Priest: Princess's privileged20th May 2012 17:19 Inland update.: 20 May 2012 17:22
Christening speech by royal confessor Erik Norman Svendsen
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor powers, nor any current or any future or forces or something in the high or in the deep, nor any other creature can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. .8,38-39).
Dearly beloved
Møgeltønder is again drawn in festive clothes on the occasion of the royal christening today. From near and far, people have flocked together to watch the event closely, and around the country follow hundreds of thousands of people. The local enthusiasm is not to be mistaken, and today we are all local. We not only follow in the event, we live with it.
Denmark's new princess is privileged. I refer not primarily to the fact that she is born into the royal family and to live in a castle. But the fact that she initially has three brothers who want to learn to stand up for her, protect her and also to educate and perhaps spoil her. Before she even learns the names of his three brothers, she will sense the presence of Prince Nikolai, Prince Felix and the Little Prince Henrik.
Being the youngest in a crowd, she will also be privileged by their parents and grandparents, uncles and aunts and all that may be mentioned by close relatives and friends. Everyone will do their bit for that she is allowed to grow up like other little girls, surrounded by love and presence.
Today, I join her for baptism. It expresses a cohesion which no man can be without. We are created to consult with others, and we grow up in a certain context, which will affect us later in life. Young people want to be unique and often do much to show it. The older you get, the clearer it becomes that we are good and evil is marked by the people we grew up with. We can later life rebelling against our upbringing, but we can not do it over.
While every person has something for themselves, it is also something together with others: family, friends, neighbors and colleagues. All we get our share of life's joys and sorrows, difficulties and tasks. So it's good to know that we do not have to bear our fate alone, but together with the people we live with daily. The dimension of our being emphasized strongly by infant baptism, where our loved ones, who literally has borne us.
One might call the sacrament of baptism of cohesion. Also, because the action of baptism expresses the strongest possible solidarity with our heavenly father. For God also surrounds dåbsbarnet with his loving presence, not just today but all our days. Yes, Paul says in this Sunday episteltekst: Nothing and nobody can possibly separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are inseparable. For the love of God is bigger and stronger than anything else - even sin and death. Baptism is a privilege that God in all of us.
It is Jesus himself, who has commanded us to baptize in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Baptism is not something we have invented, but something we have been given by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. A gift for life. For daily joy and encouragement, and to comfort and support in heavy days. Baptism keeps us firmly that life is more than what we can do it, and larger than we can understand. We hear not only the home of a family and a country we belong in God's eternal kingdom. A dual citizenship, which gives us a double identity: we are human beings, bound by sin and death terms, but we are also of God, the object of his fatherly care and love in life and in death. We hear with our family, but we also have Christ's brother and God for father.
At baptism today will be the new princess is also a member of the Danish National Church. It is a privilege to belong to a people and a church which for centuries have been woven into each other. It has helped to ensure unity and cohesion of our people. Of course you can be Danish, without being baptized, it is true today about 30% of the newborns. But it does not baptism less important. On the contrary! Being rooted in a particular people and a certain belief is normative for many things in our lives and helps to make the meeting with people of other faiths as possible and meaningful. Only those for whom faith is the pulse beats of life can understand that others may feel the same way.
But Christian faith is not a privilege for us Danish only. It is for all people at all times. In baptism, we get together with all the baptized and with Jesus Christ, whose words go to the end of the world as a source of faith, hope and love. Today, as before.
Amen
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