Easter, 2010

The Lord is risen

The Lord is risen indeed.

 As we have moved thorough the events of this week, remembering the events that took place in Palestine about 33 A.D. I have been using an image that I think I got from an amazing little book by John Stott, called Basic Christianity. The image usefully reminds us that those events really did change the world we live in. We live in a different world than we did before they happened, because we have access to God in ways we did not have before. On Palm Sunday a week ago, I said that the note of triumph in our liturgy on that day, was a kind of overture for the triumphal music of Easter Sunday. Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday framed the dark events in the middle of the week. So now we have passed through our remembrance of the Last Supper and Good Friday, come out on the other end of the tunnel into the light.

 When the secular world gets caught up in one of our Church Feasts, as it does at Christmas and Easter, it is easy enough for church folks forget what  Easter is all about. And when the Feast coincides with a seasonal shift, as it does at Easter, It is easy enough to get so caught up in the joy of seeing the snow melt away and in our eagerness to be out in raking the lawn, that we forget what Easter is about.  Certainly it is easy enough for priests and pastors to do that. In the rush to get the bulletins prepared, the music planned, the sermons at least thought about, it is easy to forget what Easter is all about.

 So let us remind ourselves briefly that the word Easter does not occur in the Bible. The church calls this The Feast of the Resurrection. This is the Sunday of the Empty Tomb. This is the day when the women went to the burial place and found it empty and went back and told the disciples. As Jesus appeared to the disciples over the next 40 days, and as the Holy Spirit exploded in their midst,  they gradually understood that all the things that Jesus said were true--that Jesus was who he said he was, that he was the son of God, that he was the long-promised Messiah, that he had not only restored the fortunes of Israel, but extended  those blessing to the gentle nations, that he had  become the final sacrifice for the sins of the nation, that he had established the Kingdom of God and shown us how to live in it, in a life of devotion, sobriety, and joy and loving service, that he had offered himself in place of all  those goats and pigeons that were being slaughtered in the temple to atone for the sins of the people, that really  had entered into death and come out on the other side, changing the nature of death, taking away its finality, promising a final restoration of the world to the harmony with which it had been created, that by walking willingly to his death, he had shown us how to die to sin and rise to new life.

 Jesus was not the first to promise these things.. There were a lot of people around claiming to be the Messiah, and we even know some of their names: Simon Bar Kochba, Life of Brian. Most people had never heard of them, because when they died, their movements died with them. We know the name of Jesus because he rose from the dead, not in the form of a ghost or spirit, but with a new body, a form never seen before, one  that walked through walls but still ate broiled fish. Jesus was who he said he was, which means that the disciples had to go back through all the things he said and get those written down and study them and create a community to do the things he said to do while they waited for his final coming.

 Today we are lucky to have Kamara Riggin and her family with us, to help us keep track of what today means, because much of the meaning of The Resurrection is condensed into the Baptismal ceremony. Let me name just two.

 One is choice. On that week in Palestine, Jesus made choices. In the garden, He could have prayed, Let this cup pass from me, and stopped and and probably it would have. But he chose to say, “Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.” When Pilate said “Are you the son of God?” he could have saved his life by saying No I was only kidding. Because Jesus made the decisions he did, we have choices we did not have before. When we baptize Kamara, we scoop water over her forehead three times in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That is symbolic of Jesus immersion into the waters of the Jordan and to transform the water as we transform this water with our prayers. Jesus chose to do that, and Kamara’s family chose to have her follow Him. And we can decide to embrace again our baptism into  Christ, to make him our avenue to God, to put him at the center of our life.

 That is why we ask so many questions at our Baptism.  I will  ask Kamara’s sponsors, some hard questions, such as “Do you renounce the Devil and his works,” and they are called to respond, “We renounce them.” Then I will ask you If YOU believe in God the Father, creator of heaven and earth, in Jesus Christ his only son, and in the holy Spirit. Those questions are the Apostles Creed put in Q&A format and they are followed by five of the hardest questions I know. They are questions like, “Will you seek and serve Christ in all Persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?”  and “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being?” They are so hard that we don’t even ask you to say I will, we ask you only to say, I will with God’s Help, for without God’s help, none of us would be able to say yes or have the least idea how to put our yes into actions. The questions Christ asked in Palestine in 33 A.D. were real questions.  I hope you will think of the questions today  as real questions and if you are not sure what they mean our are not sure how to say Yes,  I hope you will take them home with out you and ponder them in your heart, seeking counsel in scripture and in the wise commentary on scripture, such as might be found in books like these. 

 Another way the Baptism condenses the Easter mystery is with names. We know names are important.  have read that the most beautiful word in one’s native language is your name. When we were passing though adolescence and establishing our identity, most of us spent hours doodling our names in different decorative shapes. Over time we most of us spent time selecting and polishing  a unique signature. In primitive cultures, people will not give their names to people they do not trust, for they believe that a person who has their name can wield power over them. Identity theft has become the signature crime for our digital age.

 Four names are important this morning: Jesus, Mary, and Kamara, and yours. The most important name, of course he hear this morning is the name of Jesus. In Philippians 2:10, Paul  says that “At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow,” and we have a hymn in which that phrase is set to music: At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, every tongue profess him, king of glory now.  On the internet and even in books, you can find lists of the 100 names all the names for Jesus, in alphabetical order, from Advocate, Almighty, and Author of Life, all the way to Way, Wisdom, and Word, with Biblical citations.  

 What is most important about our name is that when Jesus speaks it and we respond, our life changes. We saw that happen in this morning’s gospel, where Mary goes to the tomb. She sees the risen Lord but fails to recognize him until he speaks her name. “Mary” he says, she responds, “Raboni,” which means teacher or master. Later morning, I will ask Kamara’s sponsors, Who presents this child for baptism,” and they will say, “We present Kamara Riggin for baptism.” On behalf of Christ’s church, I will speak Kamara’s name when I pour water onto her forehead and again when we make the sign of the cross with oil on her forehead. We think that something akin is happening to Kamara that happened to Mary, that Jesus is calling her name and they she will recognize him, now and later in her life.  We think that something akin to that happened to you, and if it has not then it could, for it is never too late to hear your name and to say, Raboni. Let us pray.

 Lord Christ, we thank you for the many blessings of your resurrection and for Kamara and her family who, though the rite of Baptism, help us to reclaim the meaning of the empty tomb. Help Kamara as she grows to grow in understanding of this day. Help us all to rejoice that we have risen from the waters of baptism as new creatures. Help us to live lives worthy of Christ who died for us that we could know how to die to sin, and rose that we could know how to live as resurrected people.

 Amen.

 The Lord is risen

The Lord is risen indeed.

As we have moved thorough the events of this week, remembering the events that took place in Palestine about 33 A.D. I have been using an image that I think I got from an amazing little book by John Stott, called Basic Christianity. The image usefully reminds us that those events really did change the world we live in. We live in a different world than we did before they happened, because we have access to God in ways we did not have before. On Palm Sunday a week ago, I said that the note of triumph in our liturgy on that day, was a kind of overture for the triumphal music of Easter Sunday. Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday framed the dark events in the middle of the week. So now we have passed through our remembrance of the Last Supper and Good Friday, come out on the other end of the tunnel into the light.

When the secular world gets caught up in one of our Church Feasts, as it does at Christmas and Easter, it is easy enough for church folks forget what  Easter is all about. And when the Feast coincides with a seasonal shift, as it does at Easter, It is easy enough to get so caught up in the joy of seeing the snow melt away and in our eagerness to be out in raking the lawn, that we forget what Easter is about.  Certainly it is easy enough for priests and pastors to do that. In the rush to get the bulletins prepared, the music planned, the sermons at least thought about, it is easy to forget what Easter is all about.

So let us remind ourselves briefly that the word Easter does not occur in the Bible. The church calls this The Feast of the Resurrection. This is the Sunday of the Empty Tomb. This is the day when the women went to the burial place and found it empty and went back and told the disciples. As Jesus appeared to the disciples over the next 40 days, and as the Holy Spirit exploded in their midst,  they gradually understood that all the things that Jesus said were true--that Jesus was who he said he was, that he was the son of God, that he was the long-promised Messiah, that he had not only restored the fortunes of Israel, but extended  those blessing to the gentle nations, that he had  become the final sacrifice for the sins of the nation, that he had established the Kingdom of God and shown us how to live in it, in a life of devotion, sobriety, and joy and loving service, that he had offered himself in place of all  those goats and pigeons that were being slaughtered in the temple to atone for the sins of the people, that really  had entered into death and come out on the other side, changing the nature of death, taking away its finality, promising a final restoration of the world to the harmony with which it had been created, that by walking willingly to his death, he had shown us how to die to sin and rise to new life Jesus was not the first to promise these things.. There were a lot of people around claiming to be the Messiah, and we even know some of their names: Simon Bar Kochba, Life of Brian. Most people had never heard of them, because when they died, their movements died with them. We know the name of Jesus because he rose from the dead, not in the form of a ghost or spirit, but with a new body, a form never seen before, one  that walked through walls but still ate broiled fish. Jesus was who he said he was, which means that the disciples had to go back through all the things he said and get those written down and study them and create a community to do the things he said to do while they waited for his final coming.

Today we are lucky to have Kamara Riggin and her family with us, to help us keep track of what today means, because much of the meaning of The Resurrection is condensed into the Baptismal ceremony. Let me name just two.

One is choice. On that week in Palestine, Jesus made choices. In the garden, He could have prayed, Let this cup pass from me, and stopped and and probably it would have. But he chose to say, “Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.” When Pilate said “Are you the son of God?” he could have saved his life by saying No I was only kidding. Because Jesus made the decisions he did, we have choices we did not have before. When we baptize Kamara, we scoop water over her forehead three times in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That is symbolic of Jesus immersion into the waters of the Jordan and to transform the water as we transform this water with our prayers. Jesus chose to do that, and Kamara’s family chose to have her follow Him. And we can decide to embrace again our baptism into  Christ, to make him our avenue to God, to put him at the center of our life.

That is why we ask so many questions at our Baptism.  I will  ask Kamara’s sponsors, some hard questions, such as “Do you renounce the Devil and his works,” and they are called to respond, “We renounce them.” Then I will ask you If YOU believe in God the Father, creator of heaven and earth, in Jesus Christ his only son, and in the holy Spirit. Those questions are the Apostles Creed put in Q&A format and they are followed by five of the hardest questions I know. They are questions like, “Will you seek and serve Christ in all Persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?”  and “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being?” They are so hard that we don’t even ask you to say I will, we ask you only to say, I will with God’s Help, for without God’s help, none of us would be able to say yes or have the least idea how to put our yes into actions. The questions Christ asked in Palestine in 33 A.D. were real questions.  I hope you will think of the questions today  as real questions and if you are not sure what they mean our are not sure how to say Yes,  I hope you will take them home with out you and ponder them in your heart, seeking counsel in scripture and in the wise commentary on scripture, such as might be found in books like these. 

Another way the Baptism condenses the Easter mystery is with names. We know names are important.  have read that the most beautiful word in one’s native language is your name. When we were passing though adolescence and establishing our identity, most of us spent hours doodling our names in different decorative shapes. Over time we most of us spent time selecting and polishing  a unique signature. In primitive cultures, people will not give their names to people they do not trust, for they believe that a person who has their name can wield power over them. Identity theft has become the signature crime for our digital age.

Four names are important this morning: Jesus, Mary, and Kamara, and yours. The most important name, of course he hear this morning is the name of Jesus. In Philippians 2:10, Paul  says that “At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow,” and we have a hymn in which that phrase is set to music: At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, every tongue profess him, king of glory now.  On the internet and even in books, you can find lists of the 100 names all the names for Jesus, in alphabetical order, from Advocate, Almighty, and Author of Life, all the way to Way, Wisdom, and Word, with Biblical citations.  

What is most important about our name is that when Jesus speaks it and we respond, our life changes. We saw that happen in this morning’s gospel, where Mary goes to the tomb. She sees the risen Lord but fails to recognize him until he speaks her name. “Mary” he says, she responds, “Raboni,” which means teacher or master. Later morning, I will ask Kamara’s sponsors, Who presents this child for baptism,” and they will say, “We present Kamara Riggin for baptism.” On behalf of Christ’s church, I will speak Kamara’s name when I pour water onto her forehead and again when we make the sign of the cross with oil on her forehead. We think that something akin is happening to Kamara that happened to Mary, that Jesus is calling her name and they she will recognize him, now and later in her life.  We think that something akin to that happened to you, and if it has not then it could, for it is never too late to hear your name and to say, Raboni. Let us pray.

Lord Christ, we thank you for the many blessings of your resurrection and for Kamara and her family who, though the rite of Baptism, help us to reclaim the meaning of the empty tomb. Help Kamara as she grows to grow in understanding of this day. Help us all to rejoice that we have risen from the waters of baptism as new creatures. Help us to live lives worthy of Christ who died for us that we could know how to die to sin, and rose that we could know how to live as resurrected people.

Amen.

The Lord is risen

The Lord is risen indeed.

As we have moved thorough the events of this week, remembering the events that took place in Palestine about 33 A.D. I have been using an image that I think I got from an amazing little book by John Stott, called Basic Christianity. The image usefully reminds us that those events really did change the world we live in. We live in a different world than we did before they happened, because we have access to God in ways we did not have before. On Palm Sunday a week ago, I said that the note of triumph in our liturgy on that day, was a kind of overture for the triumphal music of Easter Sunday. Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday framed the dark events in the middle of the week. So now we have passed through our remembrance of the Last Supper and Good Friday, come out on the other end of the tunnel into the light.

When the secular world gets caught up in one of our Church Feasts, as it does at Christmas and Easter, it is easy enough for church folks forget what  Easter is all about. And when the Feast coincides with a seasonal shift, as it does at Easter, It is easy enough to get so caught up in the joy of seeing the snow melt away and in our eagerness to be out in raking the lawn, that we forget what Easter is about.  Certainly it is easy enough for priests and pastors to do that. In the rush to get the bulletins prepared, the music planned, the sermons at least thought about, it is easy to forget what Easter is all about.

So let us remind ourselves briefly that the word Easter does not occur in the Bible. The church calls this The Feast of the Resurrection. This is the Sunday of the Empty Tomb. This is the day when the women went to the burial place and found it empty and went back and told the disciples. As Jesus appeared to the disciples over the next 40 days, and as the Holy Spirit exploded in their midst,  they gradually understood that all the things that Jesus said were true--that Jesus was who he said he was, that he was the son of God, that he was the long-promised Messiah, that he had not only restored the fortunes of Israel, but extended  those blessing to the gentle nations, that he had  become the final sacrifice for the sins of the nation, that he had established the Kingdom of God and shown us how to live in it, in a life of devotion, sobriety, and joy and loving service, that he had offered himself in place of all  those goats and pigeons that were being slaughtered in the temple to atone for the sins of the people, that really  had entered into death and come out on the other side, changing the nature of death, taking away its finality, promising a final restoration of the world to the harmony with which it had been created, that by walking willingly to his death, he had shown us how to die to sin and rise to new life Jesus was not the first to promise these things.. There were a lot of people around claiming to be the Messiah, and we even know some of their names: Simon Bar Kochba, Life of Brian. Most people had never heard of them, because when they died, their movements died with them. We know the name of Jesus because he rose from the dead, not in the form of a ghost or spirit, but with a new body, a form never seen before, one  that walked through walls but still ate broiled fish. Jesus was who he said he was, which means that the disciples had to go back through all the things he said and get those written down and study them and create a community to do the things he said to do while they waited for his final coming.

Today we are lucky to have Kamara Riggin and her family with us, to help us keep track of what today means, because much of the meaning of The Resurrection is condensed into the Baptismal ceremony. Let me name just two.

One is choice. On that week in Palestine, Jesus made choices. In the garden, He could have prayed, Let this cup pass from me, and stopped and and probably it would have. But he chose to say, “Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.” When Pilate said “Are you the son of God?” he could have saved his life by saying No I was only kidding. Because Jesus made the decisions he did, we have choices we did not have before. When we baptize Kamara, we scoop water over her forehead three times in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That is symbolic of Jesus immersion into the waters of the Jordan and to transform the water as we transform this water with our prayers. Jesus chose to do that, and Kamara’s family chose to have her follow Him. And we can decide to embrace again our baptism into  Christ, to make him our avenue to God, to put him at the center of our life.

That is why we ask so many questions at our Baptism.  I will  ask Kamara’s sponsors, some hard questions, such as “Do you renounce the Devil and his works,” and they are called to respond, “We renounce them.” Then I will ask you If YOU believe in God the Father, creator of heaven and earth, in Jesus Christ his only son, and in the holy Spirit. Those questions are the Apostles Creed put in Q&A format and they are followed by five of the hardest questions I know. They are questions like, “Will you seek and serve Christ in all Persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?”  and “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being?” They are so hard that we don’t even ask you to say I will, we ask you only to say, I will with God’s Help, for without God’s help, none of us would be able to say yes or have the least idea how to put our yes into actions. The questions Christ asked in Palestine in 33 A.D. were real questions.  I hope you will think of the questions today  as real questions and if you are not sure what they mean our are not sure how to say Yes,  I hope you will take them home with out you and ponder them in your heart, seeking counsel in scripture and in the wise commentary on scripture, such as might be found in books like these. 

Another way the Baptism condenses the Easter mystery is with names. We know names are important.  have read that the most beautiful word in one’s native language is your name. When we were passing though adolescence and establishing our identity, most of us spent hours doodling our names in different decorative shapes. Over time we most of us spent time selecting and polishing  a unique signature. In primitive cultures, people will not give their names to people they do not trust, for they believe that a person who has their name can wield power over them. Identity theft has become the signature crime for our digital age.

Four names are important this morning: Jesus, Mary, and Kamara, and yours. The most important name, of course he hear this morning is the name of Jesus. In Philippians 2:10, Paul  says that “At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow,” and we have a hymn in which that phrase is set to music: At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, every tongue profess him, king of glory now.  On the internet and even in books, you can find lists of the 100 names all the names for Jesus, in alphabetical order, from Advocate, Almighty, and Author of Life, all the way to Way, Wisdom, and Word, with Biblical citations.  

What is most important about our name is that when Jesus speaks it and we respond, our life changes. We saw that happen in this morning’s gospel, where Mary goes to the tomb. She sees the risen Lord but fails to recognize him until he speaks her name. “Mary” he says, she responds, “Raboni,” which means teacher or master. Later morning, I will ask Kamara’s sponsors, Who presents this child for baptism,” and they will say, “We present Kamara Riggin for baptism.” On behalf of Christ’s church, I will speak Kamara’s name when I pour water onto her forehead and again when we make the sign of the cross with oil on her forehead. We think that something akin is happening to Kamara that happened to Mary, that Jesus is calling her name and they she will recognize him, now and later in her life.  We think that something akin to that happened to you, and if it has not then it could, for it is never too late to hear your name and to say, Raboni. Let us pray.

Lord Christ, we thank you for the many blessings of your resurrection and for Kamara and her family who, though the rite of Baptism, help us to reclaim the meaning of the empty tomb. Help Kamara as she grows to grow in understanding of this day. Help us all to rejoice that we have risen from the waters of baptism as new creatures. Help us to live lives worthy of Christ who died for us that we could know how to die to sin, and rose that we could know how to live as resurrected people.

Amen.

 The Lord is risen. The Lord is risen indeed.

 As we have moved thorough the events of this week, remembering the events that took place in Palestine about 33 A.D. I have been using an image that I think I got from an amazing little book by John Stott, called Basic Christianity. The image usefully reminds us that those events really did change the world we live in. We live in a different world than we did before they happened, because we have access to God in ways we did not have before. On Palm Sunday a week ago, I said that the note of triumph in our liturgy on that day, was a kind of overture for the triumphal music of Easter Sunday. Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday framed the dark events in the middle of the week. So now we have passed through our remembrance of the Last Supper and Good Friday, come out on the other end of the tunnel into the light.

 When the secular world gets caught up in one of our Church Feasts, as it does at Christmas and Easter, it is easy enough for church folks forget what  Easter is all about. And when the Feast coincides with a seasonal shift, as it does at Easter, It is easy enough to get so caught up in the joy of seeing the snow melt away and in our eagerness to be out in raking the lawn, that we forget what Easter is about.  Certainly it is easy enough for priests and pastors to do that. In the rush to get the bulletins prepared, the music planned, the sermons at least thought about, it is easy to forget what Easter is all about.

 So let us remind ourselves briefly that the word Easter does not occur in the Bible. The church calls this The Feast of the Resurrection. This is the Sunday of the Empty Tomb. This is the day when the women went to the burial place and found it empty and went back and told the disciples. As Jesus appeared to the disciples over the next 40 days, and as the Holy Spirit exploded in their midst,  they gradually understood that all the things that Jesus said were true--that Jesus was who he said he was, that he was the son of God, that he was the long-promised Messiah, that he had not only restored the fortunes of Israel, but extended  those blessing to the gentle nations, that he had  become the final sacrifice for the sins of the nation, that he had established the Kingdom of God and shown us how to live in it, in a life of devotion, sobriety, and joy and loving service, that he had offered himself in place of all  those goats and pigeons that were being slaughtered in the temple to atone for the sins of the people, that really  had entered into death and come out on the other side, changing the nature of death, taking away its finality, promising a final restoration of the world to the harmony with which it had been created, that by walking willingly to his death, he had shown us how to die to sin and rise to new life Jesus was not the first to promise these things.. There were a lot of people around claiming to be the Messiah, and we even know some of their names: Simon Bar Kochba, Life of Brian. Most people had never heard of them, because when they died, their movements died with them. We know the name of Jesus because he rose from the dead, not in the form of a ghost or spirit, but with a new body, a form never seen before, one  that walked through walls but still ate broiled fish. Jesus was who he said he was, which means that the disciples had to go back through all the things he said and get those written down and study them and create a community to do the things he said to do while they waited for his final coming.

 Today we are lucky to have Kamara Riggin and her family with us, to help us keep track of what today means, because much of the meaning of The Resurrection is condensed into the Baptismal ceremony. Let me name just two.

 One is choice. On that week in Palestine, Jesus made choices. In the garden, He could have prayed, Let this cup pass from me, and stopped and and probably it would have. But he chose to say, “Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.” When Pilate said “Are you the son of God?” he could have saved his life by saying No I was only kidding. Because Jesus made the decisions he did, we have choices we did not have before. When we baptize Kamara, we scoop water over her forehead three times in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That is symbolic of Jesus immersion into the waters of the Jordan and to transform the water as we transform this water with our prayers. Jesus chose to do that, and Kamara’s family chose to have her follow Him. And we can decide to embrace again our baptism into  Christ, to make him our avenue to God, to put him at the center of our life.

 That is why we ask so many questions at our Baptism.  I will  ask Kamara’s sponsors, some hard questions, such as “Do you renounce the Devil and his works,” and they are called to respond, “We renounce them.” Then I will ask you If YOU believe in God the Father, creator of heaven and earth, in Jesus Christ his only son, and in the holy Spirit. Those questions are the Apostles Creed put in Q&A format and they are followed by five of the hardest questions I know. They are questions like, “Will you seek and serve Christ in all Persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?”  and “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being?” They are so hard that we don’t even ask you to say I will, we ask you only to say, I will with God’s Help, for without God’s help, none of us would be able to say yes or have the least idea how to put our yes into actions. The questions Christ asked in Palestine in 33 A.D. were real questions.  I hope you will think of the questions today  as real questions and if you are not sure what they mean our are not sure how to say Yes,  I hope you will take them home with out you and ponder them in your heart, seeking counsel in scripture and in the wise commentary on scripture, such as might be found in books like these. 

 Another way the Baptism condenses the Easter mystery is with names. We know names are important.  have read that the most beautiful word in one’s native language is your name. When we were passing though adolescence and establishing our identity, most of us spent hours doodling our names in different decorative shapes. Over time we most of us spent time selecting and polishing  a unique signature. In primitive cultures, people will not give their names to people they do not trust, for they believe that a person who has their name can wield power over them. Identity theft has become the signature crime for our digital age.

 Four names are important this morning: Jesus, Mary, and Kamara, and yours. The most important name, of course he hear this morning is the name of Jesus. In Philippians 2:10, Paul  says that “At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow,” and we have a hymn in which that phrase is set to music: At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, every tongue profess him, king of glory now.  On the internet and even in books, you can find lists of the 100 names all the names for Jesus, in alphabetical order, from Advocate, Almighty, and Author of Life, all the way to Way, Wisdom, and Word, with Biblical citations.  

 What is most important about our name is that when Jesus speaks it and we respond, our life changes. We saw that happen in this morning’s gospel, where Mary goes to the tomb. She sees the risen Lord but fails to recognize him until he speaks her name. “Mary” he says, she responds, “Raboni,” which means teacher or master. Later morning, I will ask Kamara’s sponsors, Who presents this child for baptism,” and they will say, “We present Kamara Riggin for baptism.” On behalf of Christ’s church, I will speak Kamara’s name when I pour water onto her forehead and again when we make the sign of the cross with oil on her forehead. We think that something akin is happening to Kamara that happened to Mary, that Jesus is calling her name and they she will recognize him, now and later in her life.  We think that something akin to that happened to you, and if it has not then it could, for it is never too late to hear your name and to say, Raboni. Let us pray.

 Lord Christ, we thank you for the many blessings of your resurrection and for Kamara and her family who, though the rite of Baptism, help us to reclaim the meaning of the empty tomb. Help Kamara as she grows to grow in understanding of this day. Help us all to rejoice that we have risen from the waters of baptism as new creatures. Help us to live lives worthy of Christ who died for us that we could know how to die to sin, and rose that we could know how to live as resurrected people.

Amen.