1 March 2025
Beloved
“The gifts Christ gave were ….. to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.” (Eph 4:11-13)
We gather together today as the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney, very aware that we are desirous of both unity and maturity in Christ, so that we can serve in his name those that come to our churches, and those in our neighbourhoods and communities.
If, as described in Ephesians, we want to be mature, as individuals or as a diocese, attaining to the fullness of Christ, then we could just try to push on forward, doing the best we can.
Or, we can pause and remember where we began, be reminded of our ‘factory settings’, if you will. Taking pause enables us to pay attention to some fundamental things – including who we are in relation to God and each other.
So, the search for unity and maturity takes us back to the beginning of the chapter in Ephesians, where it describes there being:
“one Lord, one faith, one baptism”
It is our one, common, baptism that I want us to consider today.
One baptism – a shared experience, something that we all have in common. Later in the service we will renew our baptismal promises, and be sprinkled again with water, accompanied by the words:
“Remember your baptism”.