We are going to the seaside this morning! The place I want to take you to is about two hours away so we’re going to have to go there in our imagination. I shall need some help with creating the scene. You see we are going to a wide sandy beach on the West coast, just above Liverpool. It’s a place called Crosby and some of you may already have been there. The great thing about imagination is that we can go there in an instant. So (click) here we are! We are standing on the prom and there in front of us is a wide, flat sandy beach stretching out to left and right. The tide is out so there are pools of sea water and rivulets beyond the drier sand just in front of us. It’s a cold January morning and the seagulls seem to be the only company we have. But as we look again, we see we are not alone! There are tall upright figures scattered on the beach. Some are close by, others far out. They are not moving. And although we realise they are statues they appear to be real. And they are all facing out to sea, staring at the horizon. So who would like to be a statue? (It will mean standing for most of the sermon) [Give picture and position and stance. N door = prom; chancel crossing the sea line]
If you haven’t seen it, what we are looking at (in our imagination) is Antony Gormley’s work of art, installed permanently on Crosby beach about five years ago. It’s called ‘Another Place’. 100 cast-iron figures moulded from the artists own body and dotted along two miles of the shore. They are sparse in some areas and getting more congregated as they reach the sea front. And today as we gaze out, some are half-submerged in sand, some in water and others almost fully, with only the tops of their head showing. Those closer to the promenade stand full and life-like and we can walk round them. (Take a close look over coffee – there are photos at the back. For now, our human sculptures help us to imagine the scene – thank you!)
Of course all art is interpreted by those who look at it, and for one person here the work reminds her of baptism. I’m going to ask her in a moment why. But when I saw it for the first time on Friday I think I could see why.
Let’s look first at Christ’s baptism, Matthew 3. It was unexpected. John had spoken powerfully. ‘You brood of vipers. Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come. Bear fruit worthy of repentance.’ His words were strong but he said the One coming after him would be stronger. He will baptise you with the HS and with fire. He will sort out the wheat from the chaff.’ So the people are expecting a powerful prophet who will sweep in with God’s judgement and de-throne the rich and powerful. And in walks Jesus! ‘I need to be baptised by you.’ John is horrified! How can the anointed One need baptism of repentance? Jesus answers by pointing to what is to come, to another place. ‘Let it be so for now’. Yes, I have come to fulfil God’s plan and God’s Spirit will bring fiery judgment on evil wherever it is. But this is how it is to be fulfilled. Jesus has come to identify himself humbly with broken humanity, sharing their penitence, living their life and ultimately dying their death. Like these standing figures, he is facing the same way as them. So he is baptised and then, from Another Place, comes a stamp of approval: the Spirit like a dove comes on Him and a voice affirms him. ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’ Here is the indelible stamp, the permanent branding. Jesus knows where he is going because he knows where he comes from. He is from Another Place and brings that other place into the here and now.
Alison, come and join me. I have already linked Another Place to baptism but it was YOU who made the link for me.
Can you say how and why?
What about your own baptism. When and how? What did it mean to you then, and what does it mean now?
Thank you, Alison, do please sit.
Let’s take a final look at our human statues. You’ve done a good job but apart from not being cast iron there is another difference between you and the real ones.
The figures on Crosby beach are naked! (Not inflict that on you even in interests of art!). Nakedness reminds us that we walk into the waters of baptism without pretence or covering. How did we start our worship today? ‘Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known and from whom no secrets are hidden’. Baptism is for US not God. He knows us already. We need to admit and expose our failings and sinfulness. In return we discover that He has always loved us. And as for Jesus, so for us, that at baptism we are affirmed as God’s much loved children. And so we can be sure that we are heading to Another Place. It is not possible to be un-baptised. Any doubts, any loss of faith, any drifting away from the Christian way of living, none of that can un-brand us. It has happened, it is in the past and takes us forward. So we have been commissioned to go forward. Baptism has been described as the Sacrament of Lay Ordination.(x2) Those who are baptised are ordained by God to be ministers and stewards of the Gospel. That will always be so.
Walking on Crosby beach on Friday afternoon, in the mist and failing light, there were v few others walking too. But there was a sense of not being alone. The figures were strangely comforting company. And that phrase from Hebrews came to mind: ‘We are surrounded by a great Cloud of witnesses. And so we are. Some are living, some are dead. Some I see, some I half-see, others are mostly invisible. But you and I are surrounded by the faithful, all who have been baptised down the ages, and one day we will be together, and with them forever in… Another Place. Amen.
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