Baptismal Covenant Questions -- Part 2

                                                                Proper 14A 2014

                              Genesis 37; Psalm 105;Romans 10:5-15; Matthew 14:22-33       

Father Adam Trambley

Aug 10, 2014 St.John’s Sharon

Baptismal Covenant Questions, Part 2

Today we are going to continue looking at our BaptismalCovenant.  When we are baptized, either we ourselves make, or others make on our behalf, a series of promises concerning the practical implications of our baptisms.  We also renew this Baptismal Covenant when we are present at baptisms, or when during worship services, like this morning, when we renew our Baptismal Covenant instead of reciting the Nicene Creed.  Over the past month we have looked at the creedal aspect of the Baptismal Covenant and the first question: Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?   Today we will explore the last four questions.

Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?

This question, like all of the four questions we will look at today, has two parts.  The first part asks if we will persevere in resisting evil.  We are asked not only to resist evil, but to persevere in resisting evil.  Just resisting evil is not always easy, and the world around us often lulls us into a sense of complacency about what resistance is necessary.  The evil we are called to resist is usually not some guy with pointy horns and a red vinyl suit who magically appears in a puff of smoke and offers us some amazing deal if we sign his contract in blood and hand over our immortal soul.  Of course, if that does happen to you, don’t sign it!  But usually evil comes to us in other forms, and the hardest evils to recognize and resist often seem small and an ordinary part of life.

These pleasant and easy temptations may be hard to resist but they can be small steps down a deadly road.  Plus we have a society that tells us if it feels good do it, and actively markets a wide variety of behaviors that can easily become destructively addictive, whether they come from the bar, the kitchen, the internet, or the mall.  Or maybe we listen to the voice that says that we are entitled to sit on the couch and be entertained rather than attentively love those we live with, or rather than reach out to meet the needs of our community, or rather than care about what happens in the wider world.  Or maybe we actually have begun to believe that we have earned what we have and that God doesn’t really own everything and that we haven’t received what we have as a gift and blessing to be used for ourselves and those in need.  Or maybe we feel entitled to lash out at others in harmful ways just because we are hurt or upset about something, and we if are unhappy we have a right to ensure that everyone around us is as miserable as possible, as well.  And we’re not just to resist those evils, but to persevere in resisting.  Leaving church and feeling inspired to turn aside from temptation isn’t enough, but we are also committing ourselves to turn aside when we are tired, hungry, weak, and grumpy.  We are in this for the long term, and only persevering in resisting develops the habits and forms the character that makes us the people we were made to be.

Of course, the second half of the questions assumes we aren’t always successful in such perseverance because it asks if whenever we fall into sin, will we repent and return to the Lord.  We all fail.  We all fall short.  We all sin.  The question is what we do next.  Do we rationalize that our failing was OK?  Do we just say “we all make mistakes” and go blithely forward?  Do we hide it as best we can so that we at least look good on the outside?  Or, do we recognize that we have messed up, ask for forgiveness from God and from whoever else we need to ask, and seek the help necessary to make better decisions in the future?  God will forgive us, no matter what we have done, if we turn and seek him and seek his help to loving lives.

The next question is: Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?

The Good News that we are meant to proclaim is that God created us and that he loves us.  In fact he loved us so much that when we sinned he sent his son who died and rose from the dead to reconcile us back to himself.  We are beloved children of God who have had our sins forgiven, have a new life in Jesus Christ, and are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit to live lives of love and service to others. 

On one level, sharing that Good News by word is simple enough.  We can just tell people what God has done for us and what that means for us.  What it means to us that God loves us.  How God has touched our lives.  How we have felt God’s forgiveness and ability to start over in a new life.  How God has blessed us in whatever ways we experience that blessing.  Thinking about what we might say is helpful in preparation for when opportunities to share that good news arise.  We can also invite people to join us at church or at church functions so people can hear what we believe through our worship and parish life.

More important, though, is to proclaim by example the Good News of God in Christ.  Proclaiming by example means that we live like people who actually believe we are loved and forgiven, so that we love and forgive others.  It means caring for others, including in some of the ways we will talk about in a few minutes.  If we are continuing in the Apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking bread and prayers, and resisting evil and repenting and returning to God when we fail, then we will experience so much of God’s love and grace in our lives that it will overflow out onto others.  Our lives will be living examples of God’s good news, and that will example will be compelling to others.

The next question is: Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?

Toward the end of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus tells his disciples the parable of the sheep and the goats.  The upshot of the story is that whatever we do for the least of our brothers and sisters, we really do for Jesus.  When we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit the sick, or visit those in prison, we are serving Jesus.  The sheep and the goats within the parable don’t recognize Jesus in the people around them, but we are expected to know better.  (That’s why Jesus told us the parable.)  We are called to look for Christ in everyone around us, and to love and serve them.  Some people talk about seeing Jesus in a disturbing disguise.  The way we treat others is the way we treat Jesus, whether we are looking for Christ in other people or not, so we are better off paying attention, seeking Christ in others and treating them the way we would want to treat God if he were here in front of us.

The second part of this question is another way of pledging the same basic care to others.  Drawing from the great commandment, we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.  Not a difficult concept – just treat others the way you would want to be treated, or maybe just a little bit better. 

Our final question also has two parts: Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

The first part of this question reminds us that we have a Christian duty to our wider community.  Justice and peace are at the core of any society maintaining the least resemblance to the Kingdom of God that all of us are meant to live in.  Justice and peace go together, as well – one isn’t really possible without the other.  Part of our baptismal covenant is a commitment to do whatever is in our power to allow everyone to live in a just and peaceful society.  This pledge doesn’t necessitate a certain political, diplomatic or military program – reasonable people can disagree on how to accomplish these ends.  But it does mean that we have to care, and we have to be willing to work and sometimes sacrifice so that everyone can live in a community that lets them live a decent human life.  We aren’t allowed to write a situation off as “not our problem” because all people are God’s children and we are called to love them as ourselves.  Obviously we can help more effectively in some situations than in others, but no matter what the situation, we can at least pray and see where God might lead us.

The second part of this question asks us to respect the dignity of every human being.  We were all made in the image of God, and we have to respect that image in everyone.  On the one hand, this means that we recognize everyone is created equal.  As Paul writes, in Christ there is no Jew or Greek, no slave or free, no woman or man.  We get this – it doesn’t matter what color you are, whether you are male or female, how old you are, where you live, how pretty you are, how big your nose is, how much hair you have, or even what religion you are.  Every human person is worthy of our respect.

But respecting the dignity of every human being means more than just not falling into the “isms.”  It also means that we don’t decide people are less valuable or worthy than we are based on how we feel about them.  We do not respect people’s dignity when we determine that other people are trashy, stupid, slutty, ignorant, incompetent, morally reprobate, terrible parents, plagued by a horrible sense of fashion, bad drivers, or just incredibly annoying to us, and that therefore we have every right to judge them, spurn them, or dismiss them.  Every person we decide to look down on is someone for whom Jesus died.  Psalm 1 says that happy are they who have not sat in the seats of the scornful.  We may occasionally have reasons to evaluate someone’s behavior, although these times are much less frequent than we generally believe, but anytime we dismiss someone as less than the image of God, we are lying to ourselves, sinning against them, and rejecting their Creator who lovingly made them.

OK.  Just moments from now, we are going to renew our Baptismal Covenant, agreeing to live into these Christian practices, with God’s help.  As we answer these questions, think about places in your own life that need to be brought more in line with the life God is calling us to live.  Use the response “I will, with God’s help” to really pray for God’s help, so that our lives resemble more and more closely the life of the Kingdom of God.

Baptismal Covenant Questions Part 1

                                                                Proper 13A 2014

                                 Genesis 32; Psalm 17; Romans 9:1-5; Matthew 14:13-21          

Father Adam Trambley

Aug 3, 2014 St.John’s Sharon

Baptismal Covenant Questions, Part 1

For the past three weeks we have been looking at the basic elements of our faith as laid out in the Apostles’ Creed, which we use during our baptismal service.  Each week we have also been using the Baptismal Covenant, which includes the Apostles’ Creed, in place of the Nicene Creed we normally use for Eucharistic services.  As we renew our Baptismal Covenant each week, after the portions of the Creed, we answer five practical questions about how we plan to live out the faith we have just professed. 

These five specific questions were included for the first time in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.  Their roots, however, go back to the 1662 English Book of CommonPrayer.  After the affirmation of faith, the minister asked: Wilt thou then obediently keep God’s holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of thy life?[1]  During the Prayer Book revision, some liturgical committee or other decided that it might be helpful to spell out what it meant to “obediently keep God’s holy will and commandments” and make “walk in the same all the days of thy life” more comprehensible to the modern ear.  What they came up with were the following questions, all of which are answered with “I will, with God’s help.”

·         Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?

·         Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?

·         Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?

·         Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?

·         Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

Today we’ll look at the first question, because it has four parts, and then explore the final four next week.

The first question is taken directly from scripture.  On Pentecost, Peter receives the Holy Spirit and begins to preach to the crowds.   He exhorted the crowds to “repent and be baptized…in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”  Of those listening, three thousand welcomed his message and were baptized.  Once they were baptized, scripture says, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”  Since these activities were what the first convents did on the “Birthday of the Church,” they seem like good ideas for all of us.

The first element is continuing in the apostles’ teaching.  This point probably looks different than it did two thousand years ago.  Those who came to Christ on Pentecost got together with the apostles and listened to whatever they had to say. The apostles were the people who had a personal relationship with the man Jesus before he died, who met with him after the resurrection, and received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.  They knew what Jesus taught.  They experienced his miracles.  They felt his love even when he was tired and cranky and disappointed in them.  They saw him pray and pour himself out in compassion on crowds when all he wanted to do was to be left alone for a while.  They saw him go to the cross and forgive his murders.  If you wanted to know Jesus, and understand how he wanted you to live your life, the apostles were the ones that could tell you.

Now, of course, we have a slight problem here.  The last apostle who spent years walking the dusty roads of Galilee with him, John, son of Zebedee, died over nineteen hundred years ago.  We can’t just text the apostles a quick “What would Jesus do?” about whatever life questions currently befuddle us.  Providentially, however, God provided two other avenues for us to receive the apostles’ teaching.  The first is scripture and the second is the church.   Both are important, and both are handed down to us from the apostles. 

The New Testament was written either by the apostles, including Saint Paul who became an apostle through slightly different means, or by those who worked with the apostles.  We believe that the crucial teachings and activities of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection were recorded for us in scripture and are enough for us to enter into a saving relationship with him.  At the same time, the apostles set up the church as the community of faith that would carry on the traditions that Jesus had established and handed on to them, and that would develop those traditions as necessary for the good of the people of God.  Some of these important apostolic teachings are the Creeds, which are not found in scripture, but which are important to us.  The Sacraments are also important elements of faith that come to us through the church.   Even though the sacraments are found in Scripture, much of their practice has come down through the Church. 

To continue in the apostles’ teaching, then, means to read our Bibles regularly and learn what the church teaches us.  We to finding out what we need be the Christian men and women God calls us to be.

Then we commit to “fellowship.”  Fellowship means all of those things that help us create the bonds of love between one another.  Fellowship allows us to live as a real church family that can be as strong when necessary as a biological family.  We aren’t always aware how important a church family can be to people who are turning their lives around and starting over through Baptism.  Think about the depth of fellowship they need in order to start over.  Or think about people who need to know real Christian love in their lives, and have never really received that from their other family or friends.  Christian fellowship is meant to help all of us in any of those positions, as well as whatever our own difficulties are with feeling loved and accepted by God and one another. 

Continuing in fellowship means coffee hour and church dinners.  But fellowship also means sharing meals; it means hospital visits; it means offering each other’s children playmates and places that are safe and supervised to play; it means the daily phone calls to make sure people in failing health are OK; it means the casseroles delivered in stressful times; it means celebrating together or crying together, or both, during major life transitions; it means giving somebody else something to do that doesn’t involve what we would now call “at risk” behaviors but that they used to call “sinful”; it means being available by phone or text or whatever in the middle of the night when there is a crisis, or late in the evening when loneliness and isolation hits, or during the day just to touch base; it means inviting people from church to something that we might be doing anyway.  Continuing in fellowship means taking the time to love the brothers and sisters who are part of our church family in whatever ways we can, even when doing so is inconvenient or a struggle.  We need to continue in fellowship to allow ourselves to give and receive the depth of love Jesus wants us to be able to share, and others need us to continue in fellowship so they can experience that depth of love, as well. 

I’d just note here that St. John’s can live into this depth of fellowship.  When and where we have, we have usually incorporated new people and touched their lives.  When we haven’t given I that much attention, we usually have had the opposite experience.

In the next part of the question, we agree to continue in the breaking of bread.  This phrase refers to weekly participation in the Eucharist.  On the night before he died, Jesus broke bread with his disciples and told us to continue in memory of him.  So we do.  By coming to communion we receive the body and blood of Christ in a way that incorporates us and those around us more fully into Christ’s body,  forgives of ours sins, strengths us in our weakness, and provides a foretaste of the heavenly banquet.  We have talked more specifically about the Eucharist at other times, and I’m happy to answer any additional questions people have.  In the context of the baptismal covenant today, we are recognizing our commitment to continue in regularly being part of our Eucharistic weekly worship.

Then the last part of this question is continuing in the prayers.  Prayer is how we grow closer to God, how we let the Holy Spirit into our hearts and lives to heal us and smooth out our rough edges, how we encounter Christ until we are slowly transformed in someone who looks and acts like Christ, and how we do the spiritual work of lifting up our brothers and sisters to God so that their spiritual and other needs are met.  Probably nothing is more foundational to our Christian life than our willingness to encounter God in prayer on a daily basis. 

Prayer can take many forms.  God knows that we are all different, and he provides different ways that we all can reach out to him.  Prayer can be meditating on scripture; it can be reciting memorized prayers that give our mind something to do while our heart reaches out to God; it can be the daily offices of morning and evening prayer or compline; it can be singing; it can be dancing; it can be centering prayer or contemplative prayer or just sitting in silence before God, maybe with an icon or a candle; it can be thanking God for every good thing that happened today or repenting of everything done wrong today; it can be picturing our loved ones surrounded by God’s golden light or telling God conversationally what we hope he will do for them; it can be done on our knees beside our beds or sitting in our favorite chair or standing up and walking around our neighborhood; it can be done by ourselves, or with our family, or with others, and ideally is done each of those ways; it can be done while waiting for a red light, but needs to be done more often than only when waiting in traffic. 

The kind of prayer isn’t so important.  What is essential is that we pray, and that we pray every day.  Ideally, we all probably need to pray at least a half hour each day, and more in times of crises or if we are in church or other leadership where there are people depending on us.  In those cases, we should be praying for all those people every day.  Prayer is the beginning of everything else important that happens in our spiritual lives, and in the rest of our lives.  As we are baptized into our Lord Jesus Christ, we need to spend time with him, and prayer is the primary way we do that.  If you have questions about prayer or types of prayer, please ask me and I’ll be happy to answer them.

Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?  I will, with God’s help.      

---

[1] Hatchett, Marion J. Commentary on the American Prayer Book.  The Seabury Press, 1980.

I Believe in God the Holy Spirit....

                                                                Proper 12A 2014

Genesis 29; Psalm 105;Romans 8:26-39; Matthew 13:31-33,44-52

Father Adam Trambley

July 27, 2014 St.John’s Sharon

This morning we continue to look at the basic elements of what we believe as laid out in the Apostles’ Creed used in the Baptismal Covenant. (Read part one on God the Father here, and part two on God the Son here.)  The Apostles’ Creed is one of two creeds we use in worship, the other being the Nicene Creed that is normally professed at our services when we have a Eucharist.  The Apostles’ Creed is part of our baptismal service, and we can always renew our baptismal covenant, which we are doing after the sermon during this month.  I should also note that even though the creed is separated into three different questions, and that I am breaking it down by sections and by lines to explain it, we believe what we say in the creed as a whole.  The entire sweep of the attribute and work of God we profess is more important than in the particular explanations and interpretations of any one phrase.

This week we’ll turn to the section beginning “I believe in the Holy Spirit.”  Up until now, most of what we have looked are foundational elements of Christianity.  What we profess about God the Father and God the Son would be easily accepted by almost all branches of the Christian faith.  From this foundation, edifices of doctrines and dogmas are built, but we can all at least come back to the beginning together.  What we are going to look at today is also believed officially by almost all Christian churches, but some of it differs from how we usually talk about things in contemporary America.  If you have questions, feel free to ask.

The first statement in this section of the Apostles’ Creed is “I believe in the Holy Spirit.”  Here again, we affirm that God is Trinity in Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  A month ago at Pentecost, we talked in moredetail about the work of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit can be thought of as the love that connects God the Father to God the Son, that connects us to God, and that connects us to each other in a variety of spiritual and practical ways.  Because God is love, the medium of divine love that connects us is also God.  The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Christ in each of us binds together the church into the Body of Christ with Jesus Christ as its head.  The Holy Spirit also provides us with spiritual gifts to serve and build up one another.  The presence of the Holy Spirit is recognized in a person or group of people by the fruits of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Then we profess to believe in the “holy catholic Church.”  Here we should note that catholic begins with a small “c” and Church with a large “C”.  Small “c” catholic means universal, and doesn’t necessarily equate with Roman Catholicism or what we often think of as “the Catholic church.”  Large “C” church means the entire Church of God, which is bigger than any particular congregation or denomination or any particular expression of that large “C” church in a specific place.  All of those particular expressions are important – we can only connect to the large “C” church through a specific small “c” church in our own community -- but no one expression is ever the entire Church.  God is bigger than we are, or than any group of us are, so the Church always includes people and institutions beyond our own church. The big “C” Church also includes many small “c” churches that we dislike and disagree with and would really like to kick out of the Kingdom of God because it would seem to make our life so much more pleasant.  Believing in that big “C” church, however, means that we are all connected together in one Body of Christ and that we can’t say to anyone else in it: “we have no need of you.”  All the people Jesus died to save are part of our Church, whether they are Catholic, Protestant, Independent, Charismatic, Evangelical, Pentecostal, Four-Square Gospel, Orthodox, or anything else, even if they don’t believe that we are part of their church for whatever reason.  This big “C” church is little “c” catholic because it covers everyone everywhere, and is universal.

The Church is holy because it is set apart for God.  When we say something is holy, we don’t mean it is necessarily overly pious, or pure by some prevailing moral sensibility, or “holier-than-thou.”  Things that are holy are designated for a special purpose. Holy people might need to be more disciplined to accomplish that purpose, but primarily holiness is about what someone or something is made for.  God’s church is holy because it is set apart to love God and neighbor and to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.  As part of the church, we aren’t here just to go through life with as little inconvenience as possible so that we die at a ripe old age with a reasonable amount of toys.  Our purpose is to live out God’s calling for us, using the gifts God has given us to build up our brothers and sisters.  The group of people called to live such a holy life is God’s Church, which is set apart to pour itself out to do God’s work for God’s people, and not simply to maintain itself as an institution.

Next we state that we believe in “the communion of saints.”  The communion of saints a way of talking about the mystical body of the Church that goes beyond only those people living on earth today.  The communion of saints is the great congregation of all those living and deceased who are members of the Church.  Some people talk about the communion of saints having two parts, the church militant which are those of us still fighting on earth and the church triumphant which are those who have already gone to be with God.   Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches believe strongly that the saints who have passed away can still be asked to help us by their prayers on our behalf.  Stricter Protestants tend to view any communication with those who have died as problematic at best and idolatrous at worst.  In our Anglican tradition, we know from scripture that there is a “great cloud of witnesses” that supports us in our life of faith, but what exactly they can do isn’t described.  We do have a connection with the entire communion of saints, and asking anyone in our Church for prayers is a good thing. Yet there is nothing we can’t pray to God about directly, and we probably go overboard if we are focusing in prayer on talking to the saints instead of approaching the throne of grace ourselves with confidence in our time of need.  The communion of saints supports us, but we remember that only God is God.

We believe “in the forgiveness of sins.”  We profess that God forgives us and that when we forgive one another our sins are truly forgiven, since Jesus gave his church authority to forgive sins.   Forgiveness of sins means that the sinner is reconciled back to God and brought again into the Body of Christ, the Church.  Whatever barriers we have put up in our relationship with God have been taken away.  We should note that God himself doesn’t put up barriers to our relationship with him – they all come from our side, and God helps us take them down.  Forgiveness of sins also means that if we are turning toward God and want to be in a relationship with him for eternity that we will have everlasting life with him, no matter what we have done.  Forgiveness includes all sins, no matter how terrible and no matter how much we may feel like we cannot be forgiven.  God forgives and allows us to start over, which is another crucial piece of forgiveness.  We acknowledge and take responsibility for what we have done, but we no longer need to be ashamed or controlled by our past.  God has forgiven us, and we can regret past failings while going forward to sin no more, at least to the degree we can manage it with God’s help. 

Forgiveness of sins doesn’t mean, though, that everything is magically fixed.  Past actions have consequences, and much of the pain and suffering on the planet is due to past sins, many of which were forgiven, and much of our current difficulty is the result of our own past failings, most of which have hopefully been repented of and forgiven.  God doesn’t remove the earthly consequences of our decisions, however bad.  He does, however, redeem broken situations.  When we hurt someone we love, the pain is real, and can linger, but as we reconcile, God can use that hurt to make the relationship stronger and more loving.  We all have stories of God’s redemption of broken situations, but that redemption is different than making everything as if no sin had ever happened.  Jesus’ resurrection is the ultimate act of redemption of sin. God didn’t restore things as if the crucifixion never happened.  Instead he allowed something more powerful to come out of it, and he forgave those who crucified him, such that many of them later became Christians and now are with him in paradise.

Finally, we profess “the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”  We believe that we are made to live forever in an embodied physical life that resembles this one without all the problems.  The Book of Revelation describes this new life as being in the huge city of the new and eternal Jerusalem which gleams with gold and gems and where the Lamb of God is the temple and the light of the city.  Just as Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, our faith tells us that all of us will be raised from the dead on the last day to an imperishable body something like Jesus’ resurrected body.  Our bodies will have some connection to our current bodies, and we will eat and be able to touch each other, but they will be better.  This resurrection is our ultimate hope.  Before the final resurrection on the last day, we believe that God protects us from hell when we die and takes us to a place of paradise where we are with Jesus and those we love.  Remember how on the cross Jesus told the thief who repented, “Today, you will be with me in paradise”?  This paradise, however, is only a temporary place until we are raised with Christ from the dead and brought to the fullness of an embodied life everlasting. 

What we have talked about these past three weeks are the basic beliefs of the creed.  Next week, we’ll begin to look at the questions in the Baptismal Covenant which address the practical implications of how we live out what we believe.