Eucharist with the Baptism of Baby Harry

Sermon for Sunday 16th June                    by Canon Jo

Eucharist with the Baptism of Baby Harry

Gospel reading: Mark 4.26-34

When I was very little, the way from my house into town went past a river. And one day when I was still in my pushchair, as my mother pushed me along the path into town beside the river, there was a group of people standing around the bottom of a willowtree. ‘There’s no one to look after them’ someone was saying. ‘We need someone to help and rescue them.’ My mother had one of those oldfashioned shopping baskets, and she draped a scarf over it to make a nice shelter… and so it was that once everyone had helped find and gather them together – we came straight back home with six tiny ducklings that had been in a nest in a hollow in the willow tree! (Sadly, a dog had come too close and the mother had to fly off and abandon the ducklings.)

They were so newly-hatched that they imprinted on my mother and used to follow her about the house as they grew bigger, scurrying and cheeping and trying to keep up.

But the problem came when they were old enough to start swimming. Because the first yellow fluff of ducklings isn’t waterproof. Very small ducklings, if they are not under the care of an adult duck, to get the oil from under her wings to make their fluff feathers waterproof, will not float but sink if they try to swim! We had to make sure the little ducklings were safe to swim and had enough oil on their feathers in order to keep them buoyant - before we tried them out at swimming, first in a washing up bowl in the garden and then on the next-door neighbours’ pond.

We are going to anoint Harry with oil later in the service as he is baptised – and this oil, together with all God’s love being poured out over him in baptism – means in effect that he will have that extra help, God’s help to stay afloat in life. Even if there are storms in life, God promises to us in baptism that we will be able to swim and not sink.

Being marked with oil, with the sign of the cross and with the mark of Christ’s grace in christening, means that we will be supported and buoyed up all the time on our pilgrimage through life, on our life’s voyage.

Jesus as we heard in the Gospel did some of his teaching from when he was afloat in a boat so that he could be seen and heard by all those who came down to the seashore to meet him and listen to him. Jesus knew how quickly the sea can get choppy and how we need all the help we can get to stay afloat sometimes, and brave our way through difficulties. He taught about how faith can grow from tiny beginnings to be a strong and sturdy tree, which can withstand stress and storms – and that many may come to look to us for support and shelter, like birds coming to find safety in the branches of a tree. We pray for Harry today that he will grow and become strong and valiant and full of faith – and like us, he will have times he can hold out hope and encouragement to those who face discouragement or have been brought low by sickness or struggles in life.

Like those ducklings, we who have been baptised and anointed with oil have God’s provision in our lives so that we are able to float and stay buoyant. The waters of chaos are calmed when the water of baptism and the oil of anointing is poured out into our lives.

And as we grow and grow into our baptism faith more and more, we can learn to sail more and more confidently afloat on God’s love – putting out into the deep, and embracing to the full all the adventures that God offers to us.

Because with God’s love and care, our pilgrimage, our life’s voyage will bring us safely to the landing, and the rest, and the harbour that our journey over the waters is all about. In baptism God promises Harry today, to be with him in joy and in sorrow, to be his guide in life, and to bring him safely to heaven. This is what God has promised to us all in baptism: to be with us in joy and sorrow, to be our guide in life and to bring us safely to heaven.

With God making sure that we will always float and never sink, in baptism we begin the life that will lead us on to

the Haven that awaits us: that harbour where we are held secure forever in the joy and welcome that is Heaven.