Easter 4B ​(Acts 4:5-12; 1 John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18; Psalm 23)

How many of you actually remember the day of your own baptism? If you’re a cradle Episcopalian or Catholic or any other branch of Christian tradition you want to call it, you probably have no idea what your parents, godparents, and the baptizing priest did to you. The priest probably made you cry while pouring some water over your head and put some oil in your forehead. And probably, your parents and godparents as well as all who were there were smiling at you. (Kind of cruel, isn’t it?)

Today is a very special and mysterious day. Actually, Sunday worship time is always, always, a sacred time that is differentiated from other times. It is when we experience the kingdom of God on earth. But today is indeed quite special. Not only because Mikey just got baptized, but also because we’re being reminded of what we often forget about ourselves. We are participating in something that happened to all of us when we were baptized. Whether you realize it or not, whether you feel it or not, whatever begins to happen to Mikey at his baptism is still happening to you. Watching, witnessing, and actively participating in this Sacrament of the Baptism of Mikey, we are once again brought back to the very reality and the sacred mystery of our own baptisms.

There are two things about this Baptismal rite that I would like us to reflect on. First, let’s go back to the sentences used when Mikey was baptized: “I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” and “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.”

For those who were baptized as infants, you heard these two sentences but wouldn’t remember a thing about it. Today’s sacred event brings back the memory of your own baptism. Yes, you were surrounded by your loved ones and were given this new birth and identity. For those like me who were baptized later in life, you can go back to the experience of your baptism and remind yourself of who you really are in the eyes of Jesus Christ.

In a way, I personally find it fascinating and mysterious that God is really working through the most vulnerable person here, a five month old baby. He is reminding all of us by sharing his life with us that we’ve become God’s children, sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever. How often do we actually believe and remember that we’re sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever? You’re not your own. You belong to Christ. You belong to the communion of saints, both living and dead, by baptism. You’re never left abandoned. You’re never lost in God even if you at times feel so lost. Jesus in today’s gospel urges us, “I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.”

When I poured the holy water over Mikey’s head and baptized him in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, when I anointed him with the oil of chrism, we not only welcome him as the newest member of the Body of Jesus Christ but also we see ourselves in him. We were born from the womb of our mothers. Through Baptism, we are born again from the womb of God. This is a new birth offered by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd. This life of new creation, new birth, and the resurrection is the gift of life that Jesus the Good Shepherd grants us in Baptism. Sacramentally, we already died with Jesus and are risen with him in Baptism. In a mortal body, we’re given the resurrected body. In this sense, this Sacrament of Baptism is a life-transforming and transfiguring event for all of us. We bear the mystery of the resurrection of Jesus Christ by becoming his Body.

The other thing I would like us to reflect on about today’s Baptismal rite is these sentences that we all said to Mikey: “We receive you into the household of God. Confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his eternal priesthood.” Just as we’re adopted by God through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit by the sacramental means of Holy Baptism, Mikey the newest member of this local church, St. Agnes’ and the universal Church is adopted by God. As we belong to the one flock whose shepherd is Jesus Christ, Mikey belongs this same one flock.

This is not to say we’re simply having one more member to a social club. When we welcome and receive someone newly baptized, that is the commitment that we as Church make before God that this newly baptized person is part of one Body. We pray for each other. We together work for the kingdom of God. We confess, proclaim, and live out the love that God shows us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We want to feel the pains others feel. We want to suffer together with those who are suffering. We want to share joy and sorrow, life and death as one Body of Jesus Christ. This act of belonging to one flock and following one shepherd is completed in the act of eating the Body of Christ and drinking his Blood together in the Eucharist.

My friends, let’s remember who we are. Today at this differentiated time of God, we are celebrating what we are in Jesus Christ. Let’s remember we are Christ’s own forever. Let’s live courageously and compassionately as one flock, faithfully following the Good Shepherd who lays his own life for the world. May God continue to transfigure our baptized bodies to become the Body and Blood of Christ in order to feed those in need in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.