Who
went trick-or-treating on Friday? Did you wear a costume? (Have kids call out
what they were). It was fun to be kind of hidden in that costume, wasn’t it?
Maybe other people didn’t even recognize you? Maybe you could act scary or have
superpowers or be fancy like a princess?
For
the kids who are going to be baptized in just a few minutes, they are going to
put on new clothing, too, kind of like you did on Halloween. They aren’t going
to put on a costume over their
clothes, though. They aren’t going to look any different on the outside. But
they are going to be changed on the inside!
They are going to put on Jesus. The new clothes that they are going to receive
are going to dress up their inner hearts and souls and minds. Just like you are
still Maggie and Alex and Keira when you put on your Halloween costumes, Ethan
is still going to be Ethan when he is baptized; Paul is still going to be Paul;
Valerie will still be Valerie; Isabela will still be Isabela …. They won’t look
any different to you and me, but they will each be wrapped in the Light of Christ
on the inside.
Thank
goodness, we don’t strip down to our underwear in church to be baptized
anymore, and we don’t jump into a big pool and stick our heads under the cold
water, but that’s what we pretend that we’re doing when we lean over that
little baptismal font and get our heads wet. When I pour water on Ethan, Paul,
Valerie, and Isabela’s heads, we’re going to imagine that they are taking off
their old, dirty everyday clothes and stepping into the bathtub to get all
clean. They are scrubbing away everything that is old and are getting ready to
put on their new costumes. After they are clean, I’m going to make a little
cross on their foreheads with special oil. I’m going to say: “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and
marked as Christ’s own forever.” That’s my favorite part of every baptism.
Being marked as Christ’s own forever is like getting dressed in their new
clothes—putting on Jesus’ clothes that will change them forever and ever on the
inside. From then on, they will be dressed as saints of God, holy men and holy
women just like the rest of us who are already clothed in Christ in baptism.
They will join us as part of the Body of Christ. When they first put on their
new “inside” clothes, those clothes might be a little big, and they will need
to grow into them. Someday, those clothes might get a little tight, and they
might have to squirm a little bit until the cloth stretches out enough to be
comfortable again. Sometimes Ethan and Paul and Valerie and Isabela will forget
that they have on those clothes. But it doesn’t matter—like you and me, they
will wear Jesus’ clothes forever. Nobody can take them off or have them stripped away from them. Nobody, no
matter what.
Now,
all of us celebrate our birthdays, right? Who has ever gotten a birthday card
or had a birthday party? Raise your hands! It is good to be remembered and
loved on our birthdays, isn’t it? When we remember the famous saints who have
died, though, have you ever noticed that we don’t remember them on their
birthdays? When we celebrate good St. Francis on October 4 or beloved St.
Nicolas on December 6, we aren’t observing the day that either one of them was born.
We are celebrating the day that they died! Why would we remember their deaths
instead of the days that they appeared on earth? It’s because death doesn’t
matter when we are clothed in Christ. Actually, when we die, we can better see
the glowing light that we wear as holy sons and daughters of God! Even death
can’t remove us from who we are as Christ’s Body.
Kids,
when you went trick-or-treating in your costumes on Friday, it was fun to be
going out with your family and friends, wasn’t it? Dressing up just to sit by
yourself in your room wouldn’t be nearly as much fun. There wouldn’t be anyone
to show your costume to. You couldn’t see what everyone else was wearing.
Today, on All Saints’ Day, we take the time to celebrate all of the saints
together for the same reason. We need to take the time to remember that in
baptism, we Christians are not only clothed in Christ forever, but we are also
joined together forever.
In
explaining some of the differences between Jewish and Christian readings of the
Scriptures, Jewish New Testament scholar Amy Jill Levine once explained in a lecture
I heard that Jews don’t get worried when there are many interpretations of the
same text. Rabbis love to brainstorm meaning after meaning from a text, piling
up multiple interpretations, without anyone getting nervous about disagreements
or contradictions. Jews can do that, Levine said, because one is born a Jew,
and there is nothing that one can say or do to change that fact. It is both a
race and a religion, and that gives people a sense of connectedness that
disagreement cannot ultimately threaten. Christians, on the other hand, become
Christians through belief—belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ—and
through baptism. We worry about our opposing interpretations of scripture
because we feel that we might “interpret” ourselves out of a place in the community!
However, All Saints’ Day reminds us, too, that in baptism, we are all Christ’s
Body, whether we agree with each other or not. If “the Church” unites heaven
and earth, present and future, near and far, in Christ, then we too should not
have to worry about our interpretations of scripture or our politics, or anything
else, making us “in” or “out.” By our Baptism, we are one, and we should be
able to search for God together, without fear.
In our baptismal clothing, we belong together
forever: together with the outcast and the vulnerable. Together with the saints
who founded this parish over 100 years ago. Together with the abiding love of
deceased friends and family members, the saints whom we can no longer see and
touch. Together with the Christian saints in the developing world who praise
God with increasing numbers and unwavering voices. Together with Ethan, Paul, Valerie,
and Isabela, our newest saints. As we sing in our favorite All Saints’ hymn:
“We all are One in thee for all are thine. Alleluia. Alleluia.”
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