Second Sunday before Advent; 18.11.07; St Mary's Welwyn, Revd. Julia Boothby

It is a great pleasure to be here with you today as we baptise and celebrate with the families of Chimdebubu and Adam, Tommy and Hannah. Today is a truly joyful occasion for them and for us as we bring them into the family of God and mark the beginning of their journey of faith. Today in our service we will thank God for the precious gift of these new lives and for the joy of parenthood and family life. But, of course we are also thanking God and praising him that they, and we, are part of a much larger family, the family of God’s people.

We remember in the words that we say and in the symbolic actions of signing with the cross, the baptising with water and the giving of a lit candle all that Jesus has done for us. We remember his love, his offering of himself upon the cross and the forgiveness and hope of eternal life that he so freely offers each one of us.

These are gifts beyond compare. For as we are reminded of the beginning of human life in these children, so we are reminded of the fullness of life that Christ offers to each one of us. Chimdebubu and Adam, Tommy and Hannah’s parents and godparents will publicly declare their faith and their willingness to support and help these children as they grow so that they may truly grow up in the knowledge and love of God.
 
And as we declare all that God has done so our hearts should be filled with praise and thanksgiving today. Our service today moves on to the Eucharist, which literally means thanksgiving as we recall Christ’s offering of himself for us. So, all in all it is a very joyful day and it is for that reason that I chose today our Old Testament reading from the psalm.

The psalms are one of the biggest books of the Old Testament and of course the psalms have been used in praise and worship ever since they were written for use in the temple. The psalms are a wonderful collection of hymn that tells of all human life. There are hymns of praise and thankfulness, hymns of thanksgiving for deliverance, but there are also psalms the tell of the very depths of despair and helplessness, psalsm that that speak of fear and death and of injustice. Yet, in the bleakest of psalms there is so often a reminder that God is God and even when life is at its darkest, we can yet rejoice and trust in him. For example, Psalm 69 begins,

“ Save me O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire where there is no foothold, I have come into deep water and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with crying and my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God…”

It is a psalm of deep distress and anguish, yet at the end of it the psalmist has this to say;

“ I will praise the name of god with a son, I will magnify him with thanksgiving..  .let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them.”

Or what about psalm 22

“ My God, My God, why have you forsaken me, why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning…I am poured out like warer and all my bones are out of joint…..”

This is a famous psalm and that cry of forsakenness is echoed by Christ on the cross ( and in fact the whole psalm can be seen as a prophecy of his sufferings)  Yet, even here the psalmist goes on to say

I will tell of your name to my brothers and sister, in the midst of the congregation I will praise you;
You who fear the Lord, praise him…all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord and worship before him.”

In the midst of suffering and pain, anguish and grief time and again the psalmist says….yet!  Yet I will praise God, yet I will worship him.

Today, for the families of the children we are going to baptise it is perhaps easy to worship God, to offer up thanks and praise. But, that is not always the case. For some here perhaps this will have been a difficult week. A week of sorrow and sadness, of tears and grief, of feeling forsaken and alone. Those times come to us all in our lives. What can we then do?