Recently you have all heard me say that this is the most important service of the Christian year. It is the climax of a long process. At Christmas we celebrated the beginning of the process, when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Tonight, we are participating in the goal, the fulfillment of that same process, in which the flesh becomes Spirit.

The Paschal candle which Paul carried into the church, is a demonstration and symbol of what I mean. Inside the candle shell is oil, part of the physical world which decays. When the wick is lighted, the oil slowly turns into flame, which is alive and moving, the ancient symbol of the Holy Spirit. The wick connects the oil to the flame, enabling this transformation.

Each of our stories from the Hebrew Scriptures, gave us an example of how this transformation happened long ago. In order to understand this, you need to know that the word "flesh" in the Bible has several layers of meaning. Sometimes it means simply matter. Other times, it refers to sinful human nature, and to the selfish desires that pull us away from God. In the story of Joseph, it was those selfish desires which caused JosephÕs brothers to sell him into slavery. Many years later, when the brothers came to Joseph to buy food, the human anger Joseph must have felt, had been transformed into compassion. The flesh of violence was changed into the Spirit of love.

In the story of the Exodus, the violence of oppression was thrown off through the leadership of Moses, who had been called by God and guided by the Spirit. It seems that the Israelites only found their identity as the people of God when the flesh of slavery was turned into the Spirit of freedom. In the story of the choice of David as king, it is the first king, Saul, who is the flesh, because he disobeyed God, and everyone is surprised to learn that the son who is too young to be invited to meet the prophet, is the one anointed with God's Spirit. In the story of Wisdom, we hear the history of the Spirit herself, who assisted in the creation of the world, and who gives human beings the guidance they need, to turn away from the selfish desires of the flesh.

It is our believe, as Christians, that these stories and many others, all point to Jesus of Nazareth, who was the Word made flesh, entering so completely into human nature, that he experienced the pull of selfish desires, the temptation to do what is expedient to achieve his goals, and the testing of faith which fear and physical abuse brings. Having become flesh, he was obedient, he trusted God, he accepted the guidance of Wisdom, and went to his death forgiving his persecutors. Tonight, we begin the great 50 days celebrating the transformation of his flesh into Spirit The resurrection of Christ is God's demonstration that all human beings have the capacity to be transformed--that death itself cannot hold or kill the Spirit, it can only hold the flesh.

So tonight, we celebrate the two great sacraments of the way of Christ -- the two mysteries in which we can see, with the eyes of faith, the flesh becoming Spirit. In the baptism we just witnessed, the human nature of this beautiful baby, Isaiah Emmanuel, was spiritually joined to Christ, so that his flesh might receive the Spirit. In the Bible, the giving of the Spirit is closely associated with the anointing with oil, as we heard in the story of David. So here in baptism, both the water and the oil are symbolically the wick, which join the flesh of this baby to the Spirit of Christ. We don't know how many years it will take for Isaiah's heart, or for any of our hearts, to be transformed into Spirit, but we do know that God's Holy Spirit is dwelling within us, and changing us slowly or quickly, into the likeness of Christ.

That process of transformation, is nourished and strengthened by the other great sacrament which we are about to celebrate. For when we remember the Last Supper of Jesus, when we do in remembrance of him, that which he asked us to do, we are participating directly in the transformation of flesh into Spirit, in two ways. The lesser way is the change, however it may happen, of bread into the Body of Christ, and of wine into the Blood of Christ. Somehow, in, with and under the appearance of bread and wine, Christ is really present. But there is a much more profound transformation, a greater way that the flesh becomes Spirit. Somehow, really but invisibly, the bread and wine become the wick, connecting the people (already in process of becoming Spirit), or rather turning the people, into the Body of Christ. Like baptism, Holy Communion joins a person to Christ. But beyond baptism, Holy Communion joins the people who receive it, to one another, making them the visible embodiment of the invisible presence of Christ. This means that when the deacon dismisses us with the words, "Go forth into the world " he is sending Christ out into the world, once more to welcome the stranger, to heal the sick, to feed the hungry, and to comfort the fearful.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, in order that our flesh might become Spirit, and continue Christ's ministry in the world.