"Now there are some things we all know, but we don't take'm out and look at'm very often. We all know that something is eternal. And it ain't houses and ain't names, and it ain't earth, and it ain't even stars...everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you'd be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There's something way down deep that's eternal about every human being.
You know as well as I do that the dead don't stay interested in ...the ambitions they had and the pleasures they had and the things they had suffered...that's the way it is...mother 'n daughter ...husband 'n wife...enemy 'n enemy...money 'n miser...all those terribly important things kind of grow pale."'
You know where this comes from? The Stage Manager; Grover's Corners, New Hampshire; Act 3 - in the cemetery. "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder; right before Emily's burial. Emily had some trouble bringing a baby into the world. 'Twas her second, though. There's a little boy about four." She and George, George Gibbs (Emily, she's a Webb) had "a right smart farm." And from the perspective of the graveyard - more to the point: of being dead, newly deceased, in the graveyard,- Emily recollectin' - quite trying to re-collect all that had been good and beautiful and wonderful in this world - asks " Do any human beings realize life while they live it?"
And the Stage Manager says "No" and Simon Stimson, who when alive had been quite troubled, the church organist, says "That's what it was to be alive. To move about in a cloud of ignorance; to go up and down trampling on the feelings of those about you...
To be always at the mercy of one self-centered passion or another... Ignorance and Blindness."
Emily's deceased mother-in-law, Mrs. Gibbs, spiritedly interrupts: "Simon Stimson, that ain't the whole truth and you know it."
Emily: "Mother Gibbs?"
Mrs. Gibbs: "Yes Emily?"
Emily: "They don't understand, do they?"
Mrs. Gibbs: "No, dear, they don't understand"
which is the same answer she received a few lines earlier after she couldn't handle being back re-collectin' life at her 12th birthday, thus saying "Goodbye world, Goodbye Grover's Corners. Mama and Papa. Goodbye to clocks ticking and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses and hot baths...and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you."
Yes, we've already covered thus part of the script, where Emily asks the Stage Manager "Do human beings ever realize life while they live it - every, every minute?"
The Stage Manager says "No" but after a pause adds "The saints and poets maybe - they do some."
The saints? Ladies and gentlemen. The saints and poets see, realize, flashes and glimmers of it all. That's why we are here today, isn't it?: To sing a song of the saints of God, 'cause we want to be saints too - Being moved to awe by that "something way deep down," As the Stage Manager puts it, "something way deep down that's eternal about every human being" and not just about people but the eternal present in the midst of "every, every minute" of ordinary, daily life. That's what we're celebrating this morning and committing - re-committing - to, this day - this All Saints' Day - when in this life we go to the point of death, dying with Christ, so that we might rise with him to New Life--- living this life, aware of its wonder and beauty and goodness - the "pleasures" and the things we will suffer; and realizing, while we live it, whether light or dark, God is with us. That is what Baptism is all about and that is what we are about to play out right here. Suzanne.

Here's the difference---
In 'Our Town", Emily, having died, wanted to go back to the life she knew. Here, today, now - we, who are alive, are willing to walk to death with Christ so that we might, day by day, more truly live (the life we don't even know yet) going forward with God and each other.
Earlier on, in 'Our Town,' you'll remember the part when Rebecca Gibbs, George's sister, tells him about 'that letter Jane Crofut got from her minister when she was sick...and on the envelope the address was like this: it said Jane Crofut; The Crofut Farm; Grover's Corners; Sutton County; New Hampshire; United States of America"
"What's funny about that?" George Asks.
Rebecca: "But listen, it's not finished: the United States of America; Continent of North America; Western Hemisphere; the Earth; the Solar System; the Universe; the Mend of God - that's what it said on the envelope... and the postman brought it just the same."
"What do you know!" George quietly exclaimed, as the Stage Manager announced the end of the First Act.
Here, in "Our Parish," Suzanne is about to go through 'something way deep down that's eternal' (and we are to; we ain't just watching,' we are witnessing - quite alive and present with Suzanne and renewing our own baptismal covenants too).
Afterwards, Suzanne will get a letter, well a certificate really, addressed like this:
Suzanne Claire Schick; Saint Luke's Church, Forest Hills, NY; the Diocese of Long Island; The Episcopal Church in the United States of America, the holy catholic Church, the Body of Christ. But there's more, listen: The Body of Christ; the communion of saints; all those who ever have or ever will seek after God by whatever name; on the earth; or anywhere in the universe; the Eternal Logos of God.
The Eternal Word of God.
God "Waiting for something important and great...
... for the eternal part (in all creation) to come out clear."
And it all starts, or continues, right here, over in this corner, at the baptismal font.

That's the end of the sermon, friends. You can stand up now and turn to page (301) in The Book of Common Prayer.

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