A Baptism on Mothering Sunday

Today is one of those special days when we have an opportunity to treasure something of great value and of great importance. On Mothering Sunday, Mothers Day and on the day when we join in the baptism of Silvia it’s a great opportunity for us to celebrate the importance of family.

It was great meeting up with Alan and Daniela – and it really was one of those classic occasions. The conversation goes something like this …

Oh, so you’re from Wales!

That’s right!

Which part of Wales?

South Wales.

Where in South Wales?

Near Cardiff.

Where near Cardiff?

Just up the valley from Pontypridd.

That’s the Rhondda.

That’s right.

So, where in the Rhondda?

Porth …

Well my mother was born in Porth – it’s at this point that things can become really exciting were it not for one small thing.

The fact that my mother was a Jones from Porth as well .. does not necessarily mean it was the same Jones family.

We’ve thoroughly enjoyed doing family history, tracing the family tree.

There’s something about doing family history that is very fascinating. Doing a family tree really only works backwards.

You can start with yourself and trace the family tree back. I can go back on my father’s side of the family to the 1600’s. On my mother’s side of the family we don’t go quite so far back.

It is not possible to pick an individual in the 1600’s and then build up a family tree forwards. The problem is that you go wider and wider and wider. So the individual you choose in the 1600’s would have so many descendants by now it would not be possible to trace them all.

Tracing your family tree gives you a sense of who you are … this is where I have come from. Be it Wales, Italy or wherever … and it’s precious.

In our service today we celebrate the possibility of belonging to another family too. The family of God’s people, the family of the church. Inside that family there is a very real sense of belonging. The very real sense of belonging that we have comes from tracing that family back.

We welcome Silvia today into the whole family of the church wherever it may be … but we do that here in this particular church. Silvia is in a line of people who have been baptised here and welcomed into that church family. We have our baptismal role on the wall taking us back 50 years and more. From our archive we have earlier rolls, called a Cradle Roll – they go back a lot further. These are all people who have been welcomed into the family of the church here in Highbury.

But our church goes back to 1827 – but we go further back still.

Our family tree is taking us back and back and back – until we reach one point in particular and one person in particular – until we reach Jesus.

It is in the love God has for all that can be seen in Jesus that we find our roots.

Jesus uses this same kind of picture of a tree with roots as a picture of his family as it extends through the years to us.

I am the vine and you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, and I in him will bear much fruit.

Being part of the family gives a sense of rootedness, but it is also a network of support that is valuable, a sense of identity that makes us the people we are.

The network of support of the church family is something invaluable as it gives us a way of supporting each other.

But through that support there is so much of value to be gained by looking to Christ.

I found myself in conversation recently with a colleague who had been out in New Zealand when the earthquake struck. The rector of the church where they were staying had to travel to the other island where a little one in his own family had died in the earthquake.

We were sharing with each other the difficulties there are in having faith in the face of difficult times. He spoke of an interview where John Humphreys was questioning Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, about God in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake.

“When such things happen, how do you believe in God?” There was seemed like an endless pause, then Rowan Williams replied … “only just.”

There is an honesty in that response, that is an honesty we who value the importance of faith would do well to seek.

Believing in God can be difficult in the world that these little ones are growing up into.

For me as a Christian I don’t want to start with some philosophical idea of God.

I want to do the family tree thing … and go back to Jesus. He teaches a way of life based around love and concern for others that makes a world of difference in every generation – that’s something I want to pass on to these little ones entering into this world.

Where he is confronted by suffering he brings healing. But there are times when that suffering gets the better of him and at the death of his friend Lazarus he weeps.

In Christ there is something of God that is different from the philosophical idea of God so many people who don’t feel part of the family have. This God is the one who is with us through the dark times, who comes alongside us when things are at their worst and stays with us. There is no escaping the valley of the deepest darkness – but the God Jesus makes real for us is the God who is with us through that valley.

Let’s hold on to the God Jesus opens up for us – let’s feel part of that family tree going all the way back to Jesus – for as we are in him we will bear much fruit.

I am the vine and you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me.

The Jesus we look back to is the Jesus who went to the cross, and through the suffering of the cross came through to a resurrection we can share. His presence is with us enabling us to live the kind of life that can make a positive difference to others. He will be the strength alongside us that we need for the living of our lives.

This is the Jesus at the root of the family tree we celebrate being part of today.

Jesus knew full well that this image of the tree, the vineyard was one that reached back into the mists of time. I want to finish with a very short reading that contains a wonderful promise. It comes from Isaiah 27 verse 2-3.

This is God’s promise to each of us as we are part of the family tree of Jesus – as we are the branches and he is the vine.

If we are going through difficult times, if we are conscious of the sadnesses around us in our world, then this is a promise to hold on to. But it is also a promise to hold on to as we think of Silvia, of Luca of all the little ones who are part of our church family looking into the future.

On that day the LORD will say of his pleasant vineyard, 3 “I watch over it and water it continually. I guard it night and day so that no one will harm it.