Are You Living into Your Baptismal Vow?

This has been a really difficult week.

I am, by nature, an optimist.

I attribute that to my faith and an abiding belief that, although the Kin-dom is not yet, it is near.

I see my faith practice as a journey.

It is following the Way of Jesus.

It is a journey that brings us ever closer to the Kin-dom.

We may never reach that destination in this lifetime.

But that doesn’t really matter.

Because that is our faith practice.

Following Jesus is dynamic.

It requires action.

That is why Jesus said, “Follow me”.

We humans are imperfect beings.

We make mistakes.

We ignore and misinterpret scripture, and it distances us from God.

We take detours, dead ends, and sometimes even backtrack on our journey with Jesus.

But, as faithful people, we hope that the progress forward always exceeds the detours backward.

When we distance ourselves from God, we pray that it is temporary.

That we come to our senses and repent.

That we remember we are beloved children of God, endowed with the image of God.

That we are loved unconditionally by our Creator and nothing we do can separate us from the love of God.

I never thought that we would live in times where people would take that as a challenge.

Where there would be people who say, “You think nothing can separate me from the love of God? Here, hold my beer.”

I take very seriously Jesus’ command to love my neighbor—and not just the people who I like and think like me, but ALL my neighbors.

I am far from perfect but, generally speaking, I think I do a pretty good job of it.

But good God almighty, I confess that this week it has been hard.

I said to Tiina earlier in the week that I’m not in the right frame of mind to preach.

I’m too discouraged and too angry.

But then I remembered the story of Esther and how she was told by Mordecai that she was made “for just such a time as this”.

And how she went on to save her people.

We don’t get to choose the times that we live in.

We don’t get to curl up into the fetal position when things get tough, as much as we might like to.

I was called to preach the word of God.

Some of you like the way that I do it.

Some of you don’t.

Some of you believe that politics have no place in the pulpit.

There, we will have to agree to disagree.

Partisanship—favoring one political party over another—has no place in the pulpit.

But politics has its root in governing the community and Scripture, particularly the Gospel, has a lot to say about how we are supposed to treat the community.

We can distill the message of the gospel to two simple commands: love God and love your neighbor.

When the government violates either of those two commands, it is our duty, as followers of Jesus, to call it out.

Similarly, to fulfill my ordination vows, it is my responsibility to say, “This is wrong. This is not what God intends for us.”

Today, we commemorate the baptism of Jesus.

It marks the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.

The beginning of Jesus ministry—to our knowledge, he had not yet done anything remarkable.

And yet, the sky opens up and God says, “This is my Own, my Beloved, on whom my favor rests.”

It is a reminder to us that we don’t need to do anything to be loved by God.

We receive God’s love, not because of who are or what we do, but because of who God is.

The nature of God is to love us—unconditionally and without measure.

And because we possess the image of God, we also possess that capacity.

So, for me, that begs the question, “then why is there so much hate in the world?”

Lutheran theologian and seminary professor Craig Koester says, “evil can seem so pervasive as to be unstoppable.

And watching the evening news would seem to support that idea.”

He goes on to say, “evil rages on earth not because it is so powerful, but because it is so vulnerable.

Evil rages on earth because it has already lost and it is desperate.”

Helpless is exactly how evil wants us to feel.

Discouraged and paralyzed by our anger is the point.

The forces of evil are desperate.

Because Jesus has already won.

He defeated Satan in the desert.

He overcame death and the grave.

Darkness cannot win against the light of the world.

I’m guessing most of you don’t remember your baptism.

If you’re like me, you grew up in a time when babies didn’t even leave the house until they were baptized.

That practice is based on the dogma that babies that weren’t baptized couldn’t go to heaven.

It has no scriptural foundation and isn’t part of our current doctrine.

But nevertheless, baptism was important to all Christian families, whether they were actively practicing or not.

Even if you don’t remember your own baptism, you undoubtedly remember the baptism of a child, whether your own or the child of a family member, friend, or fellow congregant.

During the ceremony, the baptismal sponsor is asked, “Do you renounce all the forces that defy God, the powers of this world that rebel against God, and the ways of sin that draw you from God?”

They respond, not only for themselves, but on behalf of the child.

They are the promises that the child makes for themselves at their confirmation.

Our baptismal vow is to renounce all the forces that defy God, the powers of this world that rebel against God, and the ways of sin that draw us from God.

We also promise to proclaim Christ through word and deed, to care for others and the world God made, and to work for justice and peace.

So, I ask you children of God:

Do you renounce all the forces that defy God?

Do you renounce the powers of this world that rebel against God?

Do you renounce the ways of sin that draw us from God?

Do you proclaim Christ through word and deed?

Do you care for others and the world God made?

Do you work for justice and peace?

Our denomination recognizes two sacraments: baptism and holy communion.

Our baptism is a covenant—it is reciprocal.

We make promises to God and God makes promises to us.

The prophet Isaiah calls us “a covenant people, a light to the nations: to open the eyes of the blind, to free captives from prison, and those who sit in darkness from the dungeon”.

He says we are endowed by God with the Spirit “that we may bring true justice to the nations”

He goes on to say, “faithfully we will bring forth true justice. We will neither waver nor be crushed until justice is established on earth.”

That justice is the Kin-dom.

Where mothers don’t get shot and killed in the street.

Where our black and brown neighbors are not profiled, detained, separated from their families, and deported.

Where people don’t die because they are denied food, shelter, and healthcare.

We must not waver or be crushed.

We are a covenant people.

We have made promises to God.

Promises that we need to keep.

You have been baptized by water and the Spirit.

You are the beloved of God.

Open yourself to the presence of God and allow yourself to BE LOVED.

And when that love has filled you to overflowing, reflect it out into the world and BE LOVE.

Let us pray.

O God, because we feel your presence when we are suffering or in pain, we call you Comforter.

Because beyond our pain lies your promise of all things made new, we call you Hope.

Because you are the way to freedom, we call you Deliverer.

Because you have chosen to come among us, making impossible choices, suffering and dying; because you rose victorious, bringing the promise of new life, we call you Redeemer.

Give us strength to reject the powers of oppression in this world, the systems that marginalize and degrade human beings, and the cultural norms that are at odds with your Way.

Help us to recommit to the covenant of baptized life, the cost and joy of discipleship, and the community of the Body of Christ

We are your beloved.

We are baptized.

We pray that we always remember.

We pray that we will always live into that promise.

Amen.