How many of you or your parents have something that looks like this?

It’s Sophia’s baby scan!

How many of you or your parents have something like this?

It’s the little tag that was around her ankle.

And how many of you or your parents have baby albums or pictures a bit like this?

Most parents will have pictures of their children at key points, like first day at school pictures and birthday party pictures that they treasure and then bring out on your 18th or 21st birthdays.

Lots of parents are very pleased to record these memories and are pleased as their children grow. I hope over the years to have many other pictures of Sophia on the wall, not just this one here.

Our reading today gave us a glimpse of a very important parent child relationship. Our reading today was Jesus baptism.

 So I’d like to ask you a question. Do you think God was pleased with his son Jesus?

Yes we know he was because the Bible tells us that he was. The Bible says that when he was baptised a voice could be heard from heaven and it said ‘this is my dear son and I love him. I am very pleased with him.’

In Matthew 3.17, that’s where that quote comes from, first God said: this is my dear son. And next he said: I love him!

The pictures in our lives that our parents take of us, often show how pleased they are with us – although not exclusively!

But for most parents, the things they treasure the most all are the memories of their children being happy, and parents delight in that.

Now, when we get baptised, when we start our journey of faith, we aren’t just the children of our earthly parents, but we’re also the children of God.

And those words that God spoke over Jesus that day on his baptism he speaks over us. ‘This is my dear child and I love you. I am so very pleased with you.’

If many earthly parents proudly display the pictures of their children and their achievements, how much more is God proud of us and pleased with us? Do you think maybe God has photo albums of our proudest moments in heaven? I don’t know, but I do know that the Bible says that our names are written on his palms and in his book.

Each and every one of us, when we are baptised, become children of God. We are fully adopted, as loved and as treasured by God the father as he loves and treasures his Son Jesus.

We mark this change in ourselves at our baptism. Whether that happened as a child what is a grown up. Whether you made that decision for yourself or your parents made it for you. Baptism marks that moment.

Which is why even though we aren’t having a baptism today, the font is out at the front. Because I would like to invite all of you who’ve been baptised to renew your baptism vows.

I’m going to pray a prayer of blessing over the water, and invite each of you to come forward and receive the water in some way in remembrance of your baptism and your adoption into God’s family. You could put the water on your palms or on your head, or dip your whole face in if you feel that way inclined!

And if you haven’t been baptised, then you’re welcome to come and receive the water anyway as a sign of God’s blessing. But if you haven’t been baptised and would like to be, I know just the person who can help you!

Today it doesn’t matter if you are baptised long ago or baptised recently. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never really owned it for yourself or you feel like your faith is on fire.

In the reading for today from Jesus 100, by Robin Gamble, it says:

What about us and our big beginnings? Some people seem to gradually become followers of Jesus but for most of us the becoming will involve one or more decisive moments. Moments when we decide, change direction, say ‘yes’ and launch out into a new life or a new phase of our life. These are baptismal moments of new beginnings.¹

Baptism marks a change in our lives. A beautiful change, a special change, and that is why we celebrate it so much when we have baptisms here in church.

So today I invite you to come and commit afresh to him. Come to him who says you are my dear child and I love you. With you I am so very pleased.

Let us pray:

Loving Father, we thank you for your servant Moses, who led your people through the waters of the Red Sea to freedom in the Promised Land. We thank you for your Son Jesus, who has passed through the deep waters of death and opened for all the way of salvation. Now send your Spirit, that those who are washed in this water may die with Christ and rise with him, to find true freedom as your children, alive in Christ for ever. Amen.

1. 100 Days of Jesus, Robin Gamble, 2022 (p.45) ↩︎