Sermon 659+August 12, 2011
November 6, 2011
Seventh Week after Pentecost
798th Week as Priest
624th Week at St Dunstan’s
The Baptism of Finley Elizabeth Michal
The Image of Innocence
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Scriptures often speak of “fullness of time” moments. These are events, encounters, and epiphanies of the Holy, in which life as we know it is somehow changed, set apart from the routine and the expected, and as the poet William Wordsworth wrote more than 200 years ago,
With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony,
and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things.
This Sacrament of Holy Baptism is just such a fullness of time moment. Our hearts are filled with love for a small child, Finley Elizabeth Michal, who as my old friend George Littleton would say, is “perfectly excellent,” and she is! Finley is very watchful and observant, taking in the world around her. Even as an infant, Finley seems to see into the life of things, to see into our hearts—and to capture them!
Finley is the very image of innocence, dressed in an exquisite baptismal gown and bonnet, eyes wide open and wondering, accepting and giving love and laughter. It is only fitting that this Sacrament of Holy Baptism is that “outward and visible sign of God’s inward and spiritual grace.”
I am reminded of the English mystic poet William Blake, and a work of his called “The Lamb.”
The Lamb
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed
By the stream and o’er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing, woolly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee,
Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee:
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb.
He is meek, and he is mild;
He became a little child.
I a child, and thou a lamb.
We are called by his name.
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Every child, I believe, is that little lamb whom God our Father blesses and adopts into his household. Every child, I believe, is that little lamb whom Christ carries hom on his shoulders. Finley, like each little lamb of God, is marked as Christ’s own forever.
The American poet Carl Sandburg wrote that “A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.” I believe that. But the Holy Baptism of a child, I also believe, is Christ’s true saying, that every human life—yours, mine, William’s, Anna’s, Finley’s—every human life is of infinite importance to God.
And therefore, our one true aim in life—your life, my life, Anna and William’s life together—and all of our hopes and dreams for Finley’s “one wild and precious life”—is to live a life that is worthy of Christ. Amen.
