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    Walk in this Light: Reflections on baptism and confirmation
    Walk in this Light: Reflections on baptism and confirmation
    Walk in this Light: Reflections on baptism and confirmation
    Ebook111 pages1 hour

    Walk in this Light: Reflections on baptism and confirmation

    By Richard Giles

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    About this ebook

    Richard Giles reflects with wisdom and humour on what it means to live out the vows made at baptism. Drawing on the words and the dramatic imagery of the baptism service - washing, clothing, being signed with the cross, anointing, being sent out into the world - he paints an invigorating, compelling picture of the dedicated Christian life.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCanterbury Press
    Release dateJun 24, 2013
    ISBN9781848254831
    Walk in this Light: Reflections on baptism and confirmation
    Author

    Richard Giles

    Richard Giles has been working in the technology industry for over fifteen years. He recognized the power of the Internet in the early nineties. He became passionate about blogging three years ago, helping to create Australia's first major blogging event, and now runs his personal blog (http://www.richardgiles.net/blog/) and Gadget Lounge (www.gadgetlounge.net), a successful gadget news site. He fell in love with podcasting in its earliest days, beginning his own podcasts in September 2004.

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      Book preview

      Walk in this Light - Richard Giles

      1

      ON THE WAY

      ‘. . . disciples with us on the Way of Christ.’

      Common Worship: Christian Initiation: Call and Celebration

      While they were talking and discussing,

      Jesus himself came near and went with them.

      Luke 24.15

      In these words the Church community recognizes and honours those presenting themselves as candidates for Christian Initiation as new disciples eager to learn the Christian Way within the life of the people of God. The president (the priest or bishop leading worship) speaks of our ‘joy and privilege’ in welcoming these new brothers and sisters, for they are in themselves a ‘sign of the journey of faith to which we are all called’.¹

      People of the Way was always how others described followers of Christ at first, and how they saw themselves.² It indicates a journey towards rather than a destination arrived at; a suggestion of how things might be, rather than a rigid sense of how they must be. The Way beckons us onwards, revealing broader vistas over each new rise.

      As time passed and the desire for security and certainty prevailed, the Church came to look less like a Way and more like an institution. With official recognition of Christianity as the state religion in the fourth century, the Church gained strength and stability and a respite from persecution. But a vital spark was lost, as the desire to move and explore was gradually stifled by a preference for staying put.

      The artist David Hockney said of creativity, ‘if you’re not moving, in a way you’re dead,’³ and that goes for us as we seek our own place on the way of Christ. If once we cease moving and exploring we will have lost our grasp on the full ebullient life that should be ours. We shall find that we no longer run to the top of the nearest hill to gaze with excitement at the new horizons beyond, content instead to linger in the valley.

      As a child I used to love how Rupert Bear⁴ would climb the highest tree he could find to gaze across the woodland stretching into the distance, on the lookout for smoke rising from a gypsy encampment perhaps, or anything different, anything new, which he and Bill Badger could explore. From my bedroom window on the edge of Birmingham I too gazed over the treetops towards the Forest of Arden, planning bike rides in the holidays. These expeditions would involve some degree of anxiety for a timid boy of 12 – punctures, dogs and menacing youths – but still the way beckoned, and each time I ventured a little further into the unknown.

      On the move as God’s people we discover not just new sights and new encounters, but our very identity. The Israelites in their escape from slavery in Egypt discovered God on the way, moving before them as a cloud by day and a fire by night.⁵ Only through undertaking that risky journey into the unknown did they encounter God on the road, the Ark symbolizing for them the presence of God who had pitched his tent alongside theirs, a nomad too.⁶

      Jesus kept on the move throughout his ministry, teaching those who followed that ‘the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head’.⁷ Animals have burrows and birds have nests, but he was of no fixed abode, accepting hospitality where it was given. This is a demanding road, and we can only travel along it because Jesus has gone ahead, marking the route for us. Like hill-walkers when the mist descends, we can look for, and find with enormous relief, the fresh imprint of a boot on the path we follow.

      The journey of the baptismal life requires a proper map rather than satellite navigation. We are not free simply to punch in ‘the kingdom of heaven’ as our destination and wait to be told by a disembodied voice how to get there. We have to be fully engaged in mapping the route and finding the path. There is no automatic system to do it for us.

      This requires orientating ourselves correctly (holding the map the right way up is a start) so that we head in the right direction, towards our destination, not away from it, or in circles. Rarely is our path a straight line, and we shall need to check frequently our navigation points – ranging from the scriptures, the tradition of the Church, to common sense – to make sure we are on the right track.

      Sometimes the way shown on the map is found to be impassable on the ground, the path ahead closed off. At other times, a view opens up that reveals clearly a safe and secure way ahead, differing from the official route, enabling us to strike out on our own. Here we learn to trust our own judgement, folding up the map for a while. Good navigation involves the skill of reading the landscape and knowing when to change course, rather than clinging stubbornly to a path that peters out. Through honing our navigation skills we steadily gain confidence, maturing into responsible discipleship rather than regressing into childish dependency.

      As people on the Way we likewise hone our skills in navigating our way through life. This we do through our daily prayer, our reading of the scriptures and our learning to be still. We have huge resources at our disposal, and the whole breadth and variety of Christian experience to draw on, through history and across the world. We can also cross-reference with other faith traditions as we move forward, for as the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh says, ‘truth has no boundaries’.⁸ The deepest truths are those common to all humanity, and checking our own insights with those of revered holy men and women who have trodden paths parallel to ours will serve to confirm, not compromise, all that is good and true in us and in our particular tradition.

      Throughout our journeying we remind ourselves that we won’t be doing this alone; in fact we aren’t allowed to. This Christian journey is a group exercise, a shared venture. We may start out feeling solitary, but as we emerge from our own little doorway onto the street, we find ourselves caught up in a wonderful company of fellow travellers streaming along the road, a rag-tag collection of all sorts and sizes and colours of humanity, all heading the same way, glad of one another’s company, and appreciative of the different gifts everyone brings to the party. Together we’re ready for anything.

      Once we have begun our journey, nothing will ever be quite the same again. We see things through different eyes, with more open hearts, with more forgiving grace, and with a growing sense of wonder. The poet William Blake⁹ once said, ‘I walked the other evening to the end of the earth, and touched the sky with my finger.’¹⁰

      We too are enabled to do just that when we, the community of the baptized, assemble every Sunday, not just to talk, or listen or pray, but to touch holy things, and in so doing to realize that we ourselves are the holy, beloved, children of God, a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honour.¹¹ Yes, that really does refer to you and me, transformed by our life together in the assembly of faith.

      ‘We declare to you’,

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