13 May 2018
Text: John 15:26-16:4 (Ezek 36:22-28, 1 Pet 4:7-14)
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
“I
will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your
uncleannesses,” says the prophet Ezekiel.
The prophet speaks of this cleansing and also of the Spirit coming to us
to put a heart of flesh in us, to replace the heart of stone that is our sinful
condition (“we are by nature sinful and unclean” as we say in the
liturgy). The Holy Spirit guides us to
obey the Lord, and God repeats His promise: “You shall be My people, and I will
be your God.”
And
this morning, this final Sunday in the season of Easter, we have yet again
watched the Lord keep His promise. We
have witnessed the moving of the Spirit.
We have seen the Gospel of Jesus Christ applied physically to a little
one: one whose words and deeds clearly cannot merit what God has done for her.
It
is appropriate that this little one’s middle name is “Grace” – for this is a
confession of both her weakness and her strength. She relies on God alone: “The Lord is my
light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?” she is entitled to pray to her
Father, along with the prayer, “Teach me Your way, O Lord.”
And
this is where her first name is also appropriate: “Sophie” – based on the Greek
word for “wisdom.” And the beginning of
this wisdom, the beginning of Sophie’s new life, is indeed the “fear of the
Lord.”
Sophie
Grace Ricks has been cleansed by clean water, and she has been redeemed by grace,
set apart in holiness to be instructed the wisdom of the very Word of God. And this water and Word and Spirit have been
given to her on Mother’s Day, not only honoring the mother who bore her in the
flesh, but also the mother who has borne her in spirit, in the new birth, from the
womb of the baptismal font: her mother, the Holy Church.
Little
Sophie is going to need wisdom and grace to navigate this fallen and corrupted
world. She will need the love and
perseverance of her parents, Erik and Aimee.
She will need the prayers and support of her godparents: Emery and
Erin. She will need the love and care of
her extended family and the encouragement and spiritual care of her brothers
and sisters in Christ.
This
is a major undertaking that we are all committing to, dear friends. All of us.
We are all responsible. Erik,
when we recite the catechism saying: “How the head of the family should teach
his household,” that means you. Aimee,
when you gave birth to Sophie, this was not the conclusion of a pregnancy, but
rather the beginning of a lifetime of the fervent prayers as only a mother can
offer on behalf of her dear children.
Sophie
has been washed and cleansed and claimed by God. She has been given the gift of eternal
life. But she needs to be nurtured,
every day of her life. At this point in her
life, she needs constant care: feeding, cleaning, educating, praying, hearing
the Word, and learning the priority of the faith from her parents: not by
words, but by deeds. She will never know
a time when she didn’t come to the communion rail and witness her parents
reverently receiving the body and blood of Christ and offering their
“Amen.” Her earliest memories will
include having the sign of the holy cross traced on her forehead as the events
of this very day are recalled, the promises made by God repeated to her again
and again in this holy house.
She
will be brought up in the discipline of the Law and the forgiveness of the
Gospel, the promises of God, the dominion over the devil, and the conquest of
death.
She
will need to be raised in the Spirit, the Helper who bears witness about our
Lord Jesus Christ – the one who bore the cross for her, who shed His blood for
her, who rose from the grave for her, and who will return to give her, by His
wisdom and by His grace: “the resurrection of the body, and the life
everlasting.”
Whether
we like it or not, Sophie has been brought into the world during a time of
testing. “Indeed, the hour is coming
when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they
have not known the Father, nor Me,” says our Lord. But remember, our Lord gives us His holy
Word, “I have said these things to you to keep you from falling away,” He
promises. Just as St. Peter says,
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test
you.”
We
Christian parents have an obligation to train our children for battle, to stand
for that which is righteous and true and just and honorable, for that which is
godly and beautiful and in accordance with the Lord’s glorious design for each
one of us. All of us in this
congregation have the holy obligation of prayer and commitment for the sake of
this little one. As she gets older, what
will she see here in this holy house?
Will she see lukewarm people going through the motions? Or will she see the power of the Holy Spirit
at work? Will we teach her that
Christianity is just one of many options, or will she know that it is the one
true faith by which eternal life comes to us in our Lord Jesus Christ? Will she hear the prayers and hymns of others
like her who have been baptized into Christ?
Will she experience wisdom and grace in truth and in deed?
We
have been baptized into Christ, dear friends!
We have been given the mark of the Lord!
We have been sealed and set apart in the baptismal grace offered to us
by God in His holy wisdom. We are not
motivated by a desire to save ourselves or prove ourselves worthy. We are motivated by love. St. Peter teaches us the urgency we face:
“The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and
sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude
of sins.”
The
thing that children need more than anything is love. The thing that adults need more than anything is
love. The thing that the church needs more
than anything is love. And that love is carried
out daily in acts of service to this little one: mainly offered by her parents,
but shown to her by each one of us as our vocations suggest.
Holy
Baptism has placed wisdom and grace upon Sophie. She has been received into the kingdom and into
the promises of God. “I will sprinkle clean
water on you,” says the Lord, to Sophie and to us, “and you shall be clean from
all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I
will put within you.”
This
is indeed the wisdom and the grace of God! Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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