It is amazing what happens in our baptism because in this moment and in every moment of our life in Christ, we have heaven and earth meeting together. In Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have the intersection of the present moment in time and eternity. At this moment God’s heavenly eternity fuses itself together with our humanity forever.
The gift of Jesus’ wounded and resurrected body is waiting to greet us when we are baptised and when we enter into heaven at the end of our earthly existence. And Jesus will have his wounded and resurrected body forever to remind us of God’s loving and sacrificial commitment to you and me and all people. This commitment of God to us we have every day as we start each day recognising that we are baptised children of God. So now we get to look at the world and life and the universe and heaven and eternity in a wholly new way.
Each moment we have we now spend in two worlds: our earthly world as well as God’s never-ending heaven, which begins here on earth. This is living with the two-in-one gift of the paradox of our faith. None of us should presume that we will not die in the shorter or longer term. We should always be ready to leave this world. Each moment of each day that we live is precious and valuable and we should live each moment to the full, allowing Jesus to live through us in our daily life in the world. So Jesus’ baptism launches us into eternity and links us with all of God’s people who have died in the past and whom we remember today, especially on All Saints Day.
So as today we can live with the certainty and assurance of God who has linked himself so tightly to us each and every day as well as into our futures, both in this world and the next.
Today in Holy Communion our link with the Alpha and Omega is reinforced and affirmed as well as our link with all of God’s people both in this world and in the next.
