baptism – The Raynville Rambler

Present at the Presentation

Bramley St Peter, 28 January 2024

The context of the sermon is the baptism of two children of the same family.

You have come together as an extended family to celebrate this special occasion, maybe representing several generations and with differing experiences of church.

I want us to think about the people gathered when Jesus was brought to the Temple as a baby and what they might say to us about our experience of God, of families, and of church. And although we now have video screens, I’m turning to the older art form of stained glass for our illustration of Jesus being brought the the Temple in Jerusalem, not to be baptised but to be dedicated to God.

Stained glass window

We are fortunate to have this splendid window by the font, illustrating today’s Bible reading. On the right we have Simeon and Anna. Simeon was a holy man who for many years had believed that one day he would see the Messiah, the saviour. Many people in his time expected Messiah to be a strong political or military leader. Yet Simeon was open to God’s Holy Spirit and also open to being proved wrong. When he saw Jesus, he understood by that same Spirit that here was the Messiah. He knew as an old man that he would not live to see Jesus grow to adulthood, teach, work miracles and suffer for us. It was enough for Simeon to have seen Jesus even as a baby. He could then, as the older translations put it, ‘depart in peace’, in other words, he could die knowing that God’s promise to him had been fulfilled in his own life and that God’s promise to the world would be fulfilled soon. So the message to older people is, what promises has God made to you during your life? Which of them have you seen come true to thank him for, and which are you still longing and praying for? What will enable you to depart in peace?

Anna was aged eighty-four, which in those days was exceptionally old. She had been widowed from a young age but was still heavily involved in the life of the Temple. When tragedy strikes such as the death of someone’s partner at a young age, the temptation is to turn away from God, to think that if he exists at all, he is cruel. But Anna never lost her faith, in fact it grew deeper with age and she quietly supported the work of the Temple in prayer. So to anyone who thinks that God or life, has treated them unfairly, the message is: stick with God, keep your faith and remain part of the Church, for that’s where you will find your meaning.

Anna too was open to the Holy Spirit, and when she saw Jesus, it says, ‘she spoke about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem’. So this wasn’t a private family occasion, the Temple was full of worshippers and this old woman – not a priest or a theologian but someone with deep personal faith – had the boldness to be the first to proclaim the Gospel of salvation through Jesus in Jerusalem. Just as at the Resurrection, it was a woman who brought the good news. So to anyone who thinks they are too old or unqualified to have a ministry in church, the message is: think again! Be open to what God wants to do through you.

On the left side of the window we have Jesus’ mother Mary and her husband Joseph. Joseph doesn’t get many mentions in the Bible, and none after Jesus was aged twelve, so we assume he died some time after that. Like Simeon, he would never see his son fulfil his destiny, so what was his part in the story? Well, many Christians believe in the virgin birth, that Joseph was not Jesus’ natural father. But it was Joseph, not Mary, who was decended from the great King David a thousand or so years earlier. God’s promise that one of David’s descendants would rule his people for ever would come true in Jesus, so Joseph’s role was to adopt Jesus as (in effect) his stepson, and be the perfect father to bring him to the verge of adulthood. What an important role! So to all the parents out there, whether your children are your own, or adopted, or step-children, the message is: rejoice in this calling, to be the best parent you can, to bring your children to adulthood in a way that will enable them to fulfil their own vocation and destiny.

And Mary. The mother of our Lord. Not only did she become a single parent at some point, but Simeon’s prophecy could have offended and distressed her. What must it feel like to be told as a new mother that your child would be opposed by many people, and that his own death would be like a sword piercing your soul? Mary knew then, if she didn’t already, that she would outlive her son – something that no parent wants to happen – and that his death would be a painful one. How much grief she had to bear through her life! Yet her reaction to this was to be ‘amazed’. She, too, remained faithful to God and faithful to her son. So to anyone who has lived through the death of a child, or who faces that prospect, the message is: turn to Christ, who is faithful. Put your trust in him who understands all your feelings, all your grief. Even Jesus wept at the death of a friend. Yet at the heart of the Gospel is resurrection to eternal life.

Below the parents is another figure, probably intended to be an angel, holding two doves. These were the offering expected of a poor family that could not afford a sacrificial lamb. It shows us that Jesus’ family was not well off. We know that Jesus had several younger brothers and sisters. Joseph must have had to work hard as a carpenter to provide for them all. Being poor is no shame and no barrier to being a Christian, in fact, much of Jesus’ own teaching is that the less we depend on wealth, the closer we will be to God. So to anyone who works hard to provide for their family, or has money problems, know that the Holy Family shared that experience too. It’s also a challenge to all of us in the church to be open to sharing what we do have with others, so that all families can have what they need.

What about Jesus himself? First, a bit of history for our own congregation. You may notice if you look carefully that the baby Jesus has the face of an older person, and appears to have red hair. The window was installed in 1910, to mark the retirement of Revd Samuel Cope, Curate and then Vicar of Bramley for 43 years, and he apparently was a redhead. He was popular in the parish for his care for the children in the church.

But back to Jesus. It would be thirty years before he himself was baptised and started his ministry of preaching and healing. In that time he was faithful to God, faithful to his parents, and was, it says here, ‘strong and wise’. So to young people wondering what lies ahead in life, I say: honour your parents, seek wisdom, be of strong character, and always be open to the way God will lead you. The day will come, sooner or later, when he will make your life’s calling clear to you.

So what have we learnt from these characters and their story? I suggest that it shows us above all that God’s will and his timing are beyond our own ideas of what constitutes a ‘good life’ or a ‘long life’ or a ‘successful career’. Simeon and Anna had a long time to wait for their moment to come in old age but were open to embracing it when it came; Anna didn’t let her husband’s early death prevent her from living a long and holy life; Joseph probably died in middle age but had fulfilled his vocation by working hard and living up to his calling as a parent; Mary clung on to God’s promises despite all the heartache that her life would bring. Between them, they launched Jesus on his unique life, a life and death that would bring salvation to everyone, then and now.

Maybe for you, the time to respond to God’s call is now. Our church’s vision for this coming year is to grow in faith and in numbers. If anything you hear today makes you want to find out more about the Christian faith, we have a course coming up that may interest you – details to follow in the church news slot later in the service. Or you may wish to ask for prayer after the service for whatever life is throwing at you right now. Let’s pray.

Lord God,
The protector of all who trust in you,
Without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy;
Increase and multiply upon us your mercy,
That you being our ruler and guide,
We may so pass through things temporal
That we finally lose not the things eternal.
Grant this, heavenly Father,
For the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Who will you listen to?

A sermon for the first Sunday of Lent, 26 February 2023
St Peter’s Church, Bramley – Holy Communion with Baptism
Reading: Matthew 3:13-4:11, the Baptism and Temptations of Christ

The theme for our morning services between now and Easter is ‘Honest questions for deeper faith’. We’ll be looking at the sort of questions that don’t have simple answers, but which might prompt us to take a step further in our walk with God or reach a deeper understanding of how we relate to him. So you might hear more questions than answers in the talks, but hopefully you might find some answers as you consider those questions through the week. This first Sunday of Lent, the question is ‘Who will you listen to’?

In today’s reading, Jesus has two very different experiences of listening. First, he is baptised and hears God himself speaking very clearly, that Jesus is, in a unique way, his Son. What an amazing experience, one that no-one else had ever had before or since! But he then goes off on a long retreat in the desert, which in Hebrew tradition was a place beyond God’s reach, the dwelling of evil spirits, and hears the voice of what the Bible calls either the Devil or the Tempter.

Why did he do that – why did the very son of God choose to go where he knew he would hear God’s enemy? One answer is that this mirrors the scene on the cross at the end of his life where Jesus cries, “My God, why have you forsaken me?” If he was to meet our human needs, the one who until then had only ever listened to God needed to hear those same tempting and opposing voices that we all hear ourselves. He had to know what it was like to be an ordinary human being trying to make our way in a world of many competing voices.

My next question is, who then is the tempter and what was he trying to achieve? You may know C S Lewis’s book ‘the Screwtape Letters’, written during the Second World War, in which he imagines one devil training another – actually they are rather comic characters, but the point is serious. He explains why the Devil and other evil spirits don’t usually appear or speak directly to people, but use more subtle ways to achieve their desire, which is to draw us away from God using the world around us.

What forms do temptations take? They don’t have to be the obvious sins of anger, greed and desire. It can be the temptation to misuse our money and influence, to believe people who are actually lying to us, or even just doing the ordinary harmless things of life when we could be doing something more spiritual. In Lewis’s day he said people could be distracted by unsuitable friends, leisure activities, newspapers and the radio. Since then we have TV, Netflix, online gambling and social media to distract and tempt us even more. The world is full of voices, and it’s increasingly hard to know which we should listen to.

One very simple example: last Sunday morning I turned on the radio to listen to the morning act of worship from the BBC. But the last radio station I had on was a commercial one, so the first thing I heard was not a prayer or a hymn, but a voice saying ‘You can save two hundred pounds NOW by…’ It was a split-second decision – do I stay on this channel to find out how I could save £200, or press another button to hear the morning service? Those sorts of little decisions are with us all the time, aren’t they? Do I listen to the voice that promises me money, happiness, a good time, success? Or do I listen to the voice that points me towards God and along the way that he wants me to walk?

Jesus was tempted by three things in the desert. One was to perform miracles for his own benefit; another was to abuse God’s promise of protection; and the last was to worship the Devil instead of God, in return for earthly fame and power. He famously responded to these temptations by quoting the Jewish Bible each time. In particular he said that we grow by feeding on “every word that comes from the mouth of God”. What did that mean?

Jesus himself had been brought up in the Jewish faith. He read the scriptures, he belonged to a synagogue in Nazareth, he debated with rabbis in the Temple. But he also, often, went up a hill or into the olive grove to pray alone and hear his Father’s voice. As Christians the Word comes to us in other ways: the written words of Jesus in the Bible, the writings and talks of Christian leaders who interpret it for us, the wisdom of mature Christians, the traditions of the Church and prophecies by the Holy Spirit,. It can also be through art and music, especially but not only on a religious theme, and the way we may sometimes hear God speaking in response to our prayers.

We know that parents often bring their children for baptism because they want their child to grow up hearing the right voices. Who knows what distractions and temptations Sienna might face in her lifetime? But if she grows up knowing the Bible, and belonging to a church where she can share her problems with people of faith to guide her, she will be stronger to face them.

And if we do listen to God, rather than all those other distracting voices, what will we hear? Jesus himself had the clearest message at his baptism when he heard the voice of God the Father speaking directly in a way that he and other people could hear, saying “This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased”.

We don’t expect that sort of direct message from God when we baptise Sienna today, but what we do know is that God calls all of us who believe in Jesus his daughters and sons too. We know he loves you and me just as much as he loves his own son Jesus. If we are open to hear the voice of God in all those different ways that I mentioned, we too can hear that word of love. And if there is one thing the Devil fears most, it is the love of God and those who share his love with others.

I have raised many questions today. Why did Jesus go into the desert? Who is the tempter and what is he trying to achieve? What forms do temptations take? What is the ‘Word that comes from the mouth of God’? And what do I expect to hear from God? But most importantly, Who will I listen to? You may want to pick one of those questions and consider it this week.

Summoned by the God who made us

Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is “Summoned by the God who made us” by Delores Dufner.

I feel this hymn lacks coherence. As John remarked at morning prayer, it could be suitable for a baptismal service, but the only direct reference to baptism is in verse 2* (“Radiant risen from the water, robed in holiness and light”). Apart from that, it is a hymn on the general theme of discipleship and Christians in community. As such, it might be suitable for an ecumenical service, a renewal of vows, or possibly with verse 2 omitted for any general occasion when we wish to remind ourselves of our calling as a Church. But the several verses are all on different themes.

Verse 1 refers to richness in diversity and unity; this is expanded in the chorus (“Let us bring the gifts that differ and, in splendid, varied ways, sing a new Church into being, one in faith and love and praise”). Verse 2, as well as the baptismal reference, speaks of being made in God’s image, verse 3 of trusting the goodness of creation and the Spirit within us, verse 4 of every nation and race, and verse 5 of the whole human family being drawing into an ever-widening circle (paraphrased). Lots of ideas, but with no development of them, and the early focus on commitment to Jesus and baptism seems at odds with the message of ‘every nation and all the human family’ at the end. Is the Church distinctive from the rest of humanity, or isn’t it?

* In ‘Sing Praise’, it is set as five four-line verses with a chorus, but John chose to sing it to an alternative eight-line tune, counting the chorus as verse 2 thus making three longer verses. I think either works well enough, depending on whether you want a shorter or longer hymn and whether you want to emphasis the message of the chorus about using different gifts.

From ashes to the livng font

Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is “From ashes to the living font” by the American writer Alan Hommerding, set in the book to an old 18^th century tune although it is “common metre” so there are many possible tunes to choose from. Hommerding has written his own tune to it, which he discusses along with the words on a podcast. He explains that it was written for a particular occasion to help parishioners make sense of observing Lent, and that his intention is that during Lent we should not forget the end of the journey (Easter and Pentecost) but have them in mind throughout our spiritual journey.

The opening verse is intended to sum up the idea of the season of Lent as a journey, starting with confession and repentance (Ash Wednesday) and ending with the celebrations of Easter, traditionally a time for new believers to be baptised (symbolised by the font).

The second calls us to use “fasting, prayer and charity” as a way to hear God’s voice in this season. The third verse refers to the Transfiguration of Jesus, a story that occurs twice every year in the lectionary cycle, in Lent and in August. It was a key event in the spiritual journey of his closest disciples (Peter, James and John) as they realised without doubt that Jesus was the son of God, greater even than Moses and Elijah. Few of us will have such a dramatic revelation, but hopefully we will understand something new about Jesus each year.

There are five verses in this setting, but the web page linked above gives, as well as four set verses, separate verses for each Sunday of Lent, of which verse 4 here is the one set for the third Sunday (“For thirsting hearts let water flow, our fainting souls revive, and at the well your waters give our everlasting life”) which is probably intended to go with the story of Jesus and the woman of Samaria.

The last verse starts with a reprise of the opening line, but is explicit about the end of the journey: “through cross and tomb to Easter joy, in Spirit-fire fulfilled”. We look forward in the solemnity of Lent to the resurrection and the giving of the Spirit, without which the fasting and self-denial doesn’t really make sense.

Water of Life, Cleanse and refresh us

My choice of song from the Sing Praise book for 22 January. We’re still in the Epiphany season and looking at hymns and songs relating to baptism.

The phrase “water of life” is itself a very common one, not restricted to Christian theology. Even alcoholic spirits are sometimes given the same honour. At its most basic, water is an essential compound for life as we know it to exist at all, and no animal can live long without drinking it (even camels can only go a week or so without water from the plants they eat).

Water is significant in many key passages of the Bible, from the creation stories where God commands the sea not to invade the land, to the symbolic ‘river of life’ flowing out of the heavenly city. Rivers are crossed miraculously, water drawn from the rock with a holy staff, gallons of it turned into wine – and much more. The symbolism in the chorus of this short song is of baptism, where the water that is blessed and poured over the person being baptised symbolises them being cleansed of their sins and filled with the new life of God’s Spirit.

The first chant (as they are intended to be sung solo rather than as verses of a congregational hymn) starts “all you who thirst, come to the waters” and is from Isaiah 55:1, part of a series of prophesies about the reign of peace of the Messiah. When we turn to Jesus we find abundant life in him. The second, “as rain from heaven, so is God’s word, it waters the earth and brings forth life” draws on several Biblical verses rather than a single one, but the metaphor is a striking one – just as the earth will be dry and unproductive in a drought, so people are spiritually dry and unproductive if they are not ‘watered’ by the presence of God

The third chant is not about water but about resurrection, a link that’s often made, for the plunging into the waters and rising up again at baptism (which makes more sense for the ‘full immersion’ of an adult) is a symbol of resurrection from death. Christians believe that not only did Christ get physically resurrected by God, but that in itself is a promise of a new kind of life after death for all of us who have united ourselves with him.

The last chant, which perhaps should be the first, is about repentance, because normally the challenge to repentance comes before the response of being baptised. But equally, being reminded of our baptism is a prompt to note where we have fallen away from following Jesus and turn back to him.

Source and fount of all creation

The Sing Praise hymn book that I am using includes a surprisingly large number of hymns (13 in all) under the heading of Christian initiation, so we have quite a few more to get through. My accompanist and commentator John Hartley has chosen not to include this or some others that refer to the sometime controversial practice of baptism of young children (see my comment on “Child of blessing, child of promise”). However the references to a child here are only brief – “offspring of a human love” in verse 1, which of course is true of people of any age, and and “new creation, new-born child” in verse 3. Most of it is relevant to all of us.

John’s other reason for not including this hymn in his morning prayer videos is that the last verse refers to the eucharist (communion) which is a different Christian sacrament. Although many churches do perform the rite of baptism within the setting of the eucharist, it’s not essential to do so, and other churches including my own prefer to keep the christening of children as a separate occasion with just a few of the church members attending what is otherwise a time for a family to dedicate their child to God. Adult baptisms, by contrast, are best included as part of the main Sunday service where the convert can declare their faith publicly as they become a full member of the church.

Having said that, the focus of the rest of the words is on the contrast between our natural ability to live God’s way (“human hopes and human graces break beneath the weight of sin” … “Human love is unavailaing counterweight to sin and strife”) with the grace that is given through the Holy Spirit, as expressed in the opening lines – “Source and fount of all creation, pour your Spirit from above”.

The second and third verses remind us that it was not enough for Jesus to be baptised with the Holy Spirit, but that he must also go through suffering and death to achieve the full purpose of God in reconciliation. “God and sinner reconciled” in verse 3 echoes the well known Christmas carol “Hark! the herald angels sing” and reminds us that we are still in the extended Christmas/Epiphany season for another twelve days. The world at large has marked Christmas briefly and moved on, but the Church takes its time to take in the full implications. Our own journey of faith, like Jesus’, will take a lifetime to accomplish, but the grace given at baptism gives us strength for facing whatever the journey brings.

Freed in Christ from death and sin

Please see the introduction if you are new to this project.

Another of the hymns of Christian initiation (principally baptism) is “Freed in Christ from death and sin”. It is probably based on the declarations made by the adult about to be baptised, or by parents on behalf of their child – “I turn to Christ, I submit to Christ, I come to Christ”. These replaced the older promises to “renounce the world, the flesh and the Devil” and assent to the Apostle’s Creed, which people no longer easily relate to.

The first verse – turning to Christ – is about freedom. The symbolism of baptism is most commonly seen as that of repentance from past sin. But it’s also about being set free – “free from death and sin, slaves no more to self within”. In Christian theology, “the Law” (by which is meant the old Jewish system of detailed commandments and regulations”) is seen as rules of life that were intended by God as a way of guiding willing followers to how we should follow him, but had instead become a burden. As rabbis over the centuries added more and more detail to the basic Biblical laws to prescribe in minute detail what was required to live a ‘holy’ life, it became impossible to follow it exactly, and any serious attempt to do so would take away any joy in living.

The second verse – submitting to Christ – is about moving from darkness to light, which is a parallel to that of moving from bondage to freedom. Christ has shed light on how we should live, rather than keeping us in the darkness of trying to keep the detailed law. Although he said that he came to fulfil the Law rather than abolish it (Matthew 5:17), he is seen as embodying the essentials of the law in his character and actions, rather than “laying down the law” in all its rabbinical detail. Following the example of Christ and trusting him, rather than the written Law, as the basis of righteousness before God frees us from the fear that we will attract God’s judgement every time we sin by failing to keep a commandment. Chapters 3 to 5 of Paul’s letter to the Galatians cover this argument in more detail. “What would Jesus do?” isn’t all that can be said about Christian ethics, but it’s a starting point.

The third verse – coming to Christ – is about the coming of the Spirit. The Spirit’s role is to equip us with fruits (good character) and gifts (talents or capabilities) to follow Christ, and the hymn asks that we may “in fruitful lives show we belong to Christ”. The fourth verse with its reference to bread and wine reminds us that the baptised are admitted to Communion, and the final verse praises Christ for “his love outpoured, our lives renewed and hope restored”.

Child of blessing, child of promise

Following on from yesterday’s reflection on our calling in Christ, which was the theme for the Sunday Bible readings as well, the hymn for today is a short one, intended to be sung at the baptism (christening) of a child. In the first verse s/he is named as a child of blessing and of promise, one who is claimed back by God who sent them. In the second, the child is reminded that s/he bears God’s image and is urged to listen to God’s call.

The tune chosen is one normally used for a setting of the Creed (the Christian statement of faith in the three-in-one God), “Firmly I believe and truly”, which is appropriate because the parents and godparents of a child being christened are expected to declare their own Christian faith, usually by reciting a set form of creed. The question of whether young children should be baptised before they can express any personal understanding of God is one that still divides the Church. Many books have been written on the subject but let’s summarise it like this:

One side of the argument is that only those old enough to make a lifelong decision for themselves should go through this initiation rite, and certainly people who are baptised as adults or teenagers say the experience stays with them as a foundation of their faith for a long time. Those who support infant baptism (often known as christening) stress the importance of recognising the whole family as being Christian and having a ceremony to mark an addition to the family and the gift of a child from God, adding that God’s call is not conditional on the person’s response. I see the strengths in both sides of the argument, but what seems inappropriate (to me) is christening the child of parents who are not church members themselves and who have chosen friends as godparents who have no Christian faith themselves either. “Getting the child done” becomes simply a cultural tradition with no real religious meaning. Having said that, it does happen from time to time that the christening ceremony, perhaps the first church service the parents have attended for a long time, can be the first step on a journey of faith for them as they consider what they really meant by joining in with the prayers and creed.

But back to this hymn. The last pair of lines reminds the child (if s/he hears it again later in life, perhaps) to “grow to laugh and sing and worship, trust and love God more than all”. That linking of laughter, song and worship is what’s behind my decision to sing through the hymn book in a year. As St Augustine put it, “he who sings prays twice.” Not all hymns help us to laugh, as they help us respond to all life’s events and emotions, the sad as well as the joyful, but if singing praise to God doesn’t sometimes make us laugh, have we really entered into worship at all?

When Jesus comes to be baptised

The daily hymn for 14 January is “When Jesus comes to be baptised”, the second on this theme – I just didn’t get round to typing my notes until the following day. Its composition is attributed not to an individual but to a community – the Catholic nuns of Stanbrook Abbey in Yorkshire. Perhaps this is appropriate, for the words of the hymn meditate on the sacrifice (in a metaphorical sense) that Jesus made by coming forwards to be baptised in the Jordan river. He “leaves behind the years of safety and peace”, to bear the sins of humankind, and eventually to suffer death on the cross.

Anyone who becomes a nun, monk or other member of a religious community, but especially those who take lifelong vows, also has to sacrifice the comforts of their former years, and to take on responsibilities – to pray regularly, to study theology, and usually to work hard at whatever occupation keeps the community going financially, be it farming, craft work or teaching. It’s not an easy life.

But there’s another side to this religious commitment. Jesus, the hymn reminds us, was also called to preach the gospel, to bring comfort and healing. There were frustrations, of course, where he preaching was opposed or healing was not possible for lack of faith. But he must have found satisfaction when the message was received and understood, when the blind could see or the lame walk. Likewise, nuns or monks find their satisfaction in the worship of the community, in serving retreatants or other guests, and (if they are not in an enclosed order) in work with the local community.

When Simon Peter said to Jesus “Look, we have left our homes and followed you”, Jesus replied “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not get back very much more in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.” (Luke 18:28-30, NRSV). By which, of course, he meant not money, but satisfaction of a more real and lasting kind.

The last verse of the hymn is a Christian doxology (praise to the Holy Trinity). Perhaps this is because that is the form of words used at Christian baptism, but it’s widely believed that these words attributed to Jesus at the end of Matthew’s gospel were an addition by the community that Matthew belonged to. They cannot have been used by John at Jesus’ own baptism, because he would effectively have been saying “I baptise you in the name of the father, and yourself, and the Holy Spirit” which would make no sense. That doesn’t mean the doctrine of the Trinity is not helpful, just that we shouldn’t see it as something taught by Jesus himself.

The sinless one to Jordan came

For the next couple of days we move on from the wedding at Cana to another Epiphany theme of revelation, that of Jesus being baptised. This was the occasion when according to all four gospel writers, the Holy Spirit appeared “like a dove”, and according to Matthew, Mark and Luke, God’s voice was heard calling Jesus God’s beloved son.

Today’s hymn is “The sinless one to Jordan came”. After four verses of the hymn paraphrasing the biblical accounts, the focus in the fifth changes to us, Jesus’s present-day disciples. In singing it, we ask God to let us “go forth with [him], a world to win” and to send the Holy Spirit “to shield [us] in temptation’s hour”. This reminds us that baptism is not merely a symbolic act of showing we believe in Christ, but a commitment (at least for those who are baptised as adults) to actively engage in God’s mission in the world.

It also acknowledges that when we do so, we face opposition – as Jesus was tempted by the Devil immediately after his baptism, so we find ourselves tempted (maybe only by distractions, maybe by something more sinister) whenever we set our face to work with God. We then need both the assurance of God’s love and the sense of his Spirit within us.