From the days of ancient Greece, people have been in search of the Fountain of Youth. Throughout the centuries, from Herodotus in the fifth century to the 16th century when the name of Ponce de Leon became associated with that search, people began looking for ways to restore their youth and vitality and to live longer and longer. If only they could bathe in that eternal fountain, then they may never die.
Today we are much too sophisticated to believe in something as mythological as the Fountain of Youth. But we continue that quest. Fitness becomes a passionate goal; we eat healthy and avoid processed foods; we spend millions every year on plastic surgery, not to mention the dollars spent on coloring our hair! The health spa is our new Mecca: massages and herbal wraps, mud baths, Jacuzzis and water aerobics all promise to restore and preserve our youth.
And yet, like every generation before us, we age, we wrinkle, we become debilitated and we die. So much for the endless search…unless of course we look in the right place.
My friends, I am here tonight to tell you that we have gathered to celebrate the ultimate Fountain of Youth. I am about to Bless the waters of this flowing fountain for the gift of Baptism. Those who bathe in this water enter into the mystery of the Resurrection which we celebrate on this Easter Day. Jesus died and Rose from the dead that we would have not just a renewal of our youth, but a restored life that would last forever.
Our desire to recapture our youth and to live forever actually is a gift that comes to us from God. Not that we will be wrinkle free or fat free or free from the aging process. But a desire to live forever that God in His love for us deeply wants to fulfill.
We are privileged tonight to have five young people who will be baptized with this fountain of flowing water. They begin a journey that hopefully will lead them throughout their lives to the depth of new life God wishes to offer them.
And as we are sprinkled tonight with the newly blest waters of Easter may we be reminded that we too have been bathed in the fountain of eternal youth, where we will live with God forever in His glory.