ISAIAH 61:10-62:3

PSALM 147:13-21

GALATIANS 3:23-25;4:4-7

JOHN 1:1-18

Sermon – 12/28/03

Kids and teenagers endlessly dream of being “grown-up”. What do you want to be when you’re grown-up?” is the cliché question for people who think they are grown-up to ask those who they think aren’t, but usually both sides think it’s a reasonable question to ponder. The culture and marketing forces seem to me also to constantly press children into thinking of themselves of “pre-teens” instead of children, and teens to think themselves to be entitled to adult freedoms without adult responsibilities. Adults, at the same time, strive to stay what they think of as “grown-up” and not to slip into dependence on other people which they may associate with childhood. These mindsets lead to 15 year-olds who think they should be allowed to drink and 95 year-olds who think they can still drive, both of which are dangerous propositions.

To all those of all ages who enslave themselves to their notions of being “grown-up”, St. Paul and St. John say: real maturity comes from being a child of God.

Neither the author of today’s Gospel nor the author of today’s Epistle were writing for children when they wrote glowingly of the opportunity people had (and have) through Christ of becoming “children of God.” They were talking about people of all ages, but they were writing for adults. Why would people deeply invested in becoming or staying “grown-up” be interested in becoming “children of God”?

Simply put, because either we become children of God or we are orphans spiritually. There is only one true God who offers us unconditional love, perfect guidance, 100% commitment, and longer-than-lifetime opportunities for indescribable joy. People may try to “adopt themselves” and “be their own gurus”, but sooner or later they realize how limited they are. People may try to make Fame or Fortune into their gods, but these fickle masters may only make people slaves to desires which can never be satisfied, desires which also may grow if their attainment shrinks. When people realize the futility of all the available alternatives to God, they may despair and feel themselves to be lost in the darkness, lost in the woods at night with a compass that points only to themselves.

Jesus Christ broke into the darkness of the world and offered Himself, the Light of the World. He offered – and offers – a way out of despair, darkness and delusion, and the way is to accept God’s offer to adopt us – whatever age we are matters not to God – as children of God, not slaves or peons but people of dignity, worth and status because we are infinitely loved by God.

Only by becoming children of God can we start to “grow into the full stature of Christ” as the baptismal service puts it. Our choice is simple: to start (or continue) to grow to that awesome stature, or to shrink until we are the least we can be.

Tyler’s parents and godparents want him to start on that long, challenging, wonderful road of limitless spiritual growth based in relationship to God and as part of the community of God’s people; that’s why they are bringing him to be baptized this morning. It’s not hard to picture him as a prospective child of God, since he’s a baby. But we all are called to think of ourselves in this light, to be humble enough to acknowledge that we ourselves alone don’t have all the answers and hungry enough to want to know the One who does have all the answers – who is Himself the Answer.

It’s a journey we can start – or recommit ourselves to – at any age. And so, Holy Baptism is also an opportunity for recommitment as well as commitment, for renewing baptismal vows as well as witnessing new ones.

What better time than this, when at this dark time of year we celebrate the coming of the Light of the world into the world? What better time than this, when in the midst of so much darkness and evil in the world around us we celebrate the reality that God has invaded the world with his love: “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church