This morning we celebrate the baptism of Ella McTaggart, daughter of Jenny and Malcolm. Some people only make it church on three occasions, a baptism, a wedding, and a funeral.
I think that’s because even the person with no spiritual interest whatsoever realizes that these times are the three fundamental responses to God. Jesus celebrated a wedding at Cana of Galilee because their response in marriage
captures the intimacy of the love between Christ and the Church. We stand with Stephen as he dies, calling, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit! And this morning we stand with Malcolm 
and Jenny and Hannah as she speaks For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my
petition which I asked of him. 28 Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as Samuel lives he shall be lent to the LORD.
The Bible can be roughly divided into two sections. I need to be more careful this morning in my theology with other celebrated clergy in attendance. The Bible is a study of God’s intentions towards humanity and a report of how we respond. God has every intention of bringing justice and mercy to every home on this planet. God is love implacable and justice undeniable. The Scriptures are consumed with this portrait of God as our blessed hope. Where government says, we can’t afford it, God says the new kingdom mandates it.
Ella Mae has wandered into our world, free floating in the universe until this time, drawn by the prayers of Jenny and the love of Malcolm, to be lent to them by God. It was a rude awakening to realize that cosmic bliss had been traded for a Sunnyside apartment and for a while, she don’t like what she sees. She has since understood that she has landed on a planet under attack and said to me just two weeks ago, OK I'm ready for my baptism.
Now you laugh although she really can communicate. I held her two weeks ago and she indicated I was her favorite NYC pastor. But it is interesting, of the three great moments of human response, in two of them we are relatively helpless, the moments at the beginning and at the end of life. At those moments we need the beloved community.
So the ritual this morning invites Malcolm and Jenny to make their vows and offer their child to God. And it calls on the church for committed support through your prayers, presence, gifts and service. Methodism is not meant to be a polite religion. If you can’t make your promises with an intent to act later, please just leave the service during that time. We are in danger of stylizing our faith to the point that the Lord’s prayer and other responses are given in a dream like state. All of our children are vulnerable and their promises are made for them by loving parents and faithful congregations. Our Ephesians passage this morning will have more to learn about God’s desire for our faithful response. Today is not just a moment for Malcolm and Jenny to participate in a great drama with God, it’s a moment for you.
As Streetprophets said recently, we are here on a baptism morning to say that these children are the future of our church. I want to tell you one other thing about Ella and our other children. As beautiful as she is, as precious as she is, as full of potential, she is not the hope of this congregation. Nor is she its future.
Rather, we are her hope, and her future.
Ephesians says nothing about a spiritual social security where you have three kids and they maintain an old building and try to recast the gospel for the next generation. The texts today are not what our children owe us, they are about what we owe to them. I haven’t always seen it this way. None of you have ever met all of my 11 children, or was it more – I can’t remember. I remember that we were listening to a radio show on foster care after we got involved and the woman was saying what a great idea foster care is. She said, the kids are real cooperative and they do most of the cooking and cleaning – its like getting a vacation and getting paid for it. Now I never experienced that level of foster care. My kids came to the table with an empty plate and hoped I knew how to fill it with good Cambodian food. If they did cook, it was only a portion for one and I had to steal from their plate while they were in the bathroom.
Anyway, our children are not our social security your willingness to support these baptismal vows is much more important for her next 20 years than her response to you. What did you promise to Ella and Jeffrey, and Daniel, and Madison? To tell them that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. We need to tell her about the God who cared so much that a rescue operation was launched both for her and all who abide in her community. Flannery O’Connor, that moving southern writer was ambivalent about the song ‘Just as I Am, without one plea.’ She said that it seemed hardly Christ-centered . . . most certainly Christ-haunted.
But our situation is becoming that desperate. A blog this week compared our fate to sharecroppers of old, except that we are indentured now to the banks instead of the farmer. Tom Toles has a cartoon this week of a small working class home being repossessed and the sign, it wasn’t too large to fail. Our institutions as well as our people need salvation. The name of Jesus means ‘the Lord saves.’
The Lord is looking for members who forget organized religion and live up to saving faith and make that the future of our children. Another pastor writes about a church staff member in surgery, Standing around the communion table, each person prayed, sincere prayers, but mostly polite and mild petitions, Then the custodian prayed. My friend reported that it was the most athletic prayer he had ever witnessed. The custodian wrestled with God, shouted at God, anguished with God. His finger jabbed the air and his body shook. "You’ve got to save him! You just can’t let him die!" he practically screamed at God. "You’ve done it many times, Lord! You’ve done it for others, you’ve done it for me, now I am begging you to do it again! Do it for him! Save him, Lord!" "It was as if he grabbed God by the lapels and refused to turn God loose until God came with healing wings," my friend said. "When we heard that prayer, we just knew that God would indeed come to heal. In the face of that desperate cry for help, God would have been ashamed not to save the man’s life." And so it happened.
The world is so troubled, looking for hope, and we need to encourage parents who raise children who are spiritually mature. Our support comes before their maturity. It does pay off. The person who now holds the record of the longest employee of Community Church, 27 years, was baptized in this same spot in 1962, Malcolm McTaggart.
Are you going to be as faithful in your support of this baptism as the church here was in a previous generation? And friends, I’m going to push you a little on this. If you are not tithing, then you are not supporting the full range of ministry needed for such a time as this. We spend a ton of money on our school, 82nd Street Academics. We have one of the best operations that money can buy. Why do we provide a Cadillac for math and reading and a not the same investment for spiritual training? Why can’t we hire a Youth pastor who can help with teacher training, work with the superintendent, add more projects to the schedule for teens? Will it require sacrifice? Yes, it would add $30,000 to our budget. Has the day of sacrifice passed? Frankly, I tithe to this church, but I would add $1,000 to my tithe for the year if 29 other people who join me. Will are children grow up to become the people we yearn for them to be without our specific serious commitment to join parents at the baptismal font? The answer is no.
Our responsibility is to offer the invitation to this generation that we were offered. I still remember my Sunday school teacher who brought the train with real smoke, another one who gave me a Bible with a nice note, Mrs. Lightner who called me Ronnie, and that other one who helped me date a girl. In each case, they loved me before I loved them. They knew the truth of John 3:16 and lived it out in their lives of prayers, presence, gifts, and service. They were all important, supporting me as my parents lent me back to God. We join Malcolm and Jenny today to repeat the drama of salvation for this generation.
