This sermon followed the Baptismal service for Nathaniel Jonathan Ford and Phoebe Mae Morton.
Father, by Your Spirit, may Christ dwell in our hearts through faith, that we may be rooted and grounded in His love. Amen.
The heading given for today's sermon, the second in our series on Ephesians, is "Dwelling in Christ's love". For that is exactly what St. Paul encourages us to do in his prayer which we've just heard. Those of you who're studying Ephesians in a Priory House Group will have already been reminded that Paul wrote this Letter during his imprisonment in Rome, where he was an ambassador for Christ - "an ambassador in chains" (6:20). Last week, Mary invited us to reflect on what it is to "count our Father's blessings." This includes being grateful for all those ordinary every-day things that we can too easily take for granted: thankfulness for food and drink, for health and strength, for clothes to wear and work to do, for our home comforts, for family and friends. And today, of course, we give thanks for the precious and wonderful gift of life - especially for the lives of Nathaniel and Phoebe, on this the day of their baptism.
Again, on what is also known as Rogation Sunday, we can give thanks to God for the wonderful world He has made: for the beauty of the changing seasons, the amazing variety and richness of earth, sea and sky. As we shall sing later, "Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest, sun, moon and stars in their courses above, join with all nature in manifold witness to thy great faithfulness, mercy and love."
Yet Paul wants us to go further. The blessings that he wants all Christians to count again and again are those which, in Ephesians 1:3, he terms "spiritual blessings". The blessings of all that God has done for us in Jesus Christ, and has made possible through the promised gift of His Holy Spirit. Blessings that we have already been reminded of in the sacrament of baptism, as we recalled the story of how, in Jesus Christ, God has come to set His people free. In the words that Ian used at the start of the prayer over the water of baptism: "Through water you led the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land. In water your Son Jesus received the baptism of John and was anointed by the Holy Spirit as the Messiah, the Christ, to lead us from the death of sin to newness of life."
Today, through baptism, Phoebe and Nathaniel have become part of the company of Christ's pilgrim people, those who are called to shine as lights in the world to the glory of God the Father. Yet they - and all of us - cannot do this on our own. We need the help and encouragement of other Christians in the fellowship of faith. Above all, we need the power of God's Spirit, and the indwelling presence of Christ. As Paul puts it, we need to be "rooted and grounded in love … to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that (we) may be filled with all the fullness of God" (3 : 17,19).
Rooted and grounded in love. If our lives are healthily rooted and grounded in love, then they will bear good fruit. But if they are not, the consequences will also be clear, consequences we can see writ large in our broken and divided society and suffering world.
A recent online survey conducted by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggests that British society lacks common values and is plagued by selfishness, greed, drug and alcohol misuse, and family breakdown. This survey has revealed a deep sense of unease about the issues troubling modern society, with many feeling that Britain had lost its 'moral compass'. And, in a similar vein, a High Court judge, has recently stated that family breakdown is among the most serious social problems facing British society, and that tackling it should be placed at the top of the Government's agenda. To quote Mr Justice Coleridge: "What is certain is that almost all of society's social ills can be traced directly to the collapse of the family life."
Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised. After all, if our human roots are planted in an arid soil of rejection, instead of a nourishing soil of love and acceptance, it's like living in a house with faulty foundations; every storm brings new problems. Without a healthy root system nothing works. And if the flawed roots are not dealt with, then they can only produce flawed fruit.
Yet it need not be so. There is another way. The way of being rooted and grounded in God's love. For, as we have been reminded in today's Bible reading, God wants to pick each and every one of us up, shake off the old soil, and then replant us securely in the soil of His love and acceptance. Then our roots can grow strong and healthy, as we learn how to dwell more fully in the nourishing soil of Christ's life-giving love.
A few days ago, Mary and I were doing a bit of uprooting and replanting of our own. In the front of the Vicarage garden, we dug up the stump of a tree that had long since died, and cleared the ground. We then added fresh nourishment to the soil in the form of compost, before planting the new tree - a Himalyan Birch tree: 'Betula utilis Doorenbos' for those of you who are into the gardening details! Well, that's what it said on the label!! It was hard work - Tuesday was a warm day - and Mary and I shall have to continue to keep an eye on the tree, ensuring that it is fed and watered, as well as protected from things that might harm its healthy growth. And, of course, this growth will take time - many years.
Today, young Nathaniel Ford and Phoebe Morton are at the very start of their Christian life. They too will need the right conditions, if they are to grow to their full Christian potential. And, like an expert gardener, God has provided all that they - and all of us - will ever need. The decaying entangling fungus- infected roots of sin and death are cleared by the once and for all work of Jesus Christ. Through His death and resurrection, we are assured that there is now nothing - absolutely nothing - that "will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 5 : 39).
The ground has been cleared for us. But do you and I really know that, and do we live as those who dwell in Christ's love? For that's the place where we need to begin, and end. Sometimes even we Christians can find it hard to believe that God really loves us and accepts us for who we are, and not for what we do. Yet the Gospel starts and ends with grace - the immeasurable love God has for us in Jesus Christ. Phoebe and Nathaniel will need help, if they are to know this wonderful liberating truth for themselves. That's why being part of the company of Christ will be vital for them, now and in the future. For Christians are not meant to grow on their own - as solitary plants - but rather as part of the worldwide Body of Christ.
And it is within the Body that healthy nourishment - spiritual compost if you like! - can be provided. In the Church we are given the company of others, and can learn with them more of what it is to be Christ's pilgrim people. In the Church we also receive for our healthy growth the food the Lord graciously gives His people for the journey - His Word and Sacrament, made present to us - and effective within us - by the transforming renewing energy of the Spirit. It is also the Holy Spirit whose indwelling power enables us to pray, and to grow more like Jesus.
Nathaniel's and Phoebe's family, godparents, and friends will doubtless have high hopes and aspirations for these two young people. Yet no one knows what the future will hold for them, or indeed for any of us. In our ever changing and beautiful but fragile world, there is so much that is uncertain and insecure. There was also insecurity and uncertainty for Paul, when he was in a Roman prison, facing the very real prospect of death. And yet Paul knew for himself, and wanted everyone else to know this: that, in Christ, our potential and destiny is far greater than any of us can ever imagine. In Paul's words, it is nothing less than "to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge .. (and) .. be filled with all the fullness of God." May that be so for Nathaniel and Phoebe, and may it be so for us all.
John Barr
Click to return to the list of further sermons.
Go to top
|
