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 Yesterday I gave Eddie Almand the last rites of the church, and today one of three persons being baptized is Eddie’s great-granddaughter, Ashley. The coming together of these two events reminded me of the church’s role in providing milestones in human life: birth, adolescence, marriage, and death.

But is that all that the church is called upon to do? One of the early names given to the church, one attested in the Acts of the Apostles (9:2; 19:9.23; 22,4; 24:14.22), is “the Way.” I am afraid our church has not been very successful in persuading its members that it is the Way or, at least, a way, and not simply the provider of rituals to mark milestones along the way.

We have all heard the old joke that Anglicans come to church to be hatched, matched, and dispatched. In a busy life church attendance is probably the easiest activity to dispense with, and no immediate consequences of doing so are apparent.

On the other hand, the benefits of ongoing, active participation in a community of faith only become apparent to those who are in for the long haul. Eddie came from a generation for whom the church was their whole life. What will Ashley’s relationship to the church be when she grows up?

Today we are celebrating not only three baptisms but also the festival of Harvest Thanksgiving. Giving thanks is a profoundly religious response. G.K. Chesteron remarked that he felt sorry for the atheist who felt gratitude welling up in his heart, but had no God to whom he could offer thanks.

Religious people know that “every good and perfect gift is from above” ( James 1:17), and that life itself, with all its joys and sorrows, is the gift of a loving God. The service which we are celebrating here today, the eucharist, means “thanksgiving” in Greek.

So our hearts are filled with thanksgiving today “for all God’s gifts so freely bestowed upon us, for life and health and safety, for the power to work and leisure to rest, for all that is beautiful in creation and in the lives of men and women, but above all for our spiritual mercies in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Collect).

We thank God for the life of Eddie Almand and for the presence of his family here with us today. We thank God for the gift of grace bestowed, through the sacrament of holy baptism, on Ashley, Azalea, and Lin, and we pray that this solemn ceremony may not simply mark a milestone in their lives, but may be the portal through which they enter upon a way which leads to God and eternal life.

October 16, 2005

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