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Hespeler, September 28, 2025 © Scott McAndless – Sacrament of Baptism
Acts 16:6-15, Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16, 1 Timothy 6:6-19, Luke 16:19-31
I have been so looking forward to this Sunday morning service. Ever since I heard that Ruhaan had been born back in the middle of May, I have been entranced by the possibility that we would get to celebrate his birth, his baptism and his initiation into the Christian Church.
As you well know, we have been richly blessed by the presence of Ruhaan’s family in our congregation over the past year. His sisters have often shared with us their wisdom and enthusiasm during our services, and they have been a wonderful addition to our Sunday school. We have also been blessed to get to know his father, Arasalan, who has been here so faithfully, even though his mother has often been understandably tied up with other things.
A Gift to the Church
But today we get to celebrate the gift of this family to the church of Jesus Christ, and, in particular, the gift of this particular child who comes to us with a message from God. That’s what we always celebrate whenever we baptize.
So, I gave a lot of thought to what scriptures would speak to us on this special occasion. And I finally landed on our reading this morning from the Book of Acts.
That might seem like an odd choice. It is a strange little passage in the accounts of the travels of the Apostle Paul that doesn’t seem all that important at first glance. Paul and his companions are travelling around the Anatolian Peninsula – the part of the world we call Turkey today.
Paul’s Travel Difficulties
They try to go to one place and then to another and another in order to preach the word about Jesus Christ. But it doesn’t work. In fact, it states that they are prevented by the Holy Spirit from preaching in those places. Somehow (and this is never really explained) they keep trying to talk to people and start churches, but the Holy Spirit intervenes to let them know that they cannot.
They finally end up in a place called Troas, where they seem to be somewhat frustrated with all of these restrictions. But there, Paul has a dream of someone asking them to come over to Macedonia. So, they go there and there they meet some people, especially a woman named Lydia who is open to hearing them.
The end. It doesn’t sound particularly important, sort of like when someone comes back from their vacation and they start telling you about the problems they had at the airport or the time when they almost lost their bags. You might listen and nod your head sympathetically, but it really doesn’t matter to you at all.
A Major Transition
So why should we care about Paul’s travel woes? I’ll tell you why. This passage is symbolic of one of the most significant transitions in the history of the Christian Church. Why? Because, even though they are only a few miles apart, Troas is in Asia, and Macedonia is in Europe.
Christianity, like all major world religions, began as an Eastern religion. It was born in Galilee and Jerusalem. It started out as a sect of Judaism, which traces its origins to a man named Abraham who came from Mesopotamia. But we don’t really think of Christianity as an Eastern religion today, do we? In many ways, we think of it as the premier Western religion, the one that has been essential to the creation of Western institutions and thought.
The Church Moves West
So, when did that happen? When did Christianity become a western religion? Well, in many ways that is what this passage in the Acts is talking about. The author is recounting the first time the Christian message passed over the Bosphorus and entered into the Western world. This is a moment that really did change Christianity.
I’m not saying that it changed Christianity in a bad way. I believe that Christianity was enriched by its encounter with Greek philosophy, Roman organization and European innovation among other things. But, good or bad, the changes have been significant. And this little passage in the Book of Acts is a symbolic exploration of that very significant moment of change. And we have a wonderful opportunity to reflect on that transition today.
Ruhaan’s Family
We have that opportunity because Ruhaan’s Family has come to us from Asia, specifically South Asia. So let me tell you a little bit about this extraordinary family.
They come to us from Pakistan, where Ruhaan’s great-grandfather was a Presbyterian minister and where his mother studied to become a Christian minister in another denomination. Pakistan is a majority Islamic country, but the Presbyterian Church is the largest Christian denomination in that country.
The Presbyterian Church in Pakistan exists because missionaries, specifically American missionaries, took the Christian message and the Presbyterian way of doing things to what was, at that time, part of India. Those missionaries took a Western form of Christianity, and they planted it back in the east – they kind of did the opposite of what Paul does in our reading this morning.
The Strength of the Pakistani Church
But, when Pakistan became an independent and Islamic state, it was not going to tolerate foreign religious influence. So, the Pakistani Presbyterians took control of their own church. And their Presbyterianism became a uniquely Eastern expression of the faith. The Pakistani Christians built a strong and resilient church. In part, they did so because they knew that, if they did not find that strength, their church would not survive.
For example, as Arsalan has explained to me, they know very well that, if their children, even from a very young age, are not grounded in their faith and do not have a clear understanding of why they are Christian, they can very easily become caught up in the dominant Islamic culture. The connection of children to the church and their formation is a life-and-death matter for them.
God is Re-enacting the Story
And now, God has sent Ruhaan and his family from South Asia to us in the West. And I see in this that God is re-enacting for us the story that we read from Acts this morning.
Like the Apostle Paul, this family had a good life and had done well in Asia. They were part of a vibrant church. But, like Paul in our reading, they knew that the Holy Spirit was restricting them. There were certain things that they were not entirely free to do.
And so, the Spirit sent them to the West where, by the power of the Spirit, they would find new freedoms to explore. In particular, they wanted the opportunity to raise their children to experience new possibilities in Canada.
The Holy Spirit is Key
And notice how the Holy Spirit is key to all of this. They have named their son, Ruhaan, in recognition of the Holy Spirit’s guidance. In Persian and in Urdu, Ruhaan means “from the Spirit,” and it is indeed from the Spirit that he has come to us.
So, the Spirit has led them here. He has sent them here for their own sake. And they have been willing to listen to the guidance of the Spirit and to the dream (like Paul dreamed) of the possibilities offered to them in the West.
This has been a costly decision for them. They have chosen to leave much behind and there has been a financial price to pay. And we pray today that they know much blessing in their lives here.
But today is not just about celebrating what the Spirit has done for them by bringing them here. Today we celebrate what the Spirit has done for us by bringing them here.
The Church in Canada
The Christian Church in Canada has so many advantages that the Pakistani Church does not. We may not live in an explicitly Christian country. Canada does not have an established church or any approved religion, but our culture is still dominated by the vestiges of a Christian past. Christmas and Easter are national holidays. Churches have tax advantages. We have legal protection for our right to worship. Ontario even has a publicly funded religious school system. These are advantages that Christians in places like Pakistan do not have.
I have noticed that, when we are feeling particularly vulnerable as churches, we often speak fondly of the past, when the church actually enjoyed more advantages and our society was more explicitly Christian. We bemoan the loss of a time when society reserved Sunday mornings for the exclusive use of the church or when retail stores would play religious carols at Christmas time.
Truly Strong Churches
But I’m not convinced that going back to such times is what we need. The true strength of the church has never come from us trying to force the society into something that looks more like the church. True strength for Christians comes rather from a strong sense of who we are and an understanding of who God has called us to be. That is the only thing that will make us resilient, no matter what the shape of the society that surrounds us is.
Ruhaan’s parents have brought him here today because they are truly committed to raising him and his sisters within the church. They make that commitment because their experience in Pakistan has shown them just how important it is to give their children a strong foundation so that they can be free to choose their own course in life and not merely allow the larger culture to conform them to its ways.
A Message About Our Children
And God is definitely speaking to us in and through them. God is speaking to us about our own children. I am a strong advocate for children to be free, as they grow up, to choose their own paths in life and to adopt the beliefs and thoughts that nourish them in positive ways. But Ruhaan reminds us that, if we do not give our children a good grounding and ways of appreciating how our faith applies to their lives, they will not be truly free to choose. They will simply absorb the ideas of the society that surrounds them.
So, here is an opportunity for us all to recommit ourselves to our Christian Education priorities, to support our Sunday School teachers and to never stop thinking about how we can make all of this relevant to the challenges that young people are facing in the world today.
But it is important to add that this is not just a concern about our children and youth or their parents. It doesn’t start with them; it starts with all of us. Our children and youth can only embrace a Christian identity if we all have a strong sense of who was are as Christians in this time and place.
Embracing Our Christian Identity
That is why the work we are doing on our identity right now is so important. For too long, Christians in North America have relied on incidental things to anchor their identity. We think it’s all wrapped up in our buildings, in locations and in long-standing traditions that may no longer be relevant. We need to embrace an identity that is founded in who God is calling us to be.
What’s more, we need to get to the place where we can express that understanding of our identity to anybody. In a few words, in an image or an idea, our sense of identity in Christ must become something that is always at our fingertips, never too far from our minds.
If given the opportunity, can you communicate to someone else what it means for you to be a Christian? Can you demonstrate to somebody else that you are a part of this congregation and that this congregation is a part of you? I hope that you can, but if you can’t, work on that. That, more than anything else, is what will make us resilient in the midst of our secular and multi-faith society.
We are honoured to welcome Ruhaan into this congregation and into the Christian church today. We are glad to officially welcome the whole family as friends and companions on our journey of faith. But most of all, let us be thankful that God has spoken to us a message in and through this child – a message meant to breathe new life into our church.