Today
we remember the Conversion of Paul, and also celebrate the baptism of
Annabelle. And as we hold these two events together, I’d like to draw three
things out of the account we have heard read to us from the Acts of the Apostles.
The
first thing I want us to take notice of is the way in which the Christian
community is described as ‘any who belonged to the Way.’ Jesus described
himself as the Way and the Truth and the Life, through whom we come to God, the
Father. He made that claim in Jerusalem, at the Passover, on the night before
his death; and the image ‘the Way’ would have brought to his disciples’ minds
is of following a guide through the narrow- and jam-packed bustling-crowd-filled
streets. You have to stay close or you get lost. The way to know God is not
through Believing The Right Things (though creeds and statements of faith help
us to talk about the God we can know) but through following Jesus, in whom God
has revealed himself to us; and through following Jesus in community with
others who are seeking to follow Jesus. Paul discovered that on the way – on the Way – to Damascus. On the way, on
the journey through life Annabelle is starting out on, we encounter Jesus …
…
which brings me to the second thing I want us to take notice of: that Paul – or
Saul, as he was known then – had an encounter with the risen Jesus that he was
not able to process but which nonetheless changed the course of his life. And
that is exactly what is happening today as we baptise Annabelle. She has no
conscious thought-processed idea of what is going on, and she will have no
conscious memory of this day. But when I speak to her and declare over her the
words ‘Christ claims you for his own,’ those words will be stored deep in her
soul, and they change her very identity - just as Saul’s identity was changed,
from enemy to ambassador. Paul spent the rest of his life reflecting on the
event we heard retold today (indeed, it is retold two more times, both in the
first person, in Acts). His onward
journey held drama and hardship, and other events which he could not understand
but in which he again met Jesus and discovered that meeting Jesus was enough.
You can read about some of his adventures in the Acts of the Apostles; and some of his reflections on life and faith
and Jesus in the letters Paul wrote. We have no way of knowing what the future
holds for Annabelle, but she, too, has an adventure ahead of her full of
opportunity to explore what today begins.
The
third thing I want us to take notice of is that in the act of being united with
Jesus in baptism, Paul receives a new family. Ananias – one of the people Saul
had come to Damascus to arrest - comes to him and addresses him as ‘Brother
Saul.’ And again, this is what will happen to Annabelle today. She is already
part of a family along with her parents, Rory and Victoria. But from today she
will also be part of a bigger family that includes [name some of the people
around the room] and over 2 billion other people around the world. Paul’s
letters are full of greetings and references to many friends he made walking
the Way together. As well as the facing difficult circumstances, and the
wrestling with things too deep to fully understand, we see a lot of love in the
pages he wrote. Our prayer for Annabelle, as we welcome her into the Way and as
we bear witness to Jesus claiming her for his own, is that she will always find
herself among family in this place.
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