13th Sunday after Trinity

Titus 3.3-7; John 3.1-8

I've changed the readings for this Sunday because we have baptisms at our 10.45 service and the readings I've chosen are amongst those appointed for Holy Baptism. The Canons of the Church of England say that baptisms should take place in divine service when the regular congregation is present. And that's for a number of reasons, not least because witnessing the baptism of a new member of the Church, the Body of Christ, reminds us of our own commitment and place in the same Body of Christ. Witnessing a baptism takes us right back to the root or foundation of who and what we are as a Christian.

During my study leave, as I came upon something that was new to me in the particular Church and tradition I was studying, whether it be a point of theology or spirituality or about the life of the Church I had to go right back to the beginning again and read about how things have developed over 2,000 years. And I found very often that things we do and believe now were established in the first few centuries of the Church. And reading about and learning about those things for the first time or indeed going over them again, I found not only helped me to understand and make sense of things in the present it also deepened my faith and love for God. And it also had the effect of changing me and how I see and understand the Church and my part in it.

One of the books I found myself reading while I was away is by St. Athanasius and entitled 'On the Incarnation'. The particular edition I read has an introduction by the late C S Lewis a great Christian writer of the 20th century. And in the introduction, where he talks about the need for us Christians to read not just modern writings but ancient writings as well, he says this: 'If you join at 11.00 o'clock a conversation which began at 8.00 you will often not see the real bearing of what is said. Remarks which seem to you very ordinary will produce laughter or irritation and you will not see why - the reason, of course, being that the earlier stages of the conversation have given them a special point.'

The church in the West, for the last 1,000 years has developed separately from the Orthodox Church which I was studying. So our respective conversations, if you like, have gone on separately for 1,000 years. In taking my study leave I found myself as it were in a different conversation, the language of which and what it was communicating, I found strange. There were bits in it I recognised but most of it I couldn't understand, so that's why I had to do my own research which as I said took me right back to the beginning to see how that Church had developed independently of the one I am part of. And then as I did that and kept on listening, as time went by what I was hearing and experiencing began to make more sense and the message that was being communicated to me and everyone else I began to understand and take to myself.

Many of us come to our Faith like that I think. We come to it and come to worship every Sunday and join in a conversation that's been going on for 2,000 years. And we wonder why it's strange sometimes and why we can't understand what we see or hear, in the message and in the worship, Sunday by Sunday. But C S Lewis gives us an answer.

When we are baptised we join in, become part of something that's been going on for 2,000 years. We become part of a Body, the Body of Christ that's been a real presence in the world for a very long time. And if we are to understand our part in it, if we are to realise fully what being a part of the Body of Christ means for us we have a lot of work to do in terms of seeing and hearing and coming to understand. And we have a lot of work to do in joining in even though we don't yet know what's going on, where what we are doing is leading us to, and what will be the outcome. We call that 'having faith.'

And this is a 'rest of your life' thing. When we are born, into the world, we have a whole life in front of us, learning and growing and bearing fruit and becoming part of the society which is the world, giving back to the world and others so that they grow too. And when we are born again into the Body of Christ we have a whole Christian life in front of us, a life of learning and growing and bearing fruit and becoming part of that Body which is the new world, if you like, the saved world of which we are part which itself is there for life of the world in which the Body of Christ finds itself.

I'll be talking more about how we go about living and learning and growing and taking our place in the Body of Christ at some other time. But for today lets just sum up, in a couple of sentences we've heard from the readings this morning. First from the letter to Titus; 'When the goodness and loving-kindness of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us...through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.' That's the start we are given, that's us joining in that age long conversation, being given the privilege of a part in it. And then from the gospel reading '...no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit (and this is capital S - God's Spirit, the Spirit of Christ) What is born of the flesh is flesh, what is born of the Spirit is spirit. ..The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.' And here we pick up the conversation in faith and as we live the Christian life in faith, as we live and grow in it and learn more and more, the Spirit of God takes us where it will.

How exciting is that? And what a great privilege to be part of that age-long, world changing conversation.