2 Kings 4:(8-17)18-21(22-31)32-37 | Psalm 142 | 1 Cor 9:16-23 | Mark 1:29-39

In the Name of God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

What a joy to be in St. Margaret's again. I regret sometimes that there are 53 congregations, which works out to be one per Sunday per year. I would love to come here more often. This is a wonderful place to worship God. Such great music, a sense of joy and brightness, and the seriousness of being joyful people of God. It is always a pleasure to be with my friend Robert Certain, and with Dan since he celebrated his tenth anniversary. Also to be with Bishop Burgreen and to get to know Margaret Watson, the new member of the staff. I look forward to meeting Father Bower as well.

I want to thank you first of all for you hospitality this weekend. As you know our Diocesan Convention took place here. It was a wonderful convention. We could not have asked more in terms of help, welcome and hospitality. Thank you all of the many people of St. Margaret's who came to help arrange things, welcome people and show them around and just be of service to us. And to single out two particular people, Lisa Johnson and Bill Harris, who coordinated all those special efforts. And a special thanks to John Wright and Fredrick Swann and musicians and the choir members who came. I think we had one of the better convention Eucharists that we ever had - A lot of joy and real adoration and praise to God.

I have been standing and talking for the last three days so I do not plan to make a long sermon, at least I hope not. I have been very deep and profound the last few days and also at the 8:00 service, I think. So forgive me if I am a little more frivolous and frisky at this service. I am really so overjoyed at being here in this beautiful place, in this beautiful part of California. As I said at the 8:00 service, "You know there are two types of people. Those that wake up in the morning and say, 'Good Morning, Lord', and those that say 'Good Lord, it's morning'." Here I would wake up and say "Good Morning, Lord." The beauty and grandeur of God is so much around us here. It's life abundant as our collect says, which we are offered in Christ and we come to claim that, renew that and celebrate that.

This morning we will do it in a particular way, in the midst of our worship, a baptism. The baby's name is Michaela Ann. And she is about seven weeks old. Not much of a life yet. But we celebrate that she is a gift from God and we will baptize her, not just into everyday mortal life but into eternal life. So we celebrate with her family and friends this gift of this precious child in their lives. It reminds us that we were all this size one time. And in God's eyes sometimes we still are. We are needy children in God's eyes.

Well, I have to be personal today. Last summer something wonderful happened to me and my family. My daughter, Margaret, gave us a grand-daughter. I know that is old hat to many of you with ten grandkids and twenty-five great-grandchildren. But for us it was a big, big deal. It is going to be a big deal for Robbie and Robert Certain later on this summer.

It's strange how in life you learn things second time around. When my daughter was born, thirty-one years ago, I am sure I was involved and excited, but a lot of it went straight over me. I was such a busy person and so concerned about the journey of life. As a grandfather you have time to observe this and to drink it all in and get a sense of what this really means. So I stood on the sidelines and watched my daughter Margaret and her husband Eric cope with the process of becoming parents. I noticed it involved a lot of preparation and change for them, as it does for all of us. It is a parallel for how we enter into the kingdom of God. I noticed that they had to make some physical changes, mental changes and deep inside spiritual change. The physical changes were quite obvious. They live in a little house in Goleta, just north of Santa Barbara. Like everyone else they had filled it with all the things that we collect. So they had to make a place for the baby. What used to be the guest room upstairs, they took out all the junk there and made a space. They emptied the room and then they wallpapered and filled it with all the stuff you need to have a baby.

When we become children of God, when we receive God into our hearts with baptism, confirmation or profession of faith, we have to make room. We cannot just add God to life and put another layer on busyness and craziness of everyday existence. You have to make room for Christ. Often to make room is to get rid of some of the junk. The things that do not belong there in the first place and you really do not need. A sense of pride. A sense of intolerance and impatience with others. A tendency to lose ones temper or to get irritated. A lack of compassion. And in its place you make room for Christ. With Christ's presence comes all those things. A deep sense of love for all life and all humanity. A patience and acceptance of all people. There has to be physical change for the coming of Christ into your life. You just have to make room.

I watched my daughter go through another change. A sort of mental change and intellectual change. Margaret is very much a child of her generation. She gets everything from the computer and internet. She really studied about becoming a mom. She studied very hard. The trouble is my wife Lenore is Armenian with a lot of ways and traditions to raise children. There was a certain tension between what Margaret got from the computer and what Lenore got from tradition. There was a lot to learn.

When you are an infant Christian we have to learn a lot. We have to really study what it means. Being a Christian is part of the meaning of life. Babies do not come with a manual. You learn as you go along. We come with a manual in a way. We come with the Holy Scriptures, a record of how God has acted in the past and how he has been faithful to his people and how they have responded and what they have done. There is a lot we can learn from that manual.

I confess that I am the wrong person to tell you this. I remember driving to Temecula for a service about six years ago. I got a flat tire, and thinking I was a macho man I can change a tire, I got the jack and the equipment needed. There was a particular nut would not come off the tire. I struggled with it and eventually I gave up and went to the glove compartment and took out the manual, which had never been opened. There it says, so your wheels cannot be stolen, there is a special adapter to put on the nut and you can open it. I did it and finished and drove away three minutes later, somewhat humbled by the experience. I thought as I drove away, "If that isn't a story of my life, what is?" Do it my way, insist on it my way and then when it goes wrong then look at the instruction manual.

To be a Christian means you must follow and learn about God. You must come to church and hear sermons. You should go to Bible studies and forums. You should study and have a burning desire to know exactly what this new life will be like. Babies demand that. You have to know how to be Mom and Dad and how to care for this little one. And just the same if you have the Christ child come into your lives you have to learn what it means to care for that child.

The third change my daughter and her husband went through was a little different sort of spiritual thing and it is harder to describe. I am not sure when it began but imperceptively it became part of their lives. I was concerned at one point. My daughter is a very active and wonderful person but I wondered how maternal she would be, whether she could fit being a Mom into the very hectic life she leads as a teacher in a community college. During the course of her pregnancy I noticed she became spiritually aware that something remarkable was happening, a new life stirring in her womb. Soon after the birth it was obvious that she was fully aware of the consequences of baby Sophia's presence in her life, just as this family will be aware of Michaela's presence in their life. She realized that on a certain day she would give birth to life and from that day on, life would never be quite the same. Wonderful but not quite the same. Everyday after that would be different.

That is the best analogy of new life in Christ I can think of. If we do not realize that, as of a certain day, when our faith becomes real and tangible, something that is surely the center of who we are, that we have not really understood the dimensions of becoming a Christian. Life will never be the same after you let the Lord Jesus Christ come into your life. Wonderfully, differently but not the same. You need that spiritual awakening of consequences of being a Christian person. Not just one more thing to add to life but to change the whole direction of life, to put a new center in life. That's what the spiritual awareness means.

Physically make room for God. Clean out the attic of your life and make space for God. Intellectually study what it means to be a real Christian and have Christ as a center of life. Third, make that spiritual preparation. Once you cross that threshold of just living to living in God's life nothing will be the same. Praise God for that.

The Rt. Rev. Gethin B. Hughes