Roses from heaven: Words at a Baby's Baptism

Psalm 145

Sermon from 7 November 2010

            A few years ago, Kaylan’s Great Grandma Irene gave me this rose angel at Christmas.  Irene was at the Lodge in Black Diamond.  She waited until I finished the service and then had this rose ornament wrapped in tissue and in a pretty gift bag.  Her daughter, Laurel, made the ornament.  Laurel is Kaylan’s grandma who died a few months before he was born.  Irene died last December.    When Laurel made this ornament, she was in between cancer treatments.

 There’s a tradition that’s developed around roses and a woman saint from the 19^th century.  It is said that anytime you see roses, St. Teresa of Liseaux is up in heaven showering you with prayers and love.  Apparently before her death in 1896 from tuberculosis she said:  “After my death, I will let fall a shower of roses.  I will spend my heaven in doing good upon earth.”

  Years ago, a lay pastoral assistant at a Catholic Church in a community where I worked, told me about this wonderful tradition about St Teresa:  When we see roses, some wonderful caring, loving woman up in heaven who we never met is showering us with love and praying to God on our behalf. 

I’d like to think today that two wonderful, caring women, Laurel and Irene, are up in heaven and showering us with love and praying to God on our behalf.

Showering us with love.  Sounds a lot like “grace” -- God’s unconditional love for us.  And that’s what baptism is all about.  God’s love pouring out for us.  We use water in the baptism act because water itself is life-giving.  An outward symbol of the continuous love that God gives to us.

 As I go about my week as minister of this church, I find much to give thanks to God—it seems every day there are little miracles happening around us:  Someone getting through surgery well, repairs done to the front stairs, a new volunteer for one of our outreach programs, excitement about the study we’re starting, people responding to what they’ve read on the minister’s blog, wonderful stories our men told in the men’s breakfast yesterday, knowing I’d see Kaylan’s family again today….a lot of many things that for me, add up to much to be thankful for.

Our Scripture reading is all about excitement that God is in the every day and in each moment.

 “All living things look hopefully to you,
      and you give them food when they need it.
                   You give them enough
      and satisfy the needs of all.” (Psalm 145:15-16)

God’s grace – always pouring out for us – if we have eyes to see it. 

I found some wonderful words on baptism this week “After baptism, our entire life becomes the overflow of those baptismal waters, which is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.”  Out of the grace of God’s love, flow our lives and we live in the abundance of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.   “Baptism is how we link our lives to the life of Jesus. We bind our lives to his. And we commit to a way of life that gives life—that shines new life, that multiplies life, like Jesus did.”

          Martin Luther said during the 16^th century reformation, “all of Life is Baptism.    All of life is baptism. We are always being submerged in darkness and chaos, the stuff of life that causes despair, but we are always reborn into new life through it all. All of life is baptism. It means that every painful moment that seems like a little death in our lives is also the moment of the outpouring of new life, the overflow of Jesus’ baptismal waters, the movement of the Holy Spirit. All of life is baptism means that God is always creating new possibilities out of the stuff that seems like a dead end. That is the way of our baptism. We are always on the verge of new life, no matter what kind of trouble we’re in.” (“Fully Alive,” by Isaac Villegas, www.rustyparts.com)

 

St. Teresa of Liseaux was not at all famous when she was alive.  She was a nun who lived   a relatively normal life.   It was her spiritual writings that were published after she died that made her famous.  And she was simply writing about finding God in the day to day but it was the simplicity that people desired and made her writings so popular.   Her way to God was simply about grace that she called “the little way.”    She was a determined young woman, fighting her father at age 15 to let her fulfil her heart-felt desire to a nun.        She suffered many years with tuberculosis.  During the painful times, she knew despair and pain – yet what shines through in her writings is the strength and goodness she constantly found in God’s love.    She continued to see the grace and that’s what she held on to and what gave her strength.  (from Robert Ellsberg's book All Saints, Crossroad, 1997)

Henri Nouwen, Roman Catholic priest and writer of many books, wrote this simple poem:  

"The one who created us is waiting for our response to the love that gave us our being.
God not only says: "You are my Beloved".
God also asks: "Do you love me?
And offers us countless chances to say "Yes."

Baptism is God's "Yes" to us.  May we delight in the joy of life in saying “yes” to God all the days of our lives.