"Divine Mercy and Sacred Beginnings: Grace in the Journey of Faith"

🕇 The 11th Sunday after Trinity -- 1928 BCP -- August 31st, 2025

Preached at St. Barnabas Anglican Church, Bellville, TX

Fr. Mike Keppler, Rector

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable to thee, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer, and Lord, give us here today, eyes to see and ears to hear so we can learn your word together as a family. We offer you all the praise, honor, and Glory for it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Good morning, my fellow encouragers. We gather on this 11th Sunday after Trinity with hearts full of gratitude as our liturgy today is especially graced. We witness both the sacrament of Holy Baptism and the Churching of Women, which is an ancient rite of thanksgiving. It speaks to God's providence in human life. We, the encouragers, are reminded that the sacred still speaks through these timeless practices of our faith.

Our Collect prayer this morning beautifully frames our worship. It reads in part, “O God, who declares thy almighty power chiefly in shown mercy and pity.”

This underlines a marvelous paradox of our faith. The omnipotent God reveals his power primarily through compassion, not through dominance. This divine power, shown through mercy, sets a wonderful foundation for both the sacrament of baptism and the thanksgiving rite we experienced earlier.

Our gospel reading from St. Luke, chapter 18, is Jesus’ Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. Our Lord sets before us two approaches to God. One characterized by self-righteousness and the other by a humble recognition of dependence on divine mercy.

The Pharisee stands proudly, basically congratulating himself before God. He says, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people, thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give a tenth of all my income.”

His prayer is telling. It reveals a fundamental flaw in his relationship with God. He approaches the Almighty, thinking he's already earned divine favor through moral achievement.

In stark contrast, the tax collector would not even look up to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” This man recognizes his complete dependence on God's mercy. He makes no claims of moral superiority, offers no record of religious observance, and presents no credentials for divine approval. He simply pleads for mercy.

The way Jesus concludes is striking. He says, “I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

This parable highlights the truth expressed in our Collect, that God's power is chiefly declared in mercy and pity. The tax collector, in his humble acknowledgment of dependence, experiences the true power of God in justification.

The Pharisee, attempting to stand before God on His own merits, remains unjustified despite his moral achievements.

In our Epistle reading, St. Paul reminds the Corinthians of the gospel he had previously proclaimed to them. He says, “For I hand it onto you as of first importance, would I in turn had received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”

St. Paul underscores a key aspect of Christianity. We are graced with salvation through faith. Faith is something we receive and then pass on to others. Paul didn't create the gospel. Rather, he received it and shared it consistently. This process of receiving and sharing is at the heart of how we understand faith, especially within the Anglican tradition.

The sacrament of baptism we participated in today embodies this very pattern. In baptizing Ambrose, we are joining in a rite that Christians have practiced since apostolic times. As the baptismal office states, our Lord commanded his disciples, “…to teach all nations and to baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.”

At baptism, we receive this child into the continuous tradition of faith, grafting them into the body of Christ and committing ourselves to hand on to them the faith, once delivered to the Saints. Ambrose receives what we have received, the covenant promises of God. In time, he will be called to hand on this same faith to generations yet unborn.

By the same token, in the churching of women, we join Kelsey in an ancient rite of thanksgiving for the safe delivery of Ambrose. This service links her with countless women throughout salvation history who have offered thanks for God's mercy in childbearing. While not a sacrament, this rite beautifully expresses our dependence on God's providence in the most fundamental of human experiences.

Our Old Testament reading from the prophet Isaiah offers a sincere message of hope. “Your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise. O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy.” Isaiah anticipates the resurrection hope and finds its fulfillment in Christ's victory over death, the same victory St. Paul expressed in our Epistle.

This resurrection theme connects powerfully with both baptism and childbirth. In baptism, St. Paul teaches in Romans 6, “We are buried with Christ by baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” The waters of baptism represent both death to sin and resurrection to new life in Christ.

Childbirth itself carries theological significance as a journey through peril to new life. The pain of childbirth, which is part of the fallenness of creation, gives way to the joy of new life as Our Lord teaches in John 16, “When a woman is in labor, she has pain because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world.”

The Churching of Women acknowledges this path through difficulty to joy, offering thanks to God's mercy for bringing both mother and child safely through to new life.

The first verse of our introit today is a perfect reflection of Kelsey's thanksgiving. It reads, “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart in the counsel of the faithful and in the congregation.” Our psalms this morning, Psalm 124 and Psalm 125, reinforce this theme of divine deliverance. “If the Lord had not been on our side, then they would have swallowed us up alive.” These psalms express confidence in God's protection. “Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever.”

So how then should we apply these sacred truths to our daily lives?

First, we must embrace the paradox of divine power revealed in mercy. Like the tax collector rather than the Pharisee, we approach God with humble acknowledgment of our dependence on grace, not with credentials of moral achievement. This posture of humility opens us up to experience God's justifying power.

Second, we must recognize our place in the continuous stream of faith. Like St. Paul, we have received the Gospel, and we are called to hand it on faithfully. In today's setting, this applies particularly to the parents and godparents of baby Ambrose, who promised to raise him in the Christian faith. But it applies equally to all of us as members of Christ's body.

As the encouragers at St. Barnabas, our calling is to strengthen one another in this received faith, building up the body of Christ through mutual support and exhortation. Like our namesake Saint Barnabas, who the apostles called the Son of Encouragement, we are called to come alongside one another and encourage each other in the journey of faith.

Third, we live in the hope of resurrection, trusting that God brings life from death in every circumstance. Baptism reminds us that we have died with Christ and been raised to new life. The Churching of Women reminds us that God brings joy from pain, life from the shadow of death.

Our Collect prays that “…running the way of thy commandments, we may obtain thy gracious promises and be made partakers of thy heavenly treasure.” We run the way of God's commandments not to earn divine favor, but because we've already received grace. Our obedience is a response to that grace. It's not a prerequisite for it.

My fellow encouragers. As we witnessed the sacrament of Baptism and the thanksgiving rite of the Churching of Women today, we are reminded that the sacred still speaks through these ancient practices of our faith.

In Baptism, we see God's anticipatory grace reaching out to claim this child before any moral achievement or even conscious faith. In the Churching of Women, we see a mother's grateful acknowledgment of God's providential care bringing her and her child safely through the waters of birth to new life.

Both of these remind us of the heart of God, in that His power is declared chiefly in mercy and pity. Both Ambrose's baptism and Kelsey's thanksgiving remind us of our place in the continuous tradition of faith, receiving and handing on what has been entrusted to us. Both point us to the resurrection hope that sustains us through every trial.

And in both, we see our ancient faith expressing real love. We see God's love for us in Christ, our love for one another as Christ's body, and our shared love for this child, this mother, and this family whom our Father in heaven and we bless today.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.