June 19 Gen. 1-2:4A  Ps. 8 Baptism linked to creation Sermon Notes

 

The sacraments link our physical being to our spiritual being, make tactile an invisible touch. Baptism uses a fundamental element of creation for life to begin to touch on its depths. Water is a good image for Trinity Sunday  as it is liquid, solid, and gas Not knowing about outer space, the ancients thought we lived in a water world. The sky was like a plastic dome that protected us from it rushing in. Water imagery runs through the desert land of Scripture. Water is flexible moves with an attack yet can break down rock with freeze cycle and has tremendous force. Water flows and recycles. In that sense some of the water that evaporated during the baptism of Jesus may have eventually become part of the water we use this morning. 

One of the reasons we have an orderly service is to reflect this first creation account reveals a  God of order. In John's prologue, Jesus incarnates God's order, God's plan, god's logos. When Israel was in exile, they encounter the creation accounts of Babylon that had conflict among the gods as the primal force of creation, to counter it, Israel presents this stately carefully orchestrated symphony of creation.The Sacrament of baptism takes the ordinary element of water and makes it a spiritual gateway at the same creative hand of god. .
God's activity is triune in the Christian perspective from triune creation to triune consummation. The Spirit hovered over the waters. God continues to act continues to uphold continues to sustain this world-God calls this child. This child is part of the order of creation but is capable of surprise, of action in the new-Creation gives space for new life, for love to exist and to grow, to radiate out into this cosmos.

We are acting for the church universal in a clear way this morning. We have the privilege to baptize a child who lives in the Chicago area. When we baptize an infant, it is our prayer that the child will become well-rooted, well-grounded in the faith. Part of that grounding is to understand that we are called to love God with our hearts, our spirit, our bodies, and our minds. Trinity Sunday highlights the difficult mental exercise of "faith seeking understanding." Rylan's name refers to the earth, a field of rye, like Adam, but he is born into a scientific world.
Baptism not only is performed with the  name of the Trinity, it expresses its fundamental point. As members of a thinking faith, we cannot permit it to be stolen by apostles of ignorance. I pray that his will be a thinking faith. Christians see God involving three aspects of love, always tied together, a triple helix, if you will. In baptism, Rylan will be busy being born into his best self, one of deep relationships with God and his fellows who will vote in 2040 election. May he find the world well-watered with seeds of possibility, new horizons to explore, a world worthy and appreciative of his life and gifts.

Indeed, in this place we are just a little lower than the angels. What are we? In the eyes of God well worth the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ-well worth redemption. the Spirit hovered over the baptism of Jesus. The spirit will hover over Rylan all of his days. Rylan is marked as God's own anywhere. His middle name is David, which of course means beloved. May he live out that name as well, beloved by God and enmeshed in a world of love.Made in the image and likeness of God, equally men and women. Just as hydrogen fills in the gaps in the oxygen shells, so baptism begins to fill the God-sized gap in the human experience. Out of the immensity of creation, God calls this child by name, loves this child by name.