Pentecost: Baptism, Lawn Mowing & Hope

This morning is a time of celebration, a time of renewal, a time of hope.  A time of hope in which we face the struggles we share as individuals and the struggles we face as a human race and we say there is more to life than this: there is God.

We do this by remembering the pouring out of the Holy Spirit which draws us home into relationship with God; we do this by remembering our own baptisms and as we baptise Wesley; and we do this by breaking bread and drinking from the cup of Christ.  In the act of our remembering God we believe and hope that God will transform us.

One of the most fundamental questions we can ask is, 'what is the purpose of my life?'  Today, in the context of our remembering we hear an answer to this question which as people who follow Jesus defines the purpose of our lives.  We who are baptised into the community of faith live out our baptisms: this is our purpose to be disciples of Jesus.

So how does this look?  In the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians he writes,

4Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

The gifts that we are given are for the building up of the whole, they are for the common good.  I want to show you an example of what it has meant for one person to live out their baptism here in this congregation.

I want to invite Vic to come and join me on this chair at the front. 

A couple of weeks ago I received a letter of resignation from Vic from the lawn mowing roster.  He was the only one left on it.  To give you an idea of the extent of this service Vic has been on the lawn roster in this church for around 50 years.  This is basically from when he and Jean moved up from Melbourne.

Vic has served in many other ways in the congregation.  He has been a Sunday school teacher and boys club teacher, he has been on the Property Management Committee, he has been an Elder and on Church Council.  Yet, his faithfulness to keeping our yard tidy has spanned more years than I have been breathing.

I'm not sure this is what Paul had in mind when he wrote to the Corinthians about a variety of gifts and services but I have no doubt that Vic has understood this is what it means to live out his baptism and in this it is precisely what Paul was writing about.

When I asked Vic about why he kept doing it for so long, at first, he joked that he was too dopey to get off the roster.  But I know Vic better than this so I pressed him a little further.  It has long been Vic's opinion that the worst witness a congregation can give to the local community is to have an untidy property.

For Vic, keeping the property tidy has always been about witness.  As a disciple of Christ, he has been living out his baptism to ensure that this congregation has a good reputation in the community and always looks welcoming and loved for those who come here.

We were discussing Vic's long and loving service to the congregation the other night at Bible Study and it lead us into a conversation about our rosters in the congregation.  Why do we have them? Why do we do them?  What purpose do they serve?

Very quickly John reflected into the conversation that the rosters are an expression of our love.  To push his comment a bit further I would suggest it is an expression of our love for God, our love for one another, and our love for others.  In this, it should and can become an expression of our hospitality as God’s people as we use our gifts for the common good, building up the whole!

Participating in these rosters can reflect our baptism, yet in our life as a congregation they are only one side of the story. I suggested the other evening at Bible Study that in the shifting sands of culture that maybe as we face the future new and different rosters will be needed.  Rosters which encourage us to think more deeply about the world and community around us.

I'd like to invite Naa to come and bring Wesley to the front and sit on this other chair.

This morning we will baptise Wesley.  The world and life into which Wesley is being baptised is, in so many ways, vastly different to the world that Vic was baptised into.

This is not simply because Wesley is being baptised in Australia and will go home and grow up in Ghana but because in the last 80 years the world has got a whole lot smaller and the big issues we face as humanity and also as the church are shared internationally.

So, the question for us this morning is what challenges lie ahead for Wesley as he, encouraged by Naa and Franklin, learns what it means to be a disciple of Jesus and to live out his baptism.

If we consider for a moment the world that Vic was born into.  He was born as the world headed into depression and he grew up during a time of war.  It was a time when the church in Australia and the Western world in general was pretty strong.  But the advances in technology from the time of his birth to now are absolutely mind blowing – transport, science, communication, education, health care, standards of living almost unrecognisable.

In this year that Wesley has come to us we face a sense of being a global community like no other time in history.  Religious sectarianism is strong, as is the growth of atheism.  As a global community we face the changing of the climate, sea level rises, world food shortages and wars fought over access to water and arable land.  Millions of refugees traverse the globe fleeing conflict whilst in wealthy countries the standard of living continues to rise as do the technological advances.

For Wesley to live as a witness to Christ’s love and hope in this world it will be different than it was for Vic.  Maybe, just maybe, he might mow a church lawn but maybe, just maybe, more will be asked of him as he discerns gifts of understanding and wisdom in the face a the great issues of his time.

The pouring of God’s Holy Spirit indicates that God is aware of the changing context of our lives as humanity.  The Spirit is dynamic and renewing and refreshing and leads us to new insights and new hope.   The Spirit inspires us with new gifts pertinent to our era.

Maybe church rosters will develop new emphases which not only create a place of welcome but a responsibility to be apostles: which means those who are sent out to share the good news. 

This morning is a time of celebration, a time of renewal, a time of hope.  A time of hope in which we face the struggles we share as individuals and the struggles we face as a human race and we say there is more to life than this: there is God.

We do this by remembering the pouring out of the Holy Spirit which draws us home into relationship with God; we do this by remembering our own baptisms and as we baptise Wesley; and we do this by breaking bread and drinking from the cup of Christ.  In the act of our remembering God we believe and hope that God transforms us and lead us to live out our baptisms as disciples, being living signs of the hope that we have for the whole world.