We’ve got four things to cover today.  Let’s begin at the beginning.

Baptism.  When we baptize anyone — a child, a teen, or an adult — we are welcoming them into the wider Church, the body of Christ, which includes all Christian churches: Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox believers.  We are all one in Christ, as the Apostle Paul makes abundantly clear in his Epistles.  Baptist traditions practice believer’s baptism, which means the person being baptize wants to be baptized.  It is an act of faith.  When we celebrate a baptism, we are making promises — as parents, Godparents, and the congregation as a whole.  Today, we promised to raise Albert in the faith.  This is no simple, routine, empty promise.  It is a promise we made before God!  We, as a church, will always be a place where Albert is loved and cared for as he lives and grows into the fullness of Christ.  In about thirteen years, Albert will go through confirmation, at which time he will “confirm” (hence confirmation) the promises made on his behalf.  To his parents, continue to tell him the story — the old, old story of Jesus and his love.  It will always be proclaimed here.

Next, this week is the 80^th anniversary of D-Day, when US and Allied Forces invaded the beaches of Normandy to begin the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi occupation.  That day, 4414 Allied troops died, 2501 of them were Americans.  Those numbers are staggering.  The carnage of this event existed only in history books, until Steven Spielberg released the 1998 film Saving Private Ryan.  The opening of that film brings you right to the beachfront.  We see firsthand the horror that those soldiers felt.  The bullets.  The blood.  The loss.  The lives of eighteen, nineteen, and twenty-something-year-olds are cut woefully short.  As long as we commemorate their loss and, more importantly, never take for granted the freedom and liberty we enjoy as heirs of their sacrifice, then they will not have died in vain.  The story must be told and retold with each generation.  We must never give in to fear or let what some call this experiment in democracy also become something that our children’s children read about in history books only.  My fear is that it could.  The more divided this nation gets, the less stable our future looks.  In 1967, Ronald Reagan said during his inauguration as Governor of California, “Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction.”  No matter what you think of Reagan, this quote is absolutely true.

Third, today is Masonic Sunday.  We are thrilled that members of the Blue Hill Lodge and the wider Masonic district are joining us in worship.  Lots of suspicions surround this fraternal organization.  You often hear people say that they are a secret society.  Masons say that they are a society with secrets.  To be a Mason, there are a few qualifications — one of them being that you have to believe in God.  You do not have to be a Christian to be a Mason, although most of our nation’s forebearers who were Masons were Christians, as are Masons across the world.  Masons come from all races, colors, and creeds.  It is a world-wide fellowship.  The mantra at the heart of the organization is that they seek to make good men better.  No, they are not Satanists.  No, their rituals do not include human sacrifices.  No, they are not trying to take over the world.  (Maybe they are.)  Masonry goes back to biblical times and the construction of Solomon’s Temple.  Want to know more?  Talk to one of the brothers during coffee hour.

Last, but not least, it is Communion Sunday.  When I did my Ph.D. at Boston University, I knew I wanted to study and write about Holy Communion.  Some of my most profound worship experiences included receiving the Lord’s Supper.  I studied Communion at length as a Master of Divinity student at Andover Newton but graduated with more questions than answers.  I was determined to learn more.  I studied with some of the world’s top sacramental theologians, including Horace Allen, Robert Neville, Lucien Richard, and Thomas Groome.  I wrote a massive tome [this], and my conclusion is that I still have more questions than answers.  But maybe that is the point.  One of the words for sacrament (particularly this sacrament) is mysterium.  There are Greek, Latin, and Middle English versions of this word.  They all sound the same and they point to the fact that this is a mystery.  How can human words possibly explain the way we encounter the Living Christ at this table?

Baptism, D-Day, Masonry, and Communion.  It is indeed a full day.  Let us continue the celebration and commemoration as we come to the table and to celebrate the presence of the God made fully known in Jesus Christ, the host who welcomes us all here.