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Last week, when I spoke, I began to talk about the difference between time and eternity. Eternity is not infinite time, but rather outside of time. In eternity there is no sense of time, but this does not mean that it is isolated from our world. I believe that there are things that we can do; things that we do, do; that have an impact in the eternal dimension.

Significantly, the incarnation, God taking human form in Jesus, has created the possibility of our interaction with eternity. This is what we celebrate at Christmas - God breaking into the realm of humanity - eternity imprisoned by time for a time to open the path for all who are imprisoned by time to find eternity.

Jesus incarnation brought him into our world, but in his baptism, recorded into today's Gospel reading, Jesus places himself in our shoes.

John the Baptist's mission and ministry was to confront the world with the inadequacy of their lives in God's framework. John dealt with sin, the sin of humanity and his baptism was symbolic of the washing away of that sin. This is sin (and not sins) and there is a distinction. This is the predilection for us to choose the wrong way - an inherited trait from our human lineage, belonging to each of us from these small children to the oldest of adults. This Baptism of John, is about dealing with this condition and the expression of living beyond it.

Jesus had no need for this - his divinity had isolated him from sin and so his participation, was a restatement of his incarnation; that he wished to share our journey (and walk with us). It is this voluntarily taking on the sin of humanity, that enabled him through the Cross to open the door to eternity for humanity.

John himself recognised the inadequacy of his actions. He described the one who was coming who was greater than he. He would come not with water, but with the Holy Spirit and this was the promise of the new way that Jesus would inaugurate.

Our second reading, describes Paul's encounter with those who had only experience the baptism of John. They had expressed their desire for repentance and entered into the new Kingdom, but the had not embraced the Holy Spirit - (if you like, they had not engaged with Jesus) and so were still in the human realm.

One of the difficulties that we have, is that we do not deal adequately with our understanding of the Holy Spirit. We can tend to see Christianity in a very human framework. We may acknowledge sin, and attempt to deal with it in the waters of baptism, but this tends to reduce Christianity to the idea that it is all about living a good life - choosing right from wrong.

One of my early conundrums on my journey of faith was encountering really godly people whose lives literally shone, and then talking to them and discovering that would describe themselves as far from saintly. This was more than modesty, or some sought of psychosis, but somehow as they had drawn closer to the light of life, their faults were quite stark in comparison.

It is my understanding now, that this is because of the Holy Spirit being present in their lives. Baptism in (or into) the Holy Spirit, may as our reading describes, be accompanied by spectacular signs, but the reality is that there is the change of the person to becoming more Christ-like in their life. When we baptise young children, we are expressing our desire, not only that they would join into the church (as an organisation) but that they would know and experience the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

This is not just a historic event (a date on the calendar), but an event with an eternal dimension. We baptise on the understanding that this is the path for the child to engage with the Holy Spirit (or perhaps I should say, the Holy Spirit with the child) and thus opens for them the possibility of entering eternity. Parents and Godparents the task that you take on is awesome, for this day, you are committing yourself to guiding this child to the point where they may encounter God in their own right. This is not an intellectual journey, but rather the provision to the child of the life experience that can successfully recognise God. It is through friendship and love that they will grow in this understanding, and in the same way that children develop language, they can also will grow into faith. A child raised with no one talking to him or around her, will never learn to speak. It is as they see and observe your use of language, that they see and understand and try to talk. What you see is truly what you get. It is the same with faith. Those closest to the child, parents and God parents, are called demonstrate their own faith, there own engagement with the Holy Spirit, that they might pass their child the language and experience of faith. The church can play, and does play its part, but the front line is in the family home.

So parents, and Godparents and indeed each of us here witnessing this baptism with water, ought to look to own lives and experience. Have we followed up our baptism, and lived out our lives with an engagement with the Holy Spirit? or is our religion merely about trying to be good?

It is never to late, but we must each take the conscious choice to reach the full potential of our baptism. May each of you see the Spirit descend, know the Son and hear the voice of the Father saying - This is my Son, whom I love, with whom I am well pleased.

AMEN.