Named by God

Today we celebrate with Barbara MacKeigan and Alex and Caitlin Little as they bring their daughter, Alison Cameron Little for baptism.

Today we also have an opportunity for each of us to come to these waters and remember our own baptism.

Baptism acknowledges that we are all children of God. Christian author Rachel Held Evans said, “you don’t become a child of God when you cross off a list of things to do or even when you are baptized. Being baptized is simply a naming, an acknowledgment of someone’s existing belovedness.”

The passage we read from Isaiah 43 is God’s word to the people of Judah offering words of hope and restoration. Professor Tom Long says that the prophet Isaiah offers hope “with great confidence because Isaiah knew that the Lord is not some impersonal force loose in the universe, but that God is more like a parent who listens in the night for the cries of her children. "'Do not be afraid,' says the Lord. 'I created you. I formed you. I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine.'"

In Isaiah 43, God reminds the Hebrew people they are God’s beloved. The metaphor of water is used by the prophet when he reminds them, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.” In this instance, he was alluding not to the waters of baptism but to destructive waters. Those hearing the words of the prophet had grown up hearing how the lives of their ancestors had been saved as the destructive waters of the Red Sea parted. They sang the Psalms with an abundance of references to chaotic and dangerous floodwaters.

The prophet Isaiah underscores a deeper relationship between God and the Hebrew people, “I called you by name, you are mine…I am the Lord your God. Do not fear, I am with you.”

As our Baptismal liturgy states, “God’s grace and our response to it are not tied to the moment of baptism but continue and deepen throughout life…Baptism assures us that we belong to God in life and in death. Our greatest comfort is that we belong to our faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.”

Today we will baptise Alison and I will say the words, "I baptize you, Alison Cameron Little, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." Have you ever noticed how important names are in baptism? I believe that God calls Alison by name too, and that her name is joined forever to God's name, just as all of us who are baptized have had our names called as God’s beloved.

When Professor Long baptised his granddaughter, he noted,

“The truth of the matter is that none of us knows what [my granddaughter’s] life will hold in the future. We pray that her life will be full of joy and health and peace, but we also know that, because she is a human being, she will also face pain and loss and sorrow. We know, as the prophet Isaiah knew, that faith does not protect us from the realities of life. She will, like all human beings, pass through the waters of life's hardships. She will cross the rivers of life's pains, and she will walk through the fire of being a human being. But we also know that God knows her name, that God created her, formed her, redeemed her, and called her by name. God will never forget her, will never leave her alone, will come to her and will be with her at every turn.”

The same is true for Alison today and for each of us as well.

In Isaiah, the Lord says,

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.

When you pass through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.

When you walk through the fire, the flame shall not consume you.

I have called you by name, and you are mine."