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If you looked at the title of my sermon this morning and put it
together with what you already know about my love of movies and concluded
that I’m going to preach about the great old musical “Singing in the
Rain,” you’re absolutely right. But you’ll never guess where I’m
going with it, so I might as well tell you. Little Joshua and Collin are
about to be the stars this morning as we celebrate two infant baptisms,
but their big siblings, Angelina and Shawn, have important supporting
roles to play as well. Robyn told me this story, and it made me laugh so
much I said I had to use it in a sermon.
It seems that the video of “Singing in the Rain” has gotten very
popular in their house, and Angelina and Shawn watch it over and over.
This is the movie where Gene Kelly is so much in love that he dances
around in a rainstorm, splashing in the puddles, twirling his umbrella,
letting nothing bother him as long as he’s got his love. Well, as I
understand the story the children got into their pajamas and Robyn put
them down in front of the TV to watch the video and shortly thereafter,
when she turned her back, they were gone. Of course she started to hunt
for them and found them in the bathroom where they had stopped up the
sink.
You guessed it—the water was running over the sink and they were
playing “Singing in the Rain” in the resulting waterfall. I can laugh
at this—I’m sure eventually even Robyn will be able to laugh at
this—but while on one level this is just some children getting into
mischief, on another level this story struck me as the joy that we all as
Christians should have in our hearts this morning. This is unique. Today
we are celebrating not only the risen Christ, but also the two joyous
moments that Presbyterians recognize as sacraments, communion and baptism.
And not just one, but two infants to be baptized.
This is an amazing moment, so much happening at one time in the
church, so much joy, it’s more than a little overwhelming. Just like the
women, the two Marys, were overwhelmed when they went to what they thought
was a tomb, a place of death, and instead encountered the risen Christ. An
earthquake accompanied this encounter, and the rolling back of a stone and
the figure of a man dressed in lightning. Guess what? They were afraid.
But both this man, whom Matthew identifies as an angel, and then Christ
himself, tells them “Do not be afraid.”
And yet we often are afraid, aren’t we? Most human beings spend a
considerable portion of their lives being afraid. Ever since Adam and Eve
were driven out of the Garden of Eden, every generation of their sons and
daughters has wrestled with the question, “Are we loved by God?” We
are afraid that it might not be true. As I told the children, we are sad
because we fear we might be alone in this world. And I would imagine that
sometimes in God’s eyes we must look like a dumb donkey to be so afraid.
But he keeps coming to us and reassuring us, “Don’t be afraid. I am
with you.” That’s what he told the two Marys, and that’s what he
says every time we gather at the communion table: “Don’t be afraid, I
am with you.”
God has tried to get this message across to us from the very dawn of
human history—even though we sin, even though we have this inherited
weakness to be seduced by the power of evil and death, even though we
reject God over and over again, he is always with us. The Old Testament is
full of examples of how God tries to get this message across to the Hebrew
people. But Easter morning, the resurrection of Christ, that is
unmistakable. Easter is the pivot around which the salvation of the world
revolves.
Think of this—love so incredible that Jesus Christ, God himself, is
willing to become a human being for the express purpose of dying for us.
And then through the creative and recreative power of his Father he is
raised from the dead. From that moment on, we and anyone who believes in
him will be able to live forever, too. No wonder we can dance and sing in
the rain. If the good news of our deliverance doesn’t make you joyful,
then you need to check your pulse, folks, you might be dead.
I never experienced a day like this all the time I was growing up in
the Catholic Church, and for a very good reason. Baptism was never a part
of the worship experience, never included in the Mass. If you go into most
Catholic churches you will see the baptismal font tucked away in a corner
somewhere, and the standard practice is to baptize on a Sunday afternoon
after everybody else has gone home. But we consider it very important to
have the font displayed prominently up front always, because it reminds of
who we are, and whose we are.
Likewise it’s very important to conduct baptisms during the
worship service, in front of the entire congregation. I will be asking all
of you to take part in the service, both by promising to nurture Joshua
and Collin in the Christian faith, and by reciting the Apostle’s Creed
together.
A few years ago Hillary Clinton published a book called “It Takes
a Village.” I’m not in the habit of drawing on the Clinton family as
examples of Christian witness, but in this case Mrs. Clinton hit it right
on the nose. It takes the entire village, the entire community of God, to
raise a child in these troubled times, to provide the kind of example to
children that they not only understand the path of righteousness and can
find it for themselves, they understand that only in loving and serving
others can we find real joy and happiness in this world. I charge us all
with living the kind of lives that children can imitate and thereby learn
to love God.
Almost all of us were baptized as infants, so we can’t physically
remember the moment when someone poured water on our heads, but when we
witness someone else’s baptism, especially that of an infant, does it
not bring images to our mind of the sweetness of being loved by God? Being
a grownup, as you know, can be way overrated, what with all the problems
and responsibilities that come with the job, but the water reminds us the
love that was first poured out for us at our baptism has continued all our
lives, and what better response can we make to that love than to sing and
dance in its cleansing rain?
There is one more important thing to remember on this Super Sunday,
folks: baptism is permanent. It is for eternity. When we are adopted by
God he will never, ever let us go.
When I ask, “What name is given this child,” it will be a very
deliberate and important question. Some people think that the minister
asks the question to make sure he doesn’t mispronounce the baby’s
name, and there may be some truth to that, but really It is meant to
de-emphasize the family name, and to state clearly that today Joshua and
Collin are becoming part of something much larger, the family of God. By
birth we are brought into our earthly family. By baptism we are adopted
into the family of God, and our most important identify is no longer tied
to our earthly family. Our new family name is much more important: It is
the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
Because of that adoption,
it’s as if every morning when we open our eyes, Christ is there again to
say “Peace. Do not be afraid. I am with you every step of the way.”
My friends, we may never have a day like this again, this confluence
of Easter and baptism and communion, but let us all take the memory of
this day out from this sacred space. Whenever life’s storms come our
way, as we know they will, let us remember how much love we felt this day,
and like Angelina and Shawn, do a little singing in the rain of our own.
Amen.
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