077 - Chapter 77

     (Illustration: Mini trophy with ribbons)

In 2012 I was asked by friends of ours, if I would baptise their grandson, a beautiful boy called J----, son of a well-known footballer who played for Manchester United then. So when Bob and I were in Keswick some time before the service, Bob took me to watch the Manchester United v Manchester City Derby match in a local pub. As we watched, I realised I could do a sermon for the baptism linking together the names of these players, just as I had done years before for a wedding I presided at in Newburn, when Newcastle United were playing in a Cup Final match. Way back then the male priests strangely seemed to have other commitments, so I offered to take the service. I’m sure they had every sympathy with the male guests who were obliged to attend.

Sure enough when the guests entered the church, the men did indeed look miserable. But once I began the sermon, with every Newcastle players’ names hidden in the script, it was such a joy to see their faces, one at a time, look up and listen and smile! I’ve lost the script for that wedding sermon then, but I do have the one I used at this baptism for you to look at.

It was good to play around with players name from Manchester United this time, and by some miracle again; they fitted in to my address. Here it is for you to read, once you’ve seen this reading from Philippians 3.7-14 the Bible reading that my address was based on.

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[i] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

What is life really all about? Is it all merely a journey to endure or something much richer?

Shakespeare would say life begins for us as babies mewling and puking in our mother’s arms.

But what happens then? We don’t stay SMALLING for EVRA.

Decisions have to be made.

Who will help raise the YOUNG child in those formative years, parents, grandparents or perhaps a NANI?

Then what?

A lot depends on the SCOLES on offer. It’s important to send a child to the right one, one where they won’t get into bad KOMPANY! (Hang on, how did he get in? He’s a Man City player)

But then what?

A career choice? Our futures can often be a foregone conclusion depending on subjects we actually preFERRED ‘N AND if that happens to be music, success would be down to how many GIGGS we got asked to do. If football is ONE’S chosen career, like one’s father then one might even find oneself playing for a team like say VALENCIA?

But what then?

Keeping our lives in DE GEA really matters. We search for that perfect match, that perfect partner in life, don’t we, for a marriage made in EVANS and hopefully we end up years later as real Darby and JONES couple. Nice house, a car or two to PARK outside.

What then?

Look back on life at the choices we’ve made, when we’re old and grey, and close to the end of our lives and hopefully not too loopy or ROONEY, and we say to ourselves , “We didn’t do too badly with our lives did we?”

But what then? What then indeed. Have we carefully thought everything through?

What then?

Is all this what life is all about?

Is this all we’re to hope for, and if not, what is to come?

WELL BECK to what I was saying.

Let’s ‘FERGUS ON the Philippians reading for a few moments.

Baptism is the beginning of a journey, a journey without end; and this passage from Philippians looks at the question how we should live our lives, it talks of a goal we must keep our eyes on, it answers the question ‘what then?’

I think the only team member I haven’t mentioned is CARRICK.

There you have them all now!

Today J----- is baptised. It is for him the beginning of a journey full of promise, hope and reward. The starting whistle of such a journey sounds out for him today!

One who is baptised puts the past behind them, they strain toward the goal to which God calls them in Christ Jesus. That goal being to keep Jesus in our sights, to heed his teaching, for he knows the Father best of all. To take his advice, is akin to listen to our coach, and to go into action on the field of the world and put what he says into practice.

What is the goal we must fix our eyes on?

God’s kingdom, is firstly a life of real purpose and challenge, lived not just for self, and secondly it is our final destination; to be with God one day in eternity.

Baptism is not just a process to make us good, or to make us feel holy, or to put a smile on our faces. It’s not a superstition or a private ceremony, but a pubic declaration that we want to belong to God and do His will.

Once we are baptised, we aim to live our lives, as Jesus lived, having a heart for the same kind of things he showed compassion towards, trying to act out all that he taught us to do.

We strain ahead, and we look towards the goal, until the final whistle sounds.

After that, says Philippians is not a ‘What then?’ but reward time.

I’d like to present J----- with a reward right now, one that I hope he will treasure in years to come, one that will remind him of this day, and its message, speaking to him throughout his life.

I then presented J-----’s family with a mini trophy, with ribbons on the handle, and an engraved print with name and date of baptism.