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In C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Lucy and Edmund are joined on their most recent adventure in Narnia by their cousin Eustace. Now Eustace is a brat and just generally awful. He makes the trip that much harder.
At one point in their journey, Eustace finds some gold bracelets in a dragon's horde of treasure and puts them on out of greed. He finds himself, as a result, magically transformed into a dragon. His transformation causes everyone else to fear him, and he finds himself all alone in the cave with no way to transform back.
When he is in the depths of despair, Aslan comes, and he tells Eustace what to do. Eustace must bathe and wash off his scales. Eustace does this, but every time he sheds one coat of skin, another still remains.
Aslan then tells Eustace "you must let me do it". And Aslan claws away, giving Eustace a sharp pain. And then, it's gone. Eustace appears once again as a young boy, ready to rejoin the crew of the Dawn Treader.
When Eustace returns, there is a noticeable change. It takes Edmund a moment to recognize him. It's not that Eustace completely changes. As Lewis tells us, he still has bad days where he is once again bratty. But all in all, Eustace has changed for the better, which is clearly seen through his behavior in this book and the other Narnia books to follow. In fact, he becomes one of the great heroes of the series.
What C.S. Lewis has done so brilliantly in this story is give us a framework to talk about Baptism, which we also get in our reading from Romans this morning.
Romans speaks of all creation groaning in labor pains. Like Eustace we want to change from our dragon selves into the person we know we are meant to be. We want to be reborn from our old selves into a new life, a better life, a life where we can be together with others in harmony.
This change, this relief from our old ways, this is what God gives to us. He gives it to us not out of our own righteousness, for like Eustace, we have not done anything to deserve this gift. But God gives it to us out of love. He gives it to us because He wants us to be free of our dragon selves. God gives us a way out because He wants us to be in relationship with Him once again.
All of us here have at one point in time gone through this moment, the moment where God brings us in to be one with Him, to be in relationship with Him. We remember that moment today, not only with the celebration of the Holy Spirit coming down at Pentecost, but also with the celebration of Baptism.
It may seem odd to talk about new life with an infant, especially since her life is still so new. But she will receive one of the most wonderful gifts of all. She will live her life fully understanding Grace.
That is because her baptism today isn't something she earned. There isn't anything she could have done yet to earn it. She has not taken on the vows of baptism because she is unable to do so. Instead her parents and godparents are taking on those vows and promising to raise her to know Christ Jesus always.
This is a sign of what we all receive. None of us earned the gift of Grace; it was freely given to us. None of us did the work to receive Grace, but Jesus Christ did the work for us on the Cross.
And, of course, we all receive the gift of the Holy Spirit in Baptism, that gift which, as Paul tells us this morning, will teach us how to pray. That is, it will help us be like Eustace and turn back to God when we fall into our old ways again. The Holy Spirit is that gift which Jesus speaks of in the Gospel this morning, the Advocate or Helper. It is the gift that will lead us into all truth.
This child will receive another glorious gift because she will never know a time where she didn't have this helper. This is another Grace which she will have all her life, thanks to her parents and godparents taking on such an important role.
She will always know Jesus Christ because of her parents and godparents, and because of us too. For we too will make vows to help her along the way. We too are meant to uphold her in a life of walking with Christ Jesus.
How appropriate it is for us to do this, to bring another Saint to be a part of the body of Christ on this day when The Holy Spirit came to help the first apostles begin the work of that great body of Christ, the church. How appropriate it is to celebrate this day by bringing in a new person into the body as she begins her life both as a person and as a part of the church. What a gift that her life as a human being will always be tied to her life as a follower of Christ Jesus our Lord.