St. Paul's Episcopal Church 425 Cleveland Ave SW Canton, Ohio 44702 Phone: 330-455-0286 Fax: 330-455-9818 E-mail: office@stpaulscanton.org

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All Saints Sunday St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Canton OH Revelation  21:1-6

November 1, 2009 The Rev. Barbara L Bond

The Baptism of Audrey Rose Quicci “I am the Alpha and the Omega.”  A voice comes from the throne of heaven, announcing:  I am the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega. On this day we celebrate the great continuity of life and death, the circle of eternity that flows without beginning, without end, but keeps on looping back on itself, like a Celtic knot.  The poet T.S. Eliot spoke of this timelessness, this eternity that we are in right now, in his poem “East Coker,” which starts as follows:  “In my beginning is my end.” And at the conclusion of the poem, he states, “In my end is my beginning.” Today’s reading from Revelation comes at the very end of the Bible.  It is like a bookend, and at the other end, at the beginning of the Bible is Genesis, with its stunning description of the creation of the world, “In the beginning.”  In Revelation we hear, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth,” and the voice on the throne proclaims, “See, I am making all things new.” At the end of the Bible, the creation is starting all over again, a continuous process of the ebb and flow of life, of death, of life again.  This continuity is mirrored in our seasons – we are in autumn, the season of fullness and harvest, but also of death, as leaves fall from trees and the earth prepares for the barrenness of winter.  Yet we know that spring will come in due season, and the cycle of life, then death, then life will begin again.  In the end is the beginning, a new creation. During the Eucharist today, I will read the names of the Beloved Departed, those parishioners and other loved ones who have died recently.  You know most of them, and you hold cherished memories of their lives among us here in this parish.  One name I am reading for a second time.  Jack Mitchell was named last year, for he died in early 2008.  But today is an important day for his family, and a reminder of his death seems especially apt.  Jack and his wife Dee were very active in the parish for many years, and Jack returned to active life here in the fall of 2006, bring two more generations with him.  His granddaughter Erica was planning to be married, and she and Danny Quicci were wed here on March 11, 2007.  Almost exactly a year later, on March 10, Jack died.  Today Erica and Danny’s baby daughter Audrey Rose will join this congregation, and thus the Mitchell legacy continues in this community.  Life, death, and life again. On this day of reading the names of the dead, I take special pleasure in announcing another birth in our community:  last Sunday, Brenden Lee Sutek was born – Carol and Ed Sutek’s second great-grandchild.  Life, and death, and life again. There are many references to death in this service, yet it is a joyous celebration.  Our resurrected Lord presides over all time and space, and speaks to us from the throne, saying, “Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more.”  God is with us, in every moment, drying our tears.  God is with us in word and sacrament, in flesh and blood, a comforter in affliction, a partaker in our joy.  We will share a bath and a meal with our Lord today. About that bath.  Little Audrey Rose will have water poured upon her head, as she is baptized in the name of the Trinity.  The water is a source of life and of death.  As the voice from the throne said, “I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.” Symbolically we are drowning this baby, and giving her new life.  In the ancient baptism ritual two thousand years ago, in the early years of Christianity, the baptismal candidates entered a pool of water, were fully immersed, and emerged afterwards to begin their new lives in Christ, dressed in white, and drinking milk like infants.  Their old lives were left behind on the other side of the water, and they emerged as new Christians.  Today’s sacrament is the same, even though we use less water.  Audrey will receive just a little water, but the water is of the same significance as if she were fully immersed.  It is the water over which the Spirit hovered on the first day of creation.  It is the water through which the children of Israel walked and were delivered from slavery in Egypt.  It is the water in which Jesus himself was baptized.  It is the life-giving water that brings Audrey into this community and makes her part of our family. Bring forth this baby girl.