Fresh and new

Candlemas 2012
Malachi 3: 1-4; Ps 84; Hebrews 2: 14-18; Luke 2: 22-40

(Note: Jack Eberlein, young son of Lydia and Steve, was Baptized at the 10 AM Candlemas liturgy. Jack was a very attentive listener, only occasionally offering a coo or gurgle in response)


Today, Jack, everything is made fresh and new.

You’re being baptized today. Earlier today your mom and dad brought you to this place complete with an altar and with the sound of sacred songs and of prayers, the smell of incense.

Your mom and dad and sister Zoe waited a long time for you and knew that, when you came, all their lives would have a new beginning. They expected that. They also knew that there were surprises coming, that no one really knows how your story will turn out.

We heard another story about babies and surprises just a few minutes ago, Jack.

We heard about a mom and a dad who brought their baby son to a place where there was an altar, where sacred songs were sung and prayers were said and the smell of incense filled the air. They were happy. They knew their lives had changed forever. They knew that their baby’s life would be full of surprises, and that no one really knew how the story would end.

That other fresh young baby boy was also the Son of God sent into the world. God was doing something surprising and new by coming into a world where moms and dads bring babies into the world and do not know the surprises that await them. Was God feeling the same joy, the same sense of anticipation, the same sense of fresh newness?

Because there would be nothing but surprises from then on. Because nothing would be the same.

Jack, we’re making a much bigger fuss over you today than most people made over that other baby. That other place with the altar and the songs and the incense was a big and busy place, and lots of people came and went every day. We’re all paying lots of attention to you. That other baby only had two people, Simeon and Anna, old enough to be his grandpa and grandma, paying him attention and calling to other people to come take a look. “Come see the baby who will change everything!” they said. Some people paid attention, others were too busy.

Because God was doing a new, fresh thing, so fresh and new that almost no one expected it and no one knew how the story would end. The old man told the baby’s Mom that her baby would shake things up for everyone, that everyone would begin to notice poor people and that rich and powerful people would not be able to pretend that only their lives mattered. He told the baby’s mom that sad things would happen too.

But Jack, today we are happy because God tells us that new things are happening even now and that all of us, no matter how old and how tired and how discouraged we may feel, all of us can be fresh and new and that God brings each of us in to meet him just like you were brought in today, Jack, and just like that other baby was brought in by his mom and dad. Your mom and dad gave you a name already. That other baby was named Jesus after his mom and dad talked it over and they remembered a name that came to them in a dream. “Jesus” means “God puts me in an open place.”

In just a few minutes you will be baptized, Jack, and Jesus will put you in that fresh, open space forever. Jesus is that open space, and all of us will remember our own Baptisms and will thank God that we have also been put in an open space. Our hearts are made pure and clean, not by trying real hard to be good on our own but because Jesus makes them clean. We come into God’s temple not on our own, but carried in God’s loving arms. We stand here amazed and happy that in this old dusty world God is showing us bright and new life.

Thank you, Jack, for being baptized today, today when we are brought into the Temple along with Jesus, that other little boy. Thank you for reminding us that God makes us all fresh and clean and young, by water and the Holy Spirit, on the day when we remember the fresh and pure and surprising new life that God shares.