The Rev. Dan Rondeau
St. Margaret's Episcopal Church & School
Amos 7:7-15 | Psalm 85:7-13 | Ephesians 1:1-14 | Mark 6:7-13
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing…. Ephesians 1:3
Today at the 10 am Service Megan Jeovana Briggs will become the newest member of God’s “One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church” as she receives the Sacrament of Baptism. Megan is 5 months old. Picture her, in her mother’s arms presented to receive the Sacrament of Baptism and turn again to today’s lessons, let us view them anew against the backdrop of Megan’s baptism.
First, let us rejoice in the God who has called us into fellowship; let us rejoice in the God who now calls Megan into fellowship.
As Megan grows, her parents, godparents, immediate family, and this her new extended family, will help her remember that the God who calls her and blesses her today, similarly called Amos into fellowship as well as Paul (whose letter we read today), the people of ancient Ephesus (to whom Paul wrote), Mark the Evangelist and the twelve who were sent two by two into the villages and towns of ancient Israel.
It is good for us to remember, and teach Megan as she grows that Amos and the twelve were ordinary folk—like you and me. The final words of today’s lesson from Amos are most revealing: “Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’”
Amos told the truth to Jeroboam, the King. It got him in plenty of trouble. Amos did not choose this course of action. Amos didn’t appoint himself God’s prophet. Indeed his speech suggests he would never have chosen the role of prophet for himself—content to be a shepherd and a tree doctor. Amos became the “seer,” the prophet because “the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’” (Amos 7:14-15, emphasis added) Megan, will discover, and today reminds us, that the God who calls us into fellowship also asks us to serve others.
Amos was called by God, blessed by God, and tasked by God. In his case he was called to be a prophet, a truth-teller, at a critical moment in the life of God’s people. His story, his words, and the subsequent history of God’s people (The Exile) are part of our Bible, a great treasure entrusted to us, and now to Megan. The story of Amos told today, Megan’s baptismal day, is to remind her as it reminds us, that the God who loves her, the God who loves us, chooses and calls each of us, blesses every one of us, and tasks each of us, even as Amos was called, blessed, and tasked in his day.
In the Baptismal Covenant we will share with Megan today, we speak (and we hear ourselves speak) some important truths related to being called, blessed, and tasked with ministry.
We will promise with her to continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in the prayers. (The Book of Common Prayer, p. 304) We promise to listen for God’s call in prayer, study, worship, and the fellowship of believers. We will receive God’s blessing in our prayer and worship, especially in the sacrament of Holy Communion (the breaking of bread). Our study will clearly reveal God’s unique gifts to us and we will understand, as did Amos, that we are to share God’s gifts with others.
Indeed, in Jesus, we see the pattern of Amos repeated with the twelve. Jesus called them to himself, blessed them as he lived with them and taught them, and then sent them to do God’s work in the towns and villages. Of the twelve we know that Peter and Andrew, James and John were fishermen. The others were equally ordinary before they were touched and taught and then sent into the world by Jesus. This is our story as well. Megan will join a family of ordinary folks (at least, ordinary by the standards of the world) who have been called by our Lord Jesus Christ, blessed, taught, and even sent into the world by our Lord.
Megan today joins a family, our St. Margaret’s family, that prays to God at the end of our worship and fellowship to be sent into the world to do the work that our God has given us to do. (Prayer after Communion, The Book of Common Prayer, p. 366) She reminds us, and we will teach her, that our God loves us, calls us, blesses us, gives us work to do in advancing the reign of God, and then sends us into the world to do it.
As you heard in today’s lessons, God chooses some (like Amos) to be prophets. Others, like the twelve, he chooses to send as witnesses to God’s love, in particular, to witness to the healing power of God’s love. Megan joins a parish family that has come to believe that each of us has been uniquely gifted by God. We have come to believe that God asks us to share our unique gifts for the building up our family, also called the Body of Christ or the Church.
Picture this baby, Megan, in the arms of her father. Look at her with joy and allow yourself to wonder about the unique gifts God has blessed her with, and blessed us with in and through her; today (even if you are not physically present) we will pledge our support of her and that will include providing her a safe place to share God’s unique gifts. In other words we will encourage her in ministry.
I give thanks that Megan will come here today to remind us—young and old alike—that we each have unique gifts and that God’s calls us to encourage each other in the offering and sharing of these gifts for the good of the whole family, the Church, and for the good of this Coachella Valley, our nation, and our world.
As Megan grows, it is my prayer that she will live the words of today’s Psalm: “I will listen to what the LORD God is saying, * for he is speaking peace to his faithful people and to those who turn their hearts to him.”
As she listens to what the Lord God is saying, as she turns her heart to him, she will discover more and more the unique gift, the unique ministry, that God has given her. She will discover, as did the twelve who went out and healed many, and as you and I, brothers and sisters in the same faith, have discovered, that God’s grace is constantly at work within her and is always a blessing to others as it is shared.
I give thanks that she will remind us today that we are to teach her to listen for the Lord, we are to teach her to turn your heart to God by giving her good example, not just pious words; this is a sacred responsibility entrusted to us.. She blesses us by her need: her need to have good teachers that she might come to know the Lord and be encouraged to make the Lord known.
Megan and her family bless us, finally, by simply being here to receive God’s gift in baptism. She reminds us of our own baptism. Like her, we were not baptized because we were intellectually gifted. We were not baptized because we gave lots of money to the church or because we were powerful in the political machinery of the church or the community. We were not baptized because we were beautiful or strong in body.
We were baptized because those around us loved us so much they wanted to share the greatest treasure, the greatest gift, they had received: God’s grace in the Sacrament of Baptism. Megan, only 5 months old and completely dependent on those around her reminds us that this amazing grace is always and everywhere God’s gift to us: there is nothing we can say or do to earn it, purchase it, steal it, or otherwise demand it of God. We need only accept God’s generous and wonderful gift.
Megan will remind us of the truth of the words of the Apostle Paul in today’s lesson. She will remind us that we have a tremendous gift to offer her and to offer all who come to our doors. Paul writes, and in her baptism we will witness the truth of his words, “In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.”
Megan’s parents bring her here today to present her for baptism. The sacrament is a gift entrusted to us by God to be shared with her and all who are presented for baptism. We will witness her baptism and Father Robert will anoint her, will “seal her with the Holy Spirit” and she will remind us that we, too, have been sealed with the Holy Spirit in baptism. Together we will grow in our understanding that we have a marvelous inheritance, redemption in Jesus Christ as God’s own people. What a blessed day this is for her and for us.
May God be glorified in her life. May God be glorified in our lives. May God be glorified in the mission and ministry of our parish family. Amen.
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