We sit in a church that dates back to 1750.
The sounds of prayer and praise have shored up these walls for 250 years.
And, God willing, these walls will stand for many worshipping generations yet to come.
For two and a half centuries,
Word and Sacrament have offered solace and strength to the people of this place.
We have been equipping the saints to go out into the world to do the work
that Christ himself has given us.

Our own local history looms large for us,
but we are only a small part of a much bigger picture.
We are part of a vast company, living and dead,
that stretches back through twenty centuries and circumnavigates the entire globe.

"You are no longer strangers and sojourners,
but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God...
Their sound has gone out into all lands, and their message to the ends of the world."
These two sentences, one from Ephesians and one from the psalms,
are selected to be used as the first words of Morning Prayer on All Saints' Day.
They are fitting words to remember on this day as we prepare to do something amazing.

For twenty centuries new members have been adopted,
through Christ, into the household of God. We will do this today.

We will use the simple and miraculous means of water and words
to usher them into a kingdom where the rules are radically different and life never ends. This very morning we will look, with angels and archangels
and all the company of heaven, into a simple bowl of water
that somehow holds its tiny waves the surge of creation,
the wake of freedom passing through the Red Sea,
and the ripples that radiated from Christ
as he knelt down in the Jordan River at His baptism.

With this water, by the power of God's spirit, we baptism babies and adults into a new life. We pour creation, freedom and the promise of resurrection over their heads.

With this water, we mix their lives into the sea of saints
that have felt the power of God moving in them.
With this water we mix the flow of human lives with the current of Christ.
With this ceremony of water and words,
we set new Christians on the river that leads to the kingdom of God.

Henry Emerson Traynor and William Gregory Pappas
join this mighty confluence this morning.
By their baptism they become part of the body of Christ.

Water and words will mark the gathering of Henry and William
into that company that includes all baptized Christian.

We will pour the water on Henry and William in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. But the falling water will resonate with the sound of many names. You and I are with them. The faithful departed of this graveyard and our memories are with them. And all the saints throughout the ages whose journey through life is now

known only to God.

All of us stand with one foot outside of time, and beyond this world,
because we been washed from one kind of life into another.
We have shared in the baptism of Christ. We have shared in his death and resurrection. And we are called to share in his ministry.

Each of us has been given gifts by God. These gifts are from God, and for the glory of god. One list of such gifts is presented in the reading from Ecclesiasticus.

Mighty works have been done by major saints.
Some of them gave their names to books of the Gospel.
Other saints laid the foundation of the church throughout the world.
But all of us have gifts to bring and work to do for the building up of God's kingdom.
And it all begins with worship.
This is the Sunday after All Saints' Day. So we celebrate and remember not just the known and the famous but all who reflect the love of God in their lives.

And we are doing some of those things we promise to do
every time we say the Baptismal Covenant.
We are continuing in the apostle's teaching, in the breaking of bread and in the prayers.
We are proclaiming the Good News of God in Christ.

We begin with water and words. We remember Christ's death and resurrection each Sunday when we come to eat the bread and drink the wine.

But the last two promises of the Baptismal Covenant require that we leave this place, with all its rich history, and turn our focus out into the world.

For it is there that we are to seek and serve Christ in all persons.

It is in our workplace and in the street that we are challenged to love our neighbor.

It is in the town square, the voting booth and the places of secular power
that we are asked to stand for justice so that there might be peace.
It is in the wider world that we are challenged to respect the dignity of every human being. We are asked to look with love upon those with whom we strongly disagree.
We are bidden to believe that God is at work even in those who hate us and wish us harm. Until it is all over, repentance and redemption remain an open invitation
to all whom God has made.

All of this is wrapped up in what we do this morning.
It is easy to reach down into a silver bowl. It requires little effort to get wet.
But these simple actions bind us to a high calling and an eternal perspective.
In all the promises we make, if we live only according to our own will, we will fail. Through our own strength and vision we can do little. But all things are possible through God and we are members of God's household through our baptism.

Will we do the all things that we will promise today?
We will, with God's help.