Everyone’s Involved
Mark 9:30-37
Rev. Kenneth M. Locke, Interim Pastor
Orchard Park Presbyterian Church; Carmel, IN
September 22, 2024; Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Today we are celebrating the Sacrament of Baptism. As Presbyterians we recognize two sacraments – these purveyors of grace, visible signs of God’s invisible grace. Communion is the sacrament of nurture. In communion we are spiritually nourished to live the abundant life God wants us to live. Baptism is the sacrament of welcome. We welcome the newly baptized into the abundant life of loving relationships with God and one another. In baptism we recognize what we already know to be true: God has chosen to love this child. This child has been completely submerged in God’s love.
As Presbyterians we baptize a lot of babies, but there’s no minimum or maximum age. We baptize newborns but we can also baptize people in their teens, twenties, thirties, on up into their eighties and nineties. We baptize those who are new to the faith. We baptize those who are joining the faith.
Which brings us to our Scripture lesson.
Jesus has been talking about his death and resurrection but the disciples don’t know what he means. Instead of screwing up their courage and asking him, they fall to bickering among themselves. They argue over which one of them is the greatest. Who’s the GOAT, we would say. Which of them is the Greatest Of All Time.
The disciples are bent on being exclusive. There’s only one GOAT. Only one Greatest of All Time. Everyone else has to be average, at best. The disciples are all about being exclusive.
Jesus, however, is all about being inclusive. Jesus is about serving everyone, about being servant of all. The emphasis is on all.
Jesus holds up a little child. The Greek word is not specific. Any age from a babe-in-arms to elementary school. The point is the child is young, and it’s any child. Male, female, rich, poor, cute, snotty-nose, doesn’t matter. Welcome the young one, regardless of parentage or background.
For us, that means welcoming the young in faith. We as the church don’t just welcome children, we welcome everyone who is new to the faith. Regardless of how old they are or what they’re like.
More and more, we are welcoming adults who are infants in faith. It’s more and more common for adults to know very little about Christianity. They know the cross has something to do with Jesus, and that’s about it. But Jesus calls us to welcome them the same way we would welcome a child. Wholeheartedly, enthusiastically.
And this is hard for churches. It really is. Like the disciples, we tend to be exclusive. I ask churches about their ideal new parishioner, and after a little discussion they realize they all want someone exactly like themselves. Same level of commitment, education and world view, but 40 years younger. That’s exclusive.
And that’s not where Jesus is. Jesus is about all of us welcoming everyone with the same abundant exuberance we would show a child.
And this brings me to my final point. Baptism is about all of us. Everyone is involved. Baptism is a sacrament of the church and it’s done by the whole church. Everyone here, and online, is involved. Our session authorizes, a minister presides, but we, the church, are baptizing the young in faith into the abundant life of God’s love. That’s why part of our baptismal liturgy today is in bold print, so we can all participate in this joyful welcome. So we can all be part of welcoming this child into the faith and nourishing her parents to raise her to know God, and to live the abundant life of followers of Jesus, serving and welcoming all. Amen.