?
Well, it was because their action outside the Temple did not match the rituals they performed inside the building. They were paying lip service to God looking to get into his good books by worshiping the ‘right way’ and meanwhile their hearts were leading them to do what God describes as “evil.” In God’s eyes the people had blood on their hands because they weren’t taking care of the oppressed, the widow, and the orphan. They were acting as God’s faithful people through their rituals, but their actions betrayed their hearts.
I want to emphasize a simple point here this morning, one that we’ve heard many times but one we need to be reminded of daily. God is not so interested in our religion, he’s after our hearts. God does not care as much about the way we pray as he does about the fact that we do pray because we desire to know Him. Christ did not come so we could learn new rituals, he came so that we would have a restored relationship with God. He came to personify the life of faith, of a friendship with God, and make that life possible for each one of us.
The book of Hebrews discusses the ‘heroes’ of the faith and our section today focuses on Abraham, the ‘father’ of our faith. Abraham is centred out because of his faithful obedience to God and the way he was able to see God’s promises fulfilled in his life long before they came to fruition. Abraham grew in his faith and lived an exciting faith journey not because he was a mindless automaton who liked taking orders....rather it was because he was a friend of God. He instinctively knew that a life with God was the most exciting, rewarding, and fulfilling life that he could live.
We stand here today on the cusp of a very important ritual in our church—the baptism of young Kyla Miller. And based on what I’ve said so far you might be wondering if I think there’s any place for rituals like these in the church. Well yes, of course there is. Jesus said he did not come to abolish the law, he came to fulfill it. That means he came to transform our rituals and help us to connect them to their purpose. Baptism is a means by which we respond in faith to God’s calling us out to be his special people. We baptism young children before they can make that choice on their own because we believe that God calls everyone into his family and that some day they will make a choice for themselves whether to stay in the family or to go their own way.
But baptism, like any other ritual in the Church for that matter, is virtually meaningless if it is not connected to its purpose. Baptism is to be the sacrament that recognizes the way we die to our sin and rise to new life in Christ and so we can enjoy communion with God. If we do not have faith in this biblical truth claim, then all of what we are doing here in church today is a waste of our time. It is all of our tasks to open our hearts to allow God’s Spirit to speak to us and shape us through the ritual he has decreed for us.
And it is our task, that by our actions and our words, that we would demonstrate to the world that our faith is not all about a list of rules and regulations or elaborate rituals. We must preach the gospel; we must pray for our loved ones and find ways to build each other up in the faith. I was excited to hear this week from Tanya and Dave how they have already begun to read Kyla Bible stories and teach her about Jesus. In fact she knows today is a special day, it is her “Jesus Birthday”. It’s a cute name, but also a theological truth. Today she begins her walk with Jesus and it will be up to Tanya & Dave (& godparents), family, and all of us to do in our power what we can to support her in her faith.
And we must seek out others who have yet to begin their journey and show them the way to a life with Christ. That’s why we’re starting the Alpha program because it has a proven track record of facilitating a seeker’s encounter with the risen Christ. This theme will also be talked about more as we draw closer to Synod. Fran spoke last week a little about the Report from the Renewal in Mission Task Force that will be presented. Essentially its message is meant to call the Anglican Church back to being a church that is mission-oriented rather than a church that is fixated on old rituals and dilapidated buildings. We have lost ground in some quarters and we need to be called back to God’s mission of bringing people to Him.
As the gospel reminds us this morning, Christ “is coming at an unexpected hour”, so we must be ready. Let us not be wasting our time on things that have no eternal value…let us not get too busy with work that we neglect our prayer life…let us not get too preoccupied with our little rituals that we miss out on their purpose. Let us not delay or put off resolving to make God the centre of our lives. I pray that when Jesus returns he would not find us doing work whose purpose we’ve forgotten, or living in paranoia about putting our elbows on the table! May we be “dressed for action and have our lamps lit”, like those waiting for the master to return…so that we may open the door to our hearts when Jesus comes and knocks. (Luke 12:35-36 paraphrased). Amen.
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