A Baptismal Love Letter to Sean Ryan Rivard

By Elizabeth Kaeton

[Editor's Note: the following sermon was originally preached on Trinity Sunday (June 6, 2004) at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Chatham, N.J.]

Dear Sean,

The tradition in this church is that the sermon is preached as a “Love Letter” to the one being baptized, in the hopes that, as you will one day prepare for Confirmation and make these vows for yourself, you will have a sense of the importance of this occasion. I try to look at the scriptures appointed for today through the lens of your baptism in an attempt to provide you with some understanding about what the gospel may be calling us to know about God in our own day and time.

Today is Trinity Sunday – the time when we celebrate the great mystery of God the three in One.   God the Father – the maker and creator of all that lives and moves and has its being. God the Son – Jesus Christ, the Holy Child of God, who is Love Incarnate and Love Divine. God the Holy Spirit – who is our inspiration and guide in this life, and the next.

Trying to explain the Trinity is an awesome task, something which theologians have vainly attempted for centuries. The great joke, at least in the Episcopal Church, is that, if you were to take note of who is in the pulpit today [on Trinity Sunday], the overwhelming number would be seminarians and newly ordained priests. Rectors being preachers and no fools, and the neophytes being who they are, it's a veritable match made in heaven. The smartest of the bunch will join the thousands before them by giving a bit of scriptural, theological and historical prospective of the gospel and The Creeds and end with a description of the Trinity by simply saying, “It's a mystery.” And, indeed, it is.  

There are some things which we cannot understand, this side of Eden, the mystery of the Trinity being one of them. . . As I preach this, you all know the outcome of the great horse race at Belmont and whether or not the horse, Smarty Jones, has won the Triple Crown. As I wrote this, it was a mystery. No matter. I find something very appealing about comparing the Trinity to the Triple Crown.

Today's scripture begins with these words of Jesus, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (John 16:12-15). A preacher could not ask for a better beginning to talk about the Trinity. There are some things which we cannot understand, this side of Eden, the mystery of the Trinity being one of them. I'm going to risk it anyway, using something from our culture, which is happening, even as I write this. As I preach this, you all know the outcome of the great horse race at Belmont and whether or not the horse, Smarty Jones, has won the Triple Crown. As I wrote this, it was a mystery.

No matter. I find something very appealing about comparing the Trinity to the Triple Crown. A horse and his rider need to win three major horse races in order to claim the $13 million purse attached to this race: The Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont. The Triple Crown has not been won since 1978 when a horse named Affirmed won it.  

Smarty Jones is a 2 to 5 favorite in a 9-horse race. Last week, 9,000 people went to his humble home in Philadelphia Park just to watch him gallop. Among them were three nuns bearing a sign which read, “Godspeed, Smarty Jones.” It is said that children from around the world write him letters. What is it, you ask, that has captured the imaginations and hearts and hopes of so many people? To know that is to know the mystery at the heart of the Trinity.

To hear the story, it is a tale of survival – of beaten demons, injuries, death and hard luck. Owners Roy and Patricia Chapman are recovering alcoholics who, after their longtime trainer was murdered by his stepson in December of 2001, decided to disperse much of their racing stock. They sold a young mare named I'll Get Along, but elected to keep her son, christened Smarty Jones after Patricia's mother. Roy Chapman is now confined to a wheelchair and hooked up to oxygen due to a three-pack-a-day habit for 30 years.

Like the Chapmans, jockey Stewart Elliott is a recovering alcoholic. “Nearly four years now,” he said. He was almost disqualified because he neglected to admit on his application that he had a prior conviction for assault. His trainer, John Servis, doesn't have an entourage or designer chaps. He's just a kid who grew up near a racetrack in West Virginia watching his dad ride horses for a living. Then, there's Smarty Jones. He's not a $1 million yearling owned by a Saudi prince. And Smarty Jones wasn't bred in the blue grass of Kentucky, but rather a farm in Pennsylvania appropriately named Someday. More importantly, Smarty Jones is a survivor.

Just three weeks after arriving at Servis' barn at Philadelphia Park, Smarty Jones slammed his head into a metal bar while at the starting gate. He was taken immediately to an equine clinic in New Jersey, for what veterinarians at Philadelphia Park assumed would be an emergency eye removal. But immediately after his arrival, Dr. Patricia Hogan thought there was something special about Smarty Jones. Despite suffering multiple skull fractures – despite being unable to see the colt's left eye due to exposed tissue, blood and swelling – Smarty Jones' bounced off the van as if there was nothing wrong.

Even though the vet remembers his injuries as being “hideous,” he allowed Hogan to treat him. To bandage his head so that only his right eye and two ears were sticking out. He's described as a kind horse with a big heart. And he only acts the part of a champion when he has to. When it counts. “When you see Smarty out here getting a bath and his ears laid down and you look at him and he just looks like another horse,” his trainer said. “He doesn't look like a super horse. But when you put the bridle on him and lead him into the paddock, he transforms.”

Which leads me precisely to what I want to say about your baptism, Sean, and the Holy Trinity. Today, I will baptize you in the name of the Trinity. By the power of the Holy Spirit, you will become a member of the Body of Christ, in the Household of God. The grace of your baptism is much like that bridle when it is put on Smarty Jones. It will transform you. Through baptism, you will know whose you are and who you are, and discover where it is you are supposed to be going.  

You will know that there is a special spark within you – a divine spark – which will help you understand your unique gifts and abilities. That spark is that which is at the center of the Trinity. The Chinese call it ch'i . In Japan they call it ki . In India, it is prana . The secular world calls it "life force."

You will know that there is a special spark within you – a divine spark – which will help you understand your unique gifts and abilities. That spark is that which is at the center of the Trinity. The Chinese call it ch'i . In Japan they call it ki . In India, it is prana . The secular world calls it "life force." In Christianity, we know it as a manifestation of the Trinity – the divine spark in us all.

The totality of the person you will become, ultimately, is something of a mystery. Oh, there will be hints and signs along the way, but no one will really be able to predict who you are to become. More importantly, there is nothing in this life which can defeat the power of the Spirit.   Nothing. Oh, it may sideline you for awhile, but if you stay in touch with the mystery of who you are, you'll be more than okay. Like Smarty Jones, win or lose, you'll have the makings of a champion. And, like that great horse, you'll give others something they thought they never had, or perhaps, had lost: hope. Healing of old wounds. A reason to be better people. To be transformed. To live the mystery of their own lives with integrity and authenticity.

Christian journalist Malcolm Muggeridge once said, “Every happening great and small is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message.” You don't have to understand the Trinity, Sean, in order to be a good Christian, much less a good person. You only need to get the message from it that all of life is a mystery, and your task in life is to live into the mystery of your life so you'll get the message God has, especially for you.  

Welcome to it, dear baby Sean. “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” As your Confirmation date draws near, please know that you can call me and we'll talk.

May the grace of your baptism today be the bridle that transforms and guides you in the great race of life.    

The Rev. Elizabeth Kaeton is the president of the Episcopal Church Publishing Company ( The Witness ), and writes a regular column for The Witness online titled Another Word for Justice . Elizabeth may be reached by email at EMKaeton@aol.com .