Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it."
I the light of my recent experience as a locum school chaplian I particularly notice about this passage that Jesus speaks here of little children and not anyone old enough to be in year seven or above! I think though we can grasp a sense of what he means. The wide-eyed and inquisitive approach to life of the small child is a joy to behold. Such curiosity perhaps reminds us of times in our lives when we too saw more wonder and awe in life than doubt and scepticism.
There’s a lovely story of the father and son who were driving through town together when they came upon a traffic jam. Up ahead they could see that a large semi trailer with a high load had become wedged under a railway overpass. The father experienced only the frustration of being held up and the anxiety all the trouble they would be in when they finally made it home. His son however experienced a world of unbelievable wonder. There were police everywhere and fire trucks and a big crane. There was even a train stopped at the approach to the bridge. There were important men standing around pointing and trying to figure out how to get the truck out.
While his father was sitting in the car fuming the boy could no longer contain himself. He urged his father to get out of the car and go over and have a closer look. Urged is probable not quite the right word as the young boy opened the door and raced away his father had little choice but to follow. When the father eventually caught up with his son he found him even more excited. “I know how to get the truck out dad!” he cried out. His father tried to calm him by assuring him that there were many trained people around to solve the problem (he did note however that things were a bit light on in the action department so far.) The boy ran to an important man in a yellow hat and tried to tell him his solution but the man was more concerned for the boy’s safety and shooed him away. The young fellow persisted until he found someone who would listen - all the time dragging an exhausted dad behind him. “What do you think we should do?” asked the man. “If you want to get the truck out all you have to do is let the air out of the tyres!”
So Jesus takes a child, places him or her right in the middle of the gathering and tells all those important adult disciples that they must become like little children if they want to see the Kingdom of God. We must remain, or become again, wide-eyed and open-minded to the great possibilities God has for us.
This story is often read at baptisms. It is not a watertight argument for infant baptism but it surely implies we cannot exclude young people from the church and if full membership in the church is gained through baptism then we must consider seriously the possibility of infant baptism. The main stream churches, for example the Anglican, Uniting, Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches all baptise infants and entrust the promises of repentance and commitment to Christ to parents and Godparents. Parents make many decisions for their children. We respect the right of parents to not have their children baptised until they are old enough to decide for themselves and understand why that decision is taken. Over the years I’ve been ordained I have been involved with some, though not a lot, of adults who contact the church seeking baptism because their parents did not have them baptised as a child. Of course bringing children for baptism used to be ‘the done thing.’ Even when I started out 20 years ago we would have two Sundays per month where Baptisms would occur and on any given Sunday there might be as many as seven children to be baptised. Now as many people shift the Church to the periphery (and even over the horizon) of their lives, we celebrate those who bring their children for baptism as those who have made a decision of faith.
We celebrate that today Sophie Caddis is to be baptised. Sophie a well known parishioner here and has been soaking up the atmosphere music and word or worship for much of her very young life. Soon we will pour water on her head, make the sign of the cross on her forehead and present her with a candle as we proclaim that “God has called you into the Church!”
The symbol of water reminds us the action of the Spirit of God in our lives. Through the drought we have been reminded of the value of water in our lives. What is that saying I heard some where? We can survive seven minutes without air, seven days without water and seven weeks without food. Soon Jenny will take some ordinary water from our taps and pour it into the font. She will say prayers over it to set it aside for the occasion of Sophie’s baptism. After Sophie’s baptism the water will have to be carefully disposed of. We cannot throw it down the sink or toss it onto the footpath. We must pour it on something living. A tradition developed well before necessity told us to better use our grey water!
Water keeps us alive as God’s spirit offers us new life. The gospel stories are filled with examples of the results of God’s offer of new life through Jesus. In Luke’s Gospel Jesus mission is expressed in the words of Isaiah the Prophet. When in his local synagogue in Nazareth Jesus read Isaiah’s words:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour."
There follows a procession of changed and greatly enriched lives. The disciples leave behind their old ways to fish for people. Zacchaeus, the despised chief tax collector, changes to become generous. The man born blind sees for the first time. The procession continues through history. This year celebrates the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in Britain. William Wilberforce was one of the instigators of bringing the horrors of the slave trade to the notice of the British Parliament. Through his conversion to Christianity he changed his life from a decadent and selfish wasteland into one poured out for the freedom of others.
We will use other symbols in baptism this morning. After water has been poured on Sophie’s head in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit, Jenny will dip her thumb into some specially blessed oil and trace the sign of the cross onto Sophie’s forehead. The oil is a symbol of the fullness of life and of God’s blessing. The cross is like an invisible badge that she will wear for the rest of her life to show that she is under the cross of Christ. No one will ever see it, but we will all know it has been put there.
Then Sophie will be presented with her own candle to mark this day. I will be lit from the Paschal Candle which we light new on the evening before Easter day. It symbolises resurrection and the Sophie will be guided by Christ the light of the world!
I hope that in our lives we know first hand the new life, the fullness of life and the example of life that Christ offers. There might be many times when the realities of life close in around us and we might feel God is far away or noon existent. In these times may we look toward the childlike example that Jesus offers and begin to see afresh at the possibilities that faith offers us.
