How's Your Baptism?
Easter 7B
John 17:6-19
5/24/2009
Jim Melnyk

So – we're gathered together this morning near the end of the Great Fifty Days of Easter – just one week away from the Feast of Pentecost. Six weekends ago we celebrated Easter and the resurrection of Jesus, the Christ. We began our Easter celebrations – whether at the Great Vigil or on Easter Day – by renewing our Baptismal Covenant. Next week, as we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost – as we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit, God's gift to us all – we will once again renew those same Baptismal promises.
        
And so, as we stand in this moment of time between celebrations of Resurrection Life and the gift of God's Holy Spirit in our lives, I have a question for you. How's your baptism? How are you doing with your baptism? How are you doing with those promises – with that covenant we each proclaim so often at St. Mark's? How goes your baptism today?
        
What I mean is this: When you get up each morning and look at yourself in the mirror – how's that baptism thing working for you? When you find yourself slogging your way through work or school each day – or sitting together at the dinner table – or resting in the solitude of being alone – how is your baptism going? Now I don't know about you, but I find that an intriguing and tough question to answer – if I'm willing to dig a little bit into my life – into my psyche – into my soul – if I'm willing to answer it truthfully. How are you with your baptism? How is your baptism shaping your life? Are your promises – the promises made in our Baptismal Covenant – are your promises what shape your life? Are those promises part of why you – part of why we – gather together each week?
        
If you're at all like me – and I suspect that's probably a good guess – your Baptismal Life might be a bit like a dirt road that hasn't seen a road grader in more than a few years. There are certainly some smooth, easy-going spots that allow us to sail along at a good clip. There are some potholes here and there that we strain to avoid – often able to make some quick course corrections, and just as often, it seems, catching us unawares with a jarring thud! And then there are some areas that resemble a washboard more than a road – and we bump along with our teeth rattling in our skulls and our hands gripping the wheel firmly lest we loose control of our lives.
        
Sometimes our baptism burns hot and strong – a blazing beacon of life for the world around us to see and experience. Sometimes it's more like a fire that's been banked – held in check by the world's disbelief – by our own disbelief – waiting to be rekindled by the fire of God's Holy Spirit in our lives. And so I ask – how's your baptism going today?
        
In her book, Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott unknowingly describes my Baptismal Life quite well. She opens by explaining how her “coming to faith did not start with a leap but rather like a series of staggers from what seemed like one safe place to another” – sort of like hopping from one lily pad to another across her “swamp of doubt and fear.” The Psalmist describes this swamp as the “desolate or miry pit.” I know what those images evoke in me. I know what “staggering toward faith” feels like for me – wrestling with self-doubt – the struggle with a world that that thinks it knows better, and that faith is the stuff of fairly tales and dullards; or when I find myself paralyzed in the moment, because I'm too focused on a future that has yet to unfold, with too many unknown variables to have a clear answer at this time. How can I be fully present in the now when I'm anxious about a future that is still hidden in mystery? This image of staggering toward faith – does it seem the least bit familiar to you? Do you know its scent? Do you know its taste?
        
Jesus, I think, knew what it meant to be “staggering toward faith” – whether through the lives of his disciples as they attempted to follow him on the road toward Jerusalem and the cross – or in the garden when he prayed, “if it's possible, let this cup pass from me...” – or even later on the cross when he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus, I'm sure, knew what it meant to find oneself “staggering toward faith,” all the while challenging the world's power to dominate and control people's lives.
        
I think this knowledge on Jesus' part is what led him to pray what we call the “High Priestly Prayer” in John's Gospel, a part of which we just read a few moments ago. Jesus knew what his death would do to his disciples. Jesus knew what following his clarion call to servant leadership would mean for all who would come after him. Jesus knew that one's journey into faith always has been, and always will be, more of a stagger than a sure-footed leap. And so Jesus prays for each of us who follow: “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.” Asking God to sanctify us – to set us apart from the brokenness of the world – to bless and strengthen us in the truth of God's grace and love so that we might not just participate in that grace and love, but also become messengers of God's love to the rest of the world.
        
So, whatever trail you're following on your journey of faith – however sure-footed or unsure it may seem at the moment – the question remains: how is your baptism today? How well are you living into the promises and the commitment of your life in Christ? How real for your this day, in all their glorious mystery and metaphor, are the stories of our faith? How willing are we each to put aside the powerful “givens” of a world that refuses to follow the lead of our Servant God – the One whose power and authority is most clearly understood through acts of compassion, mercy, and love?
        
And when someone asks if you will take on a ministry – whether with our Youth Program or Christian Formation, with the Vestry, or with Stewardship – how's your baptism? How does your baptism shape what you want – what your heart desires for St. Mark's – and then how does your baptism call you to make those desires – those dreams a reality? How's your baptism going? Do we jump in the mix, or are we willing to let others carry the load by themselves? How's your baptism going?
        
Singing the words of our Gospel Hymn today (603) – recognizing a world still divided by race, gender, class, sexuality, and more – how's your baptism going? Do you feel called to help a world full of people stagger toward a faith that recognizes the image of God in every human being? Do you feel called to help a world full of people stagger toward a faith that will work for justice and peace among all people, and recognize and celebrate the dignity of every human being?
        
Where do you need God's direction, protection, and grace so that as Jesus prayed, his joy may be made complete in your life? Where do the hope of our faith and the realities of life run head-long into each other, causing us to stagger in our witness? When we hear a racist joke, a homophobic slur, or someone being caricatured and even villanized for their political beliefs which may differ from ours, how does that sit with our faith? How are our baptisms then? Whenever we experience someone who is “the other” how do we avoid the “swamp of doubt and fear” - the “desolate or miry pit?” Those are just a few of the times we need to look in the mirror, recall our baptisms, and remind ourselves of who we are as followers of Christ.
        
Jesus prays his prayer for us, that we may not be fearful or timid, but followers of his way – that we become credible and fervent witnesses – credible and fervent options to the world's many overbearing “givens.” Jesus prays his prayer for us that as God's new option – as God's new hope – we might stand against a world given to domination, degradation, and marginalization. That we might stand as God's new option against a world given to power plays and fear-filled days. That we might stand as God's new option against a world given to a lack of compassion – a world given to a lack of God's justice, which is always – always – rooted in forgiveness, always rooted in mercy, and always rooted in love.
        
As we live out this option in our lives – as we witness to, and act upon, the call to follow Jesus – the empires of this world will tremble! Because who we are, and how we choose to live our lives – our baptismal call to follow Jesus – makes a difference in this world. We can be a critical mass for God if we choose to be so! Think of it – the witness of hundreds of people from St. Mark's living for Christ – hundreds of us living for each other – hundreds of us living for a world of God's people often forgotten or ignored. Staggering toward faith? Well, at times, perhaps – but always – always – with a surety that God is with us – and that God is for us – and that God is in us!
        
So I ask you today: How's your baptism?

©2009 Jim Melnyk