When there is a Baptism, the church grows. For that reason, and also because I think Baptisms here are wonderful, I’m sorry that we don’t have a Baptism today.
This Sunday is one of the four major feasts during the church year when Baptisms are often celebrated. It’s a logical day to do that.
Today we hear how Jesus himself was Baptized by John with water and filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and publicly called the Son of God by a voice from heaven. Someone who is Baptized is simply following in Jesus footsteps, baptized in water, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and marked forever as one of God’s children. Of course one of us being Baptized into the Body of Christ is a bit different from Jesus submitting to John’s Baptism - that is a sermon for another day - but I think the parallel imagery is quite clear.
When you Baptize someone, you baptize the person by name. “Matthew. I Baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” It’s a powerful statement.
You might be familiar with the tradition of changing your name or adding a new name at Baptism. In a similar vein, sometimes people choose names at Confirmation. I remember when I was confirmed we were all supposed to chose a name. I chose Matthew. I was happy with the name I already had.
The tradition of changing you name at Baptism goes back at least to the fourth century Acts of Saint Balsamus who is quoted saying: “I am called Balsamus, but by the spiritual name which I received in Baptism, I am known as Peter.”
Obviously there are a number of people renamed in Scripture: Simon called Peter by Jesus; Saul renamed Paul. Its not just a New Testament thing: Abram and Sarai renamed Abraham and Sarah by God.
The two most common reasons people are often asked to choose Baptismal names is because they have names that are obviously not Christian names or because they have names that are difficult to pronounce.
I’ve heard stories of priests who when doing Baptisms say: “name this child”. When the child’s name is given and the priest doesn’t recognize it, the priest just inserts Mary or Peter or John instead. My great grandfather was named Hazzard Hoxsie. Can you imagine what might have happened at his Baptism? “Name this child” “Hazzard” “Hazzard?” “Did you say Peter?” “Peter, I baptize you…”
How important is a name? Some Christians obviously think its important enough to change it to something more Christian.
That’s not the only was a name can seem important.
I was recently at a church and spoke to one of the parish leaders about the best way to grow a church. “Names.” He said. “You have to get to know everyone’s name.”
It sounded good at first – the place where everyone knows you name. But the more I thought about it, the more turned off I was by the idea that a church was the place where everybody knows you name. The TV show Cheers featured a bar where everyone knew everyone else’s name, and every episode featured the same cast of worn out characters and a few visitors who never came back. Sometimes new people do stay, but usually the simply replace someone leaving the show.
The place never changed, it never grew, its just remained the place where, if you were a regular, then everybody knew your name.
I meet people every day at Saint Mary’s. Its not that I don’t know their names – usually I don’t. Often I can’t even pronounce their names. Times Square is one of the crossroads of the world, we have people visiting from New Jersey, New Mexico, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea. I met a guy named Blaze last week. “Blaze, that’s a neat name.” “Oh, its not my real name. I’m from the Ivory Coast, you can’t pronounce my name.” “Well, what is it?” After he told me his name, I said: “Wow. So how long have you been in New York, Blaze?”
If there were a Baptism today here, this church would certainly grow, regardless of whether or not the person chose or was given a new Baptismal name. We would add a member to our roles and someone who was not a Christian yesterday would be one today. That person would be recognized first and foremost as a child of God: “Thou art my beloved son.” “Thou art my beloved daughter.” It would have been so awesome, and nobody would care if the person being Baptized was named Blaze or Peter.
Just because there isn’t a Baptism today doesn’t mean that the church won’t grow.
If you are visiting today, please come up and introduce yourself to me or to one of our greeters.
I don’t know your name, but that doesn’t change the fact that I want you to know that you are welcome in this house of worship as if you’d been here your whole life. You may not know me at all and you might not see me again for a long time, but you are my sister in Christ. You are my brother in Christ.
Likewise if you are a regular here, I think today is a great day to make an effort to introduce yourself to someone whose name you don’t know. Someone visiting or maybe someone you’ve seen but never gotten around to saying hello to.
This isn’t a place where everyone knows your name, and that’s because it’s a place that is actively welcoming in new people and growing.
This isn’t a place where we make you change your name so that you fit in better.
This is a place where everyone is welcome and God willing where everyone is treated as a brother or sister, a beloved in Christ.
A Baptism is an amazing this, but so is discovering a new brother or sister in Christ.
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