Another Door
Sermon
Dancing The Sacraments
Sermons And Worship Services For Baptism And Communion
Intergenerational Service
Call To Worship:
"Jesus did not speak to them except in parables." Come, let us worship God, author of our parables.
Hymn: "Tell Me The Stories Of Jesus"
(words: William H. Parker, music: Frederick A. Challinor)
Children's Time:
(The intergenerational sermon is the "time for children.")
The Sacrament Of Baptism
Prayer Of Confession:
We confess that our busyness and our doubt keep us from spending time with you, O Lord, who are closer than our very breathing. You who breathed the breath of life into us, hear our prayer for forgiveness. As Jesus gave his disciples the power to forgive sins by sending his Holy Spirit to them, we ask your healing now. Amen.
Words Of Assurance:
Jesus said that the Good Shepherd calls his sheep by name. Know that God loves, forgives, and calls us by name. Amen.
Psalter Reading: Psalm 141:1--3
Old Testament: Deuteronomy 6:4--9
Epistle: l Corinthians 16:1--9
New Testament: Revelation 3:8, 20 and 4:1
Prayer:
May our words, our thoughts, our images be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
Sermon:
Jesus said, "I am the door. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture" (John 10:9). In the book of Revelation we read, "Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut" (3:8).
Some doors open out and others open in, and some doors never shut. The doors of Grace--Calvary Episcopal Church in Clarksville, Georgia, are always open, because about a hundred years ago they lost the key. Our key, our open door, is Christ.
When Lucy in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe opened the wardrobe door, she stepped into another world. Her life was changed forever.1
It is true for us, too. When we open "the door" and enter, we encounter a world of possibility - newness, danger, wonder, imagination. In the church, baptism is that door, the way we enter another world, a new way of seeing and being as the child of God.
Jesus said, "Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me" (Revelation 3:20). When we listen and open the door, we can be with God. It is a matter of free choice.
Many are acquainted with The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. In The Last Battle the dwarfs, because of their selfishness that has made them blind, refused to go through the door. Their cry was, "The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs." They chose blindness instead of belief, and remained in the prison of their own minds.
Whether we risk going through the door or remain on this side, as the dwarfs did by refusing to be "taken in," the choice is ours, for doors open and doors close. They invite us in and lock us out.
The creatures looked at Aslan, the Great Lion, and on some faces there was fear and hatred, and they swerved to his left and disappeared. But those who looked on the face of Aslan and loved him, though frightened, came in at the door on Aslan's right.2
My sons, my grandchildren, my friends, and I have all stepped through the wardrobe door, our imaginations baptized with a sense of holiness. The author of that wardrobe door told of taking long weekly walks and sometimes returning home by train. Waiting on the platform of the railroad station, he bought a copy of one of George MacDonald's novels. As he read it, he said that it was if he were entering "another country," in one sense exactly like the old but in another sense all was changed. He called it "holiness."
The author of the book of Hebrews wrote of the saints who died in faith as strangers and foreigners on earth, seeking a homeland, a better country, that is, a heavenly one (11:13--16). Lewis wrote, "I saw the bright shadow coming out of the book into the real world and resting there, transforming all common things and yet itself unchanged ... That night my imagination was, in a certain sense, baptized."3
Through the sacred story of Jesus, the Christ, our imaginations too are baptized and blessed.
In The Silver Chair, another of The Chronicles, Jill Pole, miserable from being teased at the school she was attending, listened to Eustace Scrubb telling about visiting another world where animals talked and there were dragons and enchantments, and when they stepped through the door of the high stone wall surrounding the school, they were in ... another world. Here their adventures began. First Scrubb fell off the high cliff and a lion blew him away. Jill cried for her friend and when she stopped crying she found she was dreadfully thirsty and began to look for water. When she came to an open place, she saw a stream, but instead of rushing forward to drink the water, she could not move. Just this side of the stream lay a lion. The lion asked, "If you are thirsty, you may drink. Are you not thirsty?" Jill replied, "I'm dying of thirst." "Then drink," said the lion. "I don't dare come and drink." Jill was frightened by the lion who said, "Then you will die of thirst." Jill replied, "I suppose I must go and look for another stream," but when the lion said, "There is no other stream," Jill drank and it was the coldest, most refreshing water she had ever tasted. She didn't need to drink much of it, for it quenched her thirst at once.4
In Baptism our thirst is quenched by baptism, the open door to God. John wrote in his Revelation that he saw an open door in heaven (4:1).
One Palm Sunday our congregation waited outside the closed door of the sanctuary with our drums and horns, balloons and banners. We waited for the door to be unlocked and swung open, for we were waiting for the One who would lead us into the presence of God, because this was Passion Sunday. We had congregated in the social hall outside the sanctuary, eating in community before the worship service, rather than afterwards, remembering the unusual, for that is the purpose of "holy" days. Seeking a homeland, a better country, that is, a heavenly one, this day we were celebrating the coming of Jesus as "the door" to God.
Made in the image of God we yearn to return "home," for we are on the wrong side of the door. "We are in the far country." Meister Eckhart said, "God is at home. We are in the far country."
Jesus, the Door to the "real thing," was Lewis' source of joy. When he was dying, his secretary, seeing the author's peaceful acceptance of death in the hospital, remarked to the great storyteller, "You know, you really do believe all the things you have written." Lewis looked surprised and replied, "Of course! That is why I wrote them."
We are baptized through the water and the words of the sacred stories, the "real things," things written. John concluded his Gospel, "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name" (John 20:30--31).
Stories open doors to memories, to faith, to take the bread and wine and follow in the steps of the one who drank "the cup" down to its dregs because he was baptized, because he was the door to "another country."
So with the psalmist, we pray, "Create in us a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within us. Cast us not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from us." Amen.
Hymn: "Lift Every Voice And Sing"
(words: James Weldon Johnson; music: J. Rosamond Johnson)
Prayers Of The People
Pastoral Prayer:
In all time of our fear and doubt;
In all time of our possibility;
And in the day of frustration
And of fulfillment,
Hear us, dear Lord, and take not your Holy Spirit from us.
We pray in the words Christ Jesus taught us to pray:
The Lord's Prayer
Offering
Doxology
Hymn: "I Love To Tell The Story"
(words: Katherine Hankey; music: William G. Fischer)
Benediction:
Go now in the name of God who brings hope and possibility through Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who gives us courage to listen and to act out our vows of baptism. Amen.
____________
1. C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (New York: Collier, 1950), p. 143.
2. C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle (New York: Macmillan, 1956), p. 153.
3. C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1955).
4. C. S. Lewis, The Silver Chair (New York: Collier, 1955).
Call To Worship:
"Jesus did not speak to them except in parables." Come, let us worship God, author of our parables.
Hymn: "Tell Me The Stories Of Jesus"
(words: William H. Parker, music: Frederick A. Challinor)
Children's Time:
(The intergenerational sermon is the "time for children.")
The Sacrament Of Baptism
Prayer Of Confession:
We confess that our busyness and our doubt keep us from spending time with you, O Lord, who are closer than our very breathing. You who breathed the breath of life into us, hear our prayer for forgiveness. As Jesus gave his disciples the power to forgive sins by sending his Holy Spirit to them, we ask your healing now. Amen.
Words Of Assurance:
Jesus said that the Good Shepherd calls his sheep by name. Know that God loves, forgives, and calls us by name. Amen.
Psalter Reading: Psalm 141:1--3
Old Testament: Deuteronomy 6:4--9
Epistle: l Corinthians 16:1--9
New Testament: Revelation 3:8, 20 and 4:1
Prayer:
May our words, our thoughts, our images be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
Sermon:
Jesus said, "I am the door. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture" (John 10:9). In the book of Revelation we read, "Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut" (3:8).
Some doors open out and others open in, and some doors never shut. The doors of Grace--Calvary Episcopal Church in Clarksville, Georgia, are always open, because about a hundred years ago they lost the key. Our key, our open door, is Christ.
When Lucy in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe opened the wardrobe door, she stepped into another world. Her life was changed forever.1
It is true for us, too. When we open "the door" and enter, we encounter a world of possibility - newness, danger, wonder, imagination. In the church, baptism is that door, the way we enter another world, a new way of seeing and being as the child of God.
Jesus said, "Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me" (Revelation 3:20). When we listen and open the door, we can be with God. It is a matter of free choice.
Many are acquainted with The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. In The Last Battle the dwarfs, because of their selfishness that has made them blind, refused to go through the door. Their cry was, "The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs." They chose blindness instead of belief, and remained in the prison of their own minds.
Whether we risk going through the door or remain on this side, as the dwarfs did by refusing to be "taken in," the choice is ours, for doors open and doors close. They invite us in and lock us out.
The creatures looked at Aslan, the Great Lion, and on some faces there was fear and hatred, and they swerved to his left and disappeared. But those who looked on the face of Aslan and loved him, though frightened, came in at the door on Aslan's right.2
My sons, my grandchildren, my friends, and I have all stepped through the wardrobe door, our imaginations baptized with a sense of holiness. The author of that wardrobe door told of taking long weekly walks and sometimes returning home by train. Waiting on the platform of the railroad station, he bought a copy of one of George MacDonald's novels. As he read it, he said that it was if he were entering "another country," in one sense exactly like the old but in another sense all was changed. He called it "holiness."
The author of the book of Hebrews wrote of the saints who died in faith as strangers and foreigners on earth, seeking a homeland, a better country, that is, a heavenly one (11:13--16). Lewis wrote, "I saw the bright shadow coming out of the book into the real world and resting there, transforming all common things and yet itself unchanged ... That night my imagination was, in a certain sense, baptized."3
Through the sacred story of Jesus, the Christ, our imaginations too are baptized and blessed.
In The Silver Chair, another of The Chronicles, Jill Pole, miserable from being teased at the school she was attending, listened to Eustace Scrubb telling about visiting another world where animals talked and there were dragons and enchantments, and when they stepped through the door of the high stone wall surrounding the school, they were in ... another world. Here their adventures began. First Scrubb fell off the high cliff and a lion blew him away. Jill cried for her friend and when she stopped crying she found she was dreadfully thirsty and began to look for water. When she came to an open place, she saw a stream, but instead of rushing forward to drink the water, she could not move. Just this side of the stream lay a lion. The lion asked, "If you are thirsty, you may drink. Are you not thirsty?" Jill replied, "I'm dying of thirst." "Then drink," said the lion. "I don't dare come and drink." Jill was frightened by the lion who said, "Then you will die of thirst." Jill replied, "I suppose I must go and look for another stream," but when the lion said, "There is no other stream," Jill drank and it was the coldest, most refreshing water she had ever tasted. She didn't need to drink much of it, for it quenched her thirst at once.4
In Baptism our thirst is quenched by baptism, the open door to God. John wrote in his Revelation that he saw an open door in heaven (4:1).
One Palm Sunday our congregation waited outside the closed door of the sanctuary with our drums and horns, balloons and banners. We waited for the door to be unlocked and swung open, for we were waiting for the One who would lead us into the presence of God, because this was Passion Sunday. We had congregated in the social hall outside the sanctuary, eating in community before the worship service, rather than afterwards, remembering the unusual, for that is the purpose of "holy" days. Seeking a homeland, a better country, that is, a heavenly one, this day we were celebrating the coming of Jesus as "the door" to God.
Made in the image of God we yearn to return "home," for we are on the wrong side of the door. "We are in the far country." Meister Eckhart said, "God is at home. We are in the far country."
Jesus, the Door to the "real thing," was Lewis' source of joy. When he was dying, his secretary, seeing the author's peaceful acceptance of death in the hospital, remarked to the great storyteller, "You know, you really do believe all the things you have written." Lewis looked surprised and replied, "Of course! That is why I wrote them."
We are baptized through the water and the words of the sacred stories, the "real things," things written. John concluded his Gospel, "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name" (John 20:30--31).
Stories open doors to memories, to faith, to take the bread and wine and follow in the steps of the one who drank "the cup" down to its dregs because he was baptized, because he was the door to "another country."
So with the psalmist, we pray, "Create in us a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within us. Cast us not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from us." Amen.
Hymn: "Lift Every Voice And Sing"
(words: James Weldon Johnson; music: J. Rosamond Johnson)
Prayers Of The People
Pastoral Prayer:
In all time of our fear and doubt;
In all time of our possibility;
And in the day of frustration
And of fulfillment,
Hear us, dear Lord, and take not your Holy Spirit from us.
We pray in the words Christ Jesus taught us to pray:
The Lord's Prayer
Offering
Doxology
Hymn: "I Love To Tell The Story"
(words: Katherine Hankey; music: William G. Fischer)
Benediction:
Go now in the name of God who brings hope and possibility through Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who gives us courage to listen and to act out our vows of baptism. Amen.
____________
1. C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (New York: Collier, 1950), p. 143.
2. C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle (New York: Macmillan, 1956), p. 153.
3. C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1955).
4. C. S. Lewis, The Silver Chair (New York: Collier, 1955).
