water fire oil

Pentecost 3B
St Paul’s Church, Ipswich
9 June 2024

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Water, fire and oil

Here at St Paul’s Church in Ipswich this Sunday we are going to start a young girl on a journey that will take the rest of her life to complete.

She is too young to choose this journey or embrace this life, just yet.

But her family appreciates that it is never too early to begin learning the ways of God that we learn from Jesus. 

Just as she will learn to walk with the example, encouragement and support of her family; so she will learn the walk the way of Jesus from them—and from us.

As this new disciple begins her journey as a Christian, we shall use three very ancient symbols: water, fire and oil.

Water

The primary symbol of Baptism is water.

There can be a lot of water or just a small amount, but there has to be some water.

Water is the great symbol of life: clean, fresh and abundant life. 

In the ancient temple at Jerusalem huge amounts of water were poured out at the end of the Festival of Sukkot. The water symbolised their prayers for winter rain to bring new life to their parched land as summer drew to a close.

When an adult is baptised, they are turning away from their old life to embrace their new as a follower of Jesus. The old is flushed away and everything is new, fresh and alive.

We are praying for the waters of baptism not only to renew and revitalise this chid, but also to transform, cleanse and revitalise her family.

Parents, godparents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins and siblings … even her church family here at St Paul’s … we all need the fresh rains to fall upon us and renew the life of Christ within us.

Fire

A dancing flame speaks to us of the great mystery at the heart of our religion.

How do we imagine God?

Fire is one of the best ways to do that.

As we watch the flames dancing around we can catch a glimpse of the God who comes among us, draws us into God’s own life, and gives us the double blessing of light and warmth.

Our fires here this morning are pretty tame, but there are lots of them. There are candles everywhere, and one big candle—the Easter Candle—that represents the risen life of Christ.

We shall take some of the fire from that candle to light a Baptism Candle. 

When we do that the fire is divided, but not diminished; it is shared and increased.

More light.

More warmth.

As we welcome this child into our community of faith we promise to teach her how to tend the fire of God in her own life, so that it never goes out but always sheds light and warmth to those around her.

And we teach that best when we tend the sacred fire within us as well.

Oil

In ancient times the kings of Israel were anointed with sacred oil from the olive groves. We saw that last year when King Charles was anointed with oil brought to London by my friend, Hosam Naoum, the Anglican Archbishop in Jerusalem.

Priests and prophets were also anointed, and the title “Christ” is given to Jesus because we believe he is the anointed one, the chosen one; christos.

As we anoint this chid, we say that God has chosen her for something that only she can ever do. Out of all the billions of humans who have lived on this planet, the child is called and chosen to be the blessing to the universe that only she can be.

And so are you.

And so am I.

For those who will have an opportunity to bless this little girl with the sacred oil, let me suggest you also make the sign of the cross on your own forehead.

Claim a blessing for yourself as well as giving one to her.

Because God has a blessing for you.

We are each chosen to be that person which only we can ever be.

There are other symbols in this service, so keep an eye out for them as we go along.

But the big three are water, fire and oil.

May this child know the profound blessings that these symbols represent, and we may know them in our own lives as well so that we can make this world more like the way God intends it be.

It’s a big job, but that’s what we sign up for as followers of Jesus.