Ongoing Story

1st Sunday after the Epiphany, Grace Episcopal Church, Monroe, La.

Can it be just two weeks since we paused in wonder to gaze at a newborn in a manger? That we sang carols with the angels, knelt with the shepherds, and with Mary, pondered all these things in our hearts?

It always seems to me that time stands still.. and the universe holds its breath for just a moment.. that holy night.

And then, so soon—and especially this year, so soon!—come the words of John: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Wait. What? I am never quite ready for such grown up words, such an incomprehensible notion, such a mind-boggling truth. I really would rather just play with the baby for awhile!

But.. …the Word became flesh and lived among us… and the consequences are real.

Then, in rapid succession comes 12^th Night—the wisemen arrive with their gifts; yay, party time in Louisiana!—The Epiphany; Jesus is for ALL of us—oh, blessed night! And…

Boom! Here we stand, on the banks of a river.. out in the middle of nowhere.. listening to Wilderness John preach hellfire and brimstone. Although Mark’s account does not emphasize that, we know it from other accounts.

Here we stand. That babe in the manger is 30 years old in the blink of an eye, and we’re about to get a powerful lesson in what it all means, and in those very real consequences.

Jesus is baptized. The heavens open. God speaks: This is my beloved…

And Jesus is catapulted into the world to begin his ministry. To call disciples, to turn water into wine, to preach, teach, heal the sick, argue with the Pharisees, that is, the good church people of his day… That’s the consequence of being the Beloved.

We know where that path takes him. We know how that story ends.

Except, of course, it hasn’t ended yet. Except, of course, that we who choose to follow Jesus into and through the waters of baptism are the ongoing story. That’s the consequence of being beloved.

Did you hear both the connection and the distinction I just made? Jesus, called by God, “the Beloved” with a capital “B,” sets out on a path of ministry that leads to the cross. That’s the consequence for him.

We who follow him are made his brothers and sisters through the waters of baptism. That’s what we say. That’s what we believe. We are “beloved” with a small “b.” And the consequence for us is carrying out Jesus’ unfinished ministry in the world.

What else could you possibly do… with the wonderful and terrible knowledge of being God’s beloved?

 

Daniel Bonnell, The Baptism of the Christ

We celebrate the Baptism of our Lord every year at this time. It is a familiar story. We read one or another version of it, not only the first Sunday after the Epiphany, but also the first Sunday of November, All Saints Day.

We repeat our own baptismal vows—as we are about to do—multiple times throughout the year.

I suggest we think of Jesus’ baptism as his ordination experience. While praying, Jesus is named by God to be God’s own and in response to knowing who he is and who he belongs to, he goes out to do the work he is called to do. Sounds like ordination to me.

And as his baptism was an ordination experience, so too ours.

See, I think we’ve gotten way careless about our terminology and our thinking. Even I, when someone asks, am likely to name the orders of the church “bishops, deacons and priests.” But “laity” is also an order!

I was reminded of this in a striking way a few years ago. I was at a Diocesan task force meeting when Fr. Frank Hughes referred to “the five orders of the church.”

Five? I thought. What is he talking about? Everybody knows “bishops, deacons and priests.” After all, we pray for all of them every Sunday!

And when he then named them, it was a real face-palm moment for me. Of course, “laity” is an order—and the fifth, in case you’re wondering, is that special order of monks and nuns who choose to live out their call through vows of poverty, piety, community and service.

Baptism is an ordination. Some adults are ordained by the church to preach the word and administer the sacraments. But at baptism every person is ordained to serve Christ according to his or her calling. Every Christian is a "minister”—one who does ministry of some kind.

What exactly that might be varies a great deal and certainly changes over time for most people. The specific ministry one is called to in mid-life while raising a family and developing a career is likely to be quite different from ministry after retirement.

One of the special responsibilities of deacons in the church is to bring the needs of the world to the church and to lead lay people in servant ministry. That’s why Bishop Jake wants more deacons—not to DO all the service of the church, but to be catalysts for lay ministry, especially lay ministry outside these walls, lay ministry responding to the needs of the world.

That’s why you see my name linked in Grace Notes to the call for participants in the Episcopal Habitat for Humanity build coming up in February. Helping low income folks become homeowners is diaconal ministry because it changes peoples’ lives. It’s transformative.

And, indeed, that is what we promise to do… each and every time we repeat our baptismal vows.

Now.. NO PEEKING into prayer books! Our baptismal covenant begins with several statements of what we believe. We’re going to repeat those in a moment.

Then… we make a series of five promises. What do we promise? Test yourself. No peeking. I’ve developed some shorthand—an aid to memory:

1. Go to church. (teaching, fellowship, Eucharist) – Pretty easy stuff, right? We’re the good church people. We go to church for the fun of it.

  

2. Be good. (resist evil, repent) – Still no biggie. We wouldn’t be caught dead being bad on purpose… although we might be willing to stretch the concept of “good” a bit from time to time.

3. Tell others. (proclaim by word & example) – A little harder, maybe? Thank goodness, “by example” is one of our options, because telling people about Jesus, well, we kind of prefer to leave that up to priests, right?

4. Love everybody. (your neighbor as yourself) – I admit, this one gives me some pause, and not in the way you might think. It’s not the street person or the immigrant or the Muslim or the whatever. I have no trouble seeing Christ in them. It’s the Nazi. The KKK. It’s the smug, self-righteous Christians who are quite sure they have God all figured out.

5. Seek justice. (strive for justice and peace) – The dreaded liberal agenda, right? I mean, we know this is not just about the U.S. criminal justice system and its requirements of legal representation, fair trials, etc. We don’t have to say “social justice” to know that for God’s beloved, justice must include consideration of things such as access to health care, education, and affordable housing, the ability to care for a family with the sweat of one’s brow. Justice is not mere charity. Justice transforms lives. Justice helps people know they are beloved.

In fact, I don’t know a better way to measure ministry than to ask, Does it help people know that they are beloved?

Brothers and sisters, when we repeat our baptismal covenant, we are accepting our status as beloved.. and committing ourselves to being the ongoing story. More. We are asking to be catapulted into the world to declare God’s love and justice for all  human kind. If we were smart, we just might strap on crash helmets.

In the name of God, father, son and Holy Spirit, AMEN.