My sermon two Sundays ago ended with a quote from an English theologian. He said: “It is not the task of Christianity to provide easy answers to every question, but to make us progressively aware of a mystery.” By the Christian life, we are made more aware of a mystery. We are made more conscious of the truth: truth which is only revealed in Jesus Christ through the workings of the Holy Ghost. When the Church speaks of “mystery,” it does not mean puzzle or conundrum. People read mystery novels, like Sherlock Holmes; people watch television programs and movies that are under the category or “murder-mysteries.” But “mystery” in the Church does not mean either of those. Mystery in the Church means truth that is only revealed to the people of God when it is God’s plan to do so. The life of a Christian, being a continual initiation into the reality of Pentecost, is the life whereby through the Liturgy and Sacraments, we are made more and more aware of truth that is revealed; of truth that is hidden; of truth that defies the constraints of human language.
There is perhaps no better illustration that Christianity involves profound mystery than the Sacrament of Baptism. As the Baptismal Liturgy expresses: in the water of Baptism we are buried with Christ in His Death; by the water of baptism we share in His Resurrection; and through the water of Baptism we are reborn by the Holy Ghost. The Sacrament of Baptism means being born again, to continue for ever in the risen life of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Our sin is forgiven, we are given an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and love God, and the gift of joy and wonder in all our works.
In Baptism, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own for ever. In Baptism, we are made one with Christ, a member of His Body the Church, and members one with each other in Christ. In Baptism the Saints of old become our friends, our colleagues, our family, our fellow way-farers. We are able to walk in the newness of life, united with Christ in His resurrected and glorified Body. And when we are baptized, we are able to feed on Christ: feed on him through faith in Holy Communion, and through Him revealed in Scripture: Christ is the Bread of Life, He is our daily Bread, and through baptism, we eat He Who is our life, our health, and our salvation. We eat Him that we might fully become Him Who we eat.
Jesus Christ is the Gospel, and in proclaiming the Gospel the Church proclaims the profound mystery of the Christian life, begun in baptism. Christ wants us to see the mystery of Himself, such as I have just outlined regarding Baptism. He wants us to see the mystery, or in the words from the English theologian, become aware of the mystery which is Christ and Him in us. We need not worry about understanding it all, right away or even over time; we are to experience it, not understand it. Who of us understands love? But we all have experienced love. We are to become aware of God’s mystery, to see the mystery inherent in Christian life as something very different than life outside the Church. By seeing it, we become aware of it. By becoming aware of it, we are able to more deeply engage it, and be engaged by the Holy Spirit.
The mystery of Baptism led the greatest Archbishop of Canterbury of the 20th century, blessed Michael Ramsey (who died in 1988), to write: “The life of a mature Christian is continually responding to the fact of our Baptism.” Only a mystery enveloped in hiddenness demands a whole life of response, a whole life of listening, reflecting, discerning, and doing. The fact of baptism demands, in the words of Saint Paul, the we must consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. As Paul teaches, our old self has been crucified with Christ in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin, indeed that we are set free from sin. Set free and enabled to love everyone without condition; free and enabled to bless those who abuse us, strike us, or take from us; free and enabled to love our enemies, do good, lend, and expect nothing in return. And in the end, free and enabled to say with the Prophet Job: “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though this body be destroyed, yet shall I see God; Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger.” Peace to you all who are in Christ Jesus; to Him be the glory both now and for ever. Amen.
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