Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
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For as long as I can remember, my family's life was tied together to the family of my mother's closest friend in college, Phoebe. She and her husband are among some of the first people in my memories. Her two oldest children are roughly the same ages as my brother and me. I remember trips when we visited them and when they visited us throughout my childhood.
Then Phoebe was getting ready to have another child, and things happened as they will, leading Phoebe to pick the date that her daughter, Mary, would be born. This was right around the Fall, very close to my birthday, so she called and asked if I would be okay with sharing my birthday.
I don't remember what I said except that I would be fine with it. I thought it would be so cool to share my birthday with this new person coming into the world.
I was so excited, that when Mary turned three or four, I tried to explain this to her, that we shared a birthday. She immediately ran to her mother and said "Mom! Trey says I have to share my birthday cake with him!"
Now, however, that time has passed and it is now clear that I am not trying to force anyone to share birthday cakes, Mary and I have continued to share a bond, so much so that I talked to her before sharing this story. We've been there for graduations for each other and at other important life moments. I considered Mary a gift then, and I do now too.
She is a gift because we share a life connection. Our shared birthday is life-giving and life-affirming, and it is exactly what we are doing today.
Pentecost is the church's birthday. It is the day we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit descending on the disciples. It is the day, to paraphrase Paul in Romans, that they were adopted into the household of God. It is the day they received new life through the Spirit.
That is a life that the disciples shared with all others who came to join Jesus' family. It's that life that we extend even today.
That new life in the Spirit, that is the very thing we receive in Baptism, when we join the church. It is very appropriate that when we celebrate the new life through the Holy Spirit received first on the day of Pentecost that we celebrate that new life for one of our members. It is appropriate that when we celebrate our birthday, or perhaps it would be better said as our rebirth, that we celebrate the birthday of another too.
Today we will celebrate the rebirth in Christ Jesus of one of our soon to be youngest members. When we celebrate our receiving life, we are giving that same life to another. When we celebrate the start of the church today, we do so by adding to her a new member.
Our soon to be baptized may be too young to really understand what this gift is. It is, in fact, a gift, a gift of Grace, the same Grace we all receive in Christ Jesus. Just as Jesus bore us up, so our soon-to-be-baptized's family will take on the vows of Baptism for him until he is old enough to shoulder them himself.
He will, however, never shoulder those vows alone, just as his family will not have to now. We all take on the role of helping this child to grow up to always know Jesus Christ. We all are there to help give the same life-giving gift we all received in our own baptisms.
We are also all there for each other to bear one another through the trials and tribulations of life and faith. We never go through this life alone, not just because we have Jesus with us, but also because we have each other there to support us too.
Today is meant to be a life-giving day. It is the day we celebrate the start of the church which we are a part of. We celebrate that day by giving the same life we receive from Jesus Christ to another. We celebrate our life-giving gift by giving it to another. Happy Birthday, to the church and our newly Baptized!