Transfer deadline day has been described as the busiest and most exciting 24 hours for every football fan in the world.
Transfer deadline day is the final point at which players can be transferred from one club to another meaning that some deals are put together very quickly and some players who, one day, were wearing the colours of their original team are the next day in the colours of a new team. Normally transfers are planned and known about in advance but on transfer deadline day surprising and unexpected deals can be done.
Our Gospel reading (Luke 23:33-43) gives us just such a surprising transfer when one of the criminals on the cross alongside Jesus says, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom” and Jesus says, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” Our New Testament reading (Colossians 1:11-20) explains what is going on as a transfer; a transfer from the power of darkness to the kingdom of the beloved Son and it's instant, just like on transfer deadline day.
Transfer deadline day sees a select group of footballers change clubs but the transfer we see happening on the cross isn’t selective. If a dying criminal can be transferred from the power of darkness to the kingdom of the beloved Son, then surely that’s transfer that is open to anyone, indeed is intended for any or all of us.
Instead of money changing hands as is the case on transfer deadline day, for the Christian, baptism is the sign that this transfer has taken place. For some, baptism happens soon after the transfer has taken place. For others, baptism confirms something that happened in that person’s life many years earlier.
In the baptism liturgy, the transfer is described as follows: “God calls us out of darkness into his marvellous light. To follow Christ means dying to sin and rising to new life with him. Therefore, the candidate is asked: Do you reject the devil and all rebellion against God, do you renounce the deceit and corruption of evil and do you repent of the sins that separate us from God and neighbour. These decisions involve our leaving the powers of darkness while the following are to do with our transfer to the kingdom of the Beloved Son: Do you turn to Christ as Saviour, do you submit to Christ as Lord and do you come to Christ, the way, the truth and the life.
The transfer into the kingdom of the Beloved Son is enabled by Jesus on the cross, which is where we see the extent to which God is with us. Jesus is the reconciler of all things because he is both divine and human, so in him all things hold together. As God he is the Creator, so, in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things were created through him and for him. In him, the creator of the universe becomes part of the creation bringing creator and creation together as one.
Through Jesus’ incarnation God moved into our neighbourhood and experienced human life in all its beauties and frustrations, joys and sorrows. Because he experienced human life for himself, Jesus is then able to take all he experienced and us as well into God. He becomes the head of the body, the church; the beginning and the firstborn from the dead. Through him, we become one with God. In him, God comes down to earth in order to bring us to God and bring heaven and earth together, uniting heaven and earth, just as they will finally be united in a new heaven and earth in future. Through him God has been pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
The cross shows just how God loves us and wants to be with us. Being with us is the reason God created the universe but we are often uninterested or opposed to being in relationship with God, because of the self-interest that governs so much of what do as human beings. In Jesus, God comes into our world to be with us as a human being but we reject him, put him on trial and then kill him. You would think that would be enough for God, that he would say those humans are simply not interested and they’re not going to change, so I’m going to give up on them as a result. That isn’t what happens. As he hangs on the cross, Jesus is faced with a choice between being with God his Father and being with us. He chooses to be with us. God the Father is faced with a choice between holding on to Jesus or letting him go to be with us. He chooses to let Jesus be with us. The cross is so important for us, as Christians, because it is where we see how much God loves us and how much he is prepared to sacrifice in order to be with us. That sacrifice enables us, like the repentant thief on his cross, to transfer into the kingdom of the Beloved Son.
Ann-Kay Lin has experienced God with her in this way in her experiences and in her music, most notably in the composition Blessed created as a leaving gift for Jane Freeman based on the Beatitudes. As a result, she is wanting to show today through baptism that this transfer that we have been exploring has happened in her life too. In her case, baptism is a confirmatory sign of something that happened long before.
The impact that this has had is shown in her composition Blessed which shows the way we are to live as a result of this transfer having taken place. So, before her baptism, let us listen to Blessed as an act of reflection and prayer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvDJIwUmR8A.
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