Baptism Homily - Standing at the crossroads of time and eternity

Crossroad Blues, Oli Kellett, 2016

A homily given at the baptism of Remy Cane at St Giles-in-the-Fields on Sunday 13th October 2024.
We are here because of an ancient crossroads. It’s still there in its modern form. Where Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road meet.

Originally there were three roads that met here. Important trading routes from every corner of the land which converged in the fields between the City of London and the City of Westminster.

In about 1101, Queen Matilda decided to build a hospital here, to care for people suffering from leprosy. It was the perfect spot - in the fields away from populated urban areas and next to a busy crossroads that provided a steady stream of rich traders who might be persuaded to donate funds to keep the hospital going.

The chapel attached to the hospital became this parish church. Tens of thousands of people must have been baptised here over the last nine hundred years. We know about some of the more famous ones. Two children of Mary Shelley - the pioneer of science fiction writing - were baptised here. On the same day one of Lord Byron’s daughters was baptised in our font designed by the architect Sir John Soane, which we will use in a moment to baptise Remy.

Peter Ackroyd, a contemporary author of popular books about London, described St Giles as standing “at the crossroads of time and eternity.”

And that’s where Remy is right now. And we are all there alongside him.

At the crossroads of time and eternity.

Many of us not for the first time.

Standing here, each of us embodies all the challenges, the difficulties, the successes and failures that we have experienced during our time on earth - whether that’s been eight months or eighty years. And we can keep going along the same path - in the same direction.

But before us now lies another way. The path that Jesus took. The path that, through the Holy Spirit, leads us back to God. The path to eternal life.

And we have a decision to make. A choice. I’m about to ask all of us which way we want to turn.

Jenna and Jamie and Anne and Eoin and David will answer on behalf of Remy as he makes that choice for the first time. The rest of us will speak for ourselves.

Will we take the path of darkness, deceit and evil? Or will we turn to follow the light of Christ?

It sounds like an easy decision to make when you put it like that, doesn’t it? But when faced with temptation it’s much easier to talk the talk than to walk the walk!

That’s why so much of what the church does in its worship is about bringing us all back to this place. And why so many walk through our doors today. To stand at the crossroads of time and eternity. To recognise that we slipped up and lost our way. To be given another chance to follow the right path.

When we choose the way of Christ for the first time, we take on a new identity. At our baptism we become adopted children of God. Our shared identity as baptised people is something upon which nearly every Christian denomination agrees. A cause for celebration in itself!

But Baptism is about more than one moment in time, as important as this day is in Remy’s life. Baptism marks the first step we take in response to God’s love. The beginning of a lifelong journey we call discipleship. A continual process of discovery about what it means for God’s love to be the driving force behind each step we take as we journey towards becoming the person that God has made us to be. And as we walk with our fellow disciples we try to learn to respect that same God given freedom in each and every person we meet.

It’s a journey that can be inspiring and affirming. But it is also challenging and disturbing - and there is so much to tempt us along the way.

Remy - like the rest of us - will need help. Guidance from God through prayer and worship and study of the scriptures but he’ll also need help from each of you. His parents, godparents, family and friends.

In a moment we will repeat our baptismal promises both for our own good and as an example to Remy and to each other.

We will renew our desire to become the person that God has made us to be.

We will reaffirm our identity as children of God – our connection to the past, present and future and to each other.

And, standing with Remy at that ancient crossroads – where time meets eternity - we will step out and follow in the footsteps of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, together.

Amen 


Image : From Crossroad Blues by Oli Kellett, 2016