2007

Christ Church

Morningside

Homily given by Michael Paterson on Pentecost Sunday
for the Baptism of Saritha Budha

In the name of God, Creator, Redeemer and Life-Giving Spirit. Amen.

 

The whole message of what we are doing here today can be summarized in three words Wash and Go! 

 

You probably think that’s a brand of shampoo but I think that if the Scottish Episcopal Church wanted a marketing slogan for Baptism and for Pentecost then it would be very hard to find something more appropriate and succinct than Wash and Go!

 

In a few minutes we will baptize Saritha, who first came to us last winter through the Open Church when John Williams was on duty and then through his invitation became a regular member at our Sunday Evening Services.

 

She has known the presence of God in her life for many years but today she makes a public commitment and a new start.  For several months now she has been preparing for this day and now in our presence she will respond to the God who has been calling her.

 

But we are not here simply as well-wishers, far less as spectators but as

people who have also heard that same call to Wash and Go.

§  Wash in the waters of baptism

§  Wash away the old self-centred lives we have led up to now

§  Wash off the old habits that keep us locked in on ourselves

§  Wash and be renewed in the living water of God’s Spirit=

           and then Go! 

§  Go tell others that God’s church is an Open Church and that the doors to God’s House are always open

§  Go tell them that God’s love turns strangers into friends

§  Go tell them that Christ has dismantled apartheid of every kind,

that black and white,

women and men,

young and old,

gay and straight

are all equal in God’s eyes and welcome here at this table

§  and Go and hold a candle of light to those who once knew where they were going but now have lost their way

This is the message for you Saritha as you are baptized this morning

and this is the self-same message for each of us here today as we celebrate the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost.

§  That the old is done away with and the new is here to stay

§  That people who were once separated by nationality and language can now hear and meet and understand each other fully

§  That those who thought God had abandoned the world in favour of heaven at his Ascension, are now surprised by hints and guesses of his presence here on earth at Pentecost

So let us Wash and make a clean start in the waters of new life and then when this service is over,

let us Go from here, to tell the world beyond these doors that God loves them and offers them a welcome and a new start too.

Amen.

 

 Home