It was the baptism of Jesus that began his own journey with God towards Jerusalem.  It was the Crucifixion of Jesus that began his journey with God towards Easter and Resurrection.  And it was in the Ascension that Jesus' journey with God led him out of the world, to make way for the Holy Spirit, our Advocate and Guide.

In our own Baptism the Holy Spirit weaves our lives into this grand drama, calling us to life as the Church, and we become Christ's Body still present and manifest in the world.  It's the calling of the Church that we continue on this Pentecost Day in the baptism of Christopher, as God's Holy Spirit seals him, and marked as Christ's own, forever.

Today we start again, here at the end of the long journey of faith from creation to Abraham and Sarah to the Prophets and writers of Wisdom to Mary and Jesus ... and now, Christopher.  And here at this end of that long story, we "make a beginning," a fresh start that Christ has promised will have no end.  So as we gather around the baptismal font and join in saying again the baptismal covenant, may we arrive where this story started, seeing this day with the eyes of those on the first Pentecost Day.  May we, too, dream Pentecost dreams and see Pentecost visions, with the confidence that the Holy Spirit brings, that each of us has been sealed in its power, and "marked as Christ's own, forever."

Amen +