Today’s Readings: Mark 1:1-12
This morning I’m veering away from the usual lectionary readings for one reason: we have a baptism at the church I serve. In working with the family of the child being baptized, we decided to use the account of Jesus’ baptism from the Gospel of Mark as our text this morning. That’s why I’ve changed my routine this morning. I would like to spend my time with you this morning reflecting on my understanding of baptism and how this sacrament could/should inform our lives. Each denomination and tradition has its own liturgy they use for a baptism. Given the fact that I serve an ecumenical church affiliated with three denominations (PCUSA, UCC, UMC), our liturgy draws upon the theology and traditions of each. One of the crucial moments in our liturgy comes when the congregation makes its covenant with the child. Our members say: “We promise to give ___________ our support as he/she lives into the pathways of Christ. We offer ourselves also, as ones who take ____________ into our love, our prayers, and our daily lives, striving to build a community rich in the Spirit of God in which to nurture her.” Here’s how those promises have impacted me this week. Like other Christian communities, we recognize baptism to be an act with universal implications. By this I mean those individuals we baptize aren’t just received into our local church – they are received into the universal body of Christ. That means that it’s not only the members of our local church who are making these promises; the members of our local church are making these promises to the child on behalf of Christians everywhere. By extension, this means that those of us in our local church are also expected to live into the baptismal vows/promises made to individuals by other local churches as well. The question I’ve considered is this, “What if we in the church actually took those promises seriously?” What if, for instance, John McCain/Sarah Palin and Barack Obama/Joe Biden (all of whom have talked openly of their Christian faith) said to themselves: “Those who are seeking the same office as I have also been baptized and been promised that they would taken into our love, our prayers, and our daily lives of Christians such as myself – therefore, I will conduct myself according to those baptismal vows/promises.” What if the supporters of each ticket who say they are followers of Jesus Christ took those vows/promises seriously and decided to extend their love and prayers to those on the other side of the partisan divide. And of course, we shouldn’t stop there. We should ask ourselves how the promises we make to those being baptized could impact each relationship in our lives – how they impact our treatment of immigrants, of those who live in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, of our obnoxious co-worker who sits in the cubicle next to ours at work, of the inmates who sit in our prisons … you name it. The thing that strikes me every time I do a baptism is that there are absolutely no escape clauses (i.e. we promise these things unless the child is or does ….). Since we have no idea just who has been baptized and who has not, I’ve tried to live my life as if each and every person I encounter is someone who has been promised those things. Today, I invite you to contemplate what it would mean for you to truly embrace those baptismal vows/promises and extend those things (i.e. your love and prayers) to everyone. Just imagine what sort of changes would take place. To paraphrase the sentiments of musician Louie Armstrong – “What a wonderful world that would be!” Til next time…
This morning I’m veering away from the usual lectionary readings for one reason: we have a baptism at the church I serve. In working with the family of the child being baptized, we decided to use the account of Jesus’ baptism from the Gospel of Mark as our text this morning. That’s why I’ve changed my routine this morning. I would like to spend my time with you this morning reflecting on my understanding of baptism and how this sacrament could/should inform our lives. Each denomination and tradition has its own liturgy they use for a baptism. Given the fact that I serve an ecumenical church affiliated with three denominations (PCUSA, UCC, UMC), our liturgy draws upon the theology and traditions of each. One of the crucial moments in our liturgy comes when the congregation makes its covenant with the child. Our members say: “We promise to give ___________ our support as he/she lives into the pathways of Christ. We offer ourselves also, as ones who take ____________ into our love, our prayers, and our daily lives, striving to build a community rich in the Spirit of God in which to nurture her.” Here’s how those promises have impacted me this week. Like other Christian communities, we recognize baptism to be an act with universal implications. By this I mean those individuals we baptize aren’t just received into our local church – they are received into the universal body of Christ. That means that it’s not only the members of our local church who are making these promises; the members of our local church are making these promises to the child on behalf of Christians everywhere. By extension, this means that those of us in our local church are also expected to live into the baptismal vows/promises made to individuals by other local churches as well. The question I’ve considered is this, “What if we in the church actually took those promises seriously?” What if, for instance, John McCain/Sarah Palin and Barack Obama/Joe Biden (all of whom have talked openly of their Christian faith) said to themselves: “Those who are seeking the same office as I have also been baptized and been promised that they would taken into our love, our prayers, and our daily lives of Christians such as myself – therefore, I will conduct myself according to those baptismal vows/promises.” What if the supporters of each ticket who say they are followers of Jesus Christ took those vows/promises seriously and decided to extend their love and prayers to those on the other side of the partisan divide. And of course, we shouldn’t stop there. We should ask ourselves how the promises we make to those being baptized could impact each relationship in our lives – how they impact our treatment of immigrants, of those who live in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, of our obnoxious co-worker who sits in the cubicle next to ours at work, of the inmates who sit in our prisons … you name it. The thing that strikes me every time I do a baptism is that there are absolutely no escape clauses (i.e. we promise these things unless the child is or does ….). Since we have no idea just who has been baptized and who has not, I’ve tried to live my life as if each and every person I encounter is someone who has been promised those things. Today, I invite you to contemplate what it would mean for you to truly embrace those baptismal vows/promises and extend those things (i.e. your love and prayers) to everyone. Just imagine what sort of changes would take place. To paraphrase the sentiments of musician Louie Armstrong – “What a wonderful world that would be!” Til next time…
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