A bright and shining name

A Baptismal sermon preached by Ray Anglesea at St Andrew’s Dawson Street, Crook, 19 August 2012

Andrew and Clare, Kerry and Libby, not forgetting Phoebe, your family and friends, I welcome you to church today for your darling infant daughter’s baptism. It is lovely to have you with us: I and the church here at Crook hope you have a happy and memorable day.

I wonder if you are suffering from Olympic withdrawal symptoms? Do you say everything twice, first time in French, A level students who got their A level results last Thursday may have been graded PB; by cooking a chilli con carne you may loose marks because of its low degree of difficulty. For those Romantic couple who proposed in the Olympic Park they may well have said “With these Olympic rings I thee wed.” Maybe you will change your name by deed poll so that your passport now reads Mo Usain Ennis Bradley Ainslee Thorpedo Armitage Farqhar. What’s in a name – perhaps a nick-name Rocket Man Usain Bolt? Michael Flying Fish Phelps (who can manipulate water like no human since Moses). The Mansfield Mermaid, Rebecca Addlington? Queen Victoria Pendelton? King of the Road side-burn superstar Bradley Wiggo, or his Royal Hoyness Sir Chris Hoy? Names matter. Parents choose names for all sorts of reasons: because of where the child was conceived – Paris Hilton, Brooklyn Beckham – or because the name belongs to a member of the family or a friend, or because the name is that of a celebrity, a member of the Royal Family – how popular is the name William – names show how we are the fruit of the past, how we belong in the present and our parents dreams for our future.  Wikipedia tells me that Phoebe is a name meaning bright and shining, what a wonderful name that is, Phoebe is also a bible name, she was a woman from the City of Corinth mentioned by the Apostle Paul in the book of Romans.

Today this bright and shining Phoebe, through baptism, the sprinkling of water has been made a child of God’s grace, a member of the Church; Phoebe has been baptised as a Christian. This ceremony has obligations foremost of which is to live the Christian life. The sign at Jesus baptism in the River Jordan was a dove descending out of the sky.

Jesus too was named at his baptism by his Father: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased. At baptism, like Jesus, we are taken up into the Father’s delight in his Son. God takes pleasure in his son, God take pleasure in us, God takes pleasure in Phoebe. So by naming the child in love, this is the food that will help it grow into a human being capable of calling others into love too. God’s love is like human love. Love is a kind of dawn, an illumination. It lights up our lives, and this is shown very powerfully in the love of Andrew and Claire for their 3 children. In the ups and downs of family life this is where St Paul’s great saying is demonstrated: that love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. For love never ends.

We are not just human beings we are human becomings, Phoebe is so small, so vulnerable, so lovely, ahead of Phoebe is a lifetime of development, her life story. Her name will not just identify her as Phoebe she will become her own bright and shining person. At William and Kate’s wedding the Bishop of London in his sermon quoted to the happy couple from St Catherine of Sienna -  Be whom God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire” Phoebe’s life journey starting today will be transformed in ways that we cannot possibly imagine.

Clare and Andrew, listen - your infant daughter’s baptism this morning is a sign of God’s promise to Phoebe as a Christian that he will be with her forever, as the prophet Isaiah mentioned in our reading this morning. But more than that God’s has promised to love Phoebe forever.

Clare and Andrew – God is committed to the flourishing, well being and happiness of your family, Phoebe Elice, Kerry Page and Libby May.  You have embarked on this great journey of love, not only of loving each other but of loving Phoebe and your other darling daughters. As parents you are going to be a sign, of what human love is like, you are going to be the role models of what God’s love is like. You are going to be signs of love for Phoebe.

Andrew and Clare, I tell all my baptismal couples you are surrounded by loving families with offers of help and support. Use them. Bringing up three little ones can be a daunting task. We as a church are here to help you too, our doors are open, you have our telephone numbers, we too can provide help and support, education and teenage training. Alas human beings live in a world of good and bad and that makes our lives and relationships painful and complicated but not so with God. God will never give up on you, even if you run away from him. Andrew and Clare never stop loving each other  - you are for Phoebe what human love and family life is like and can be for the rest of her life – she will learn from you, you will be her example. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.  And so it is with our relationship with God. And in all this we, as we are able, together, will do everything possible to keep our promises to love, help and support you.

Phoebe’s life is now a vocation, she has embarked on God’s journey. But we are called by name not just once at the baptismal font, we will go on being called by name until we face God face to face. Phoebe will be called by name at her confirmation, her name will be spoken when she declares her love for someone in marriage. Her name will be called when she resumes new responsibilities, her name will be written on a tomb where she will wait for the voice of love to call her into eternal life. Our names will then be recorded in the book of life that the book of Revelation mysteriously mentions, then finally, in God, we shall discover who we are.   

In this Diamond Jubilee and Olympic year, we should remember today that we have cause for thanksgiving – God has named and has committed himself yet again to one more human family, the family here from Hawes Crescent, Crook. And in the lives of this lovely family with whom today we join in celebration, we see the sign of God’s embracing, renewing vision of God’s faithful love.  

Andrew and Clare - may God bless you on your journey, and may Phoebe’s baptism be a sign to live the faith more fully.

Amen

Ray Anglesea is a self supporting minister working in St Andrew’s Dawson Street LEP, Crook and in the wider West Durham Methodist Circuit