When we looked at
the second baptismal question which is about resisting evil, injustice and
oppression in whatever forms they present themselves, I said that you can’t
really focus on those things, which is the second part of the question, without
understanding the first part, which is “Do you accept the freedom and power God
gives you.” That is, we are not doing the work of resisting on our own, but that
God is giving us the ability and capacity to accomplish these things. I would
even argue that we cannot do them without the freedom and power God gives us.
Or as St. Augustine is alleged to have said, without God, we cannot, and
without us, God will not. And so just as we need the power of God to do those
things, the same thing is true that the first part of this question is also
critical, and that is a question of grace. Grace is a word that we use a lot,
often, I think, with the understanding that everyone knows exactly what that
means right? And perhaps we think that because we don’t want to actually have
to explain it ourselves. Grace has several different meanings.
The Greek word is
also the root word for gracious, and so if we talk about God’s gracious will,
it’s the same word, or that God is gracious and full of compassion. But more to
the point it’s about favor, of kindness, mercy and compassion, benevolence and
forgiveness and love, it can even have a meaning of healing and wholeness. One
commentator I read said that, for them, grace finds its most meaningful
expression in the parable of the prodigal son, already mentioned, that the
father welcoming the son home is God’s grace in all of its dimensions. And the
other thing about grace is that it is both unmerited and undeserved. That is
there is nothing we can do to gain it or earn it. It is freely given, without
price to us. Believing more or harder doesn’t affect it; working more or harder
doesn’t affect it. Instead grace is poured out freely into the world. In a
Wesleyan perspective, we talk about prevenient grace, the grace that goes
before and that is given to all of the creation. That God’s grace is available
to and for everyone, even if you don’t know that it’s there or even that you
need it. And baptism and communion, amongst other things, are also vehicles for
conveying God’s grace, or more directly they are ways we can learn to
understand that grace and how it plays a role in our life.
And so, returning
then to the question it talks about the grace given to us, the grace working in
and through us, will we then be faithful members of Christ’s holy church. And
that is more than just the local congregation, it’s to the church universal. To
the entirety of the vine into which we have been grafted, to use Jesus’
metaphor and some Pauline language as well. Thinking back to the third question
in which we also pledged to serve Jesus in union with the church which Christ
has opened to people of all ages, nations and races. Later, if someone also
joins the church as a professing member, which is part of the liturgy, then
they will pledge faithfulness to the United Methodist Church, and to this local
congregation, but we don’t do that in baptism. In baptism we are united with
and into the catholic church, catholic here being little c, meaning universal.
And that’s where the letter to the Ephesians also comes into place, because the
author, who is more than likely not Paul, that it is a letter written in his
name, but not by him, is calling for specific behavior in the church.
Specifically, love, humility and gentleness, patience, so hard, and finally
unity. And please note that unity does not mean uniformity. We can disagree
without being disagreeable, and if we are practicing those other things then
that becomes easier. And this unity, the author says, comes from the reality
that there is one lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all,
and, even more importantly, that we know this because of our call which comes
not from us, but from God. It is God’s call that makes us aware of grace, and
it is God’s grace that redeems us.
And that idea also
plays into the idea of faithfulness. Because one of the things that
faithfulness does not mean, nor does love and unity, is going along to get
along. Sometimes faithfulness requires saying and doing hard things, after all
think back to those first questions about evil, injustice, oppression and the
spiritual forces of wickedness. Those don’t just exist in the outside world. As
I said last week, unfortunately they can be found in the church as well. And so
sometimes faithfulness is about not sitting aside and letting those things
happen, but calling the church out where it needs to be called out, and also
calling out society where it needs to be called out. To produce the fruit of
the vine means abiding in God’s love in all ways and at all times, and that too
will lead to faithfulness.
But the other part
if faithfulness comes out of the idea of fruit. Plants that produce fruit, or
even just producing seeds, do not produce those things for themselves. I mean
yes, the fruit has seeds in it which help to bring about the next generation of
trees, but that doesn’t do anything for the trees themselves. They don’t
benefit because there are new trees. They don’t get any enjoyment in watching
the new trees grow. Other trees don’t have baby showers for trees that are
producing other trees. The fruit is produced, not for them, but for others and
for other things. And so, when we hear then that we are called to be faithful
members of the church, it’s not for us, it’s to produce fruit for the world by
being Christ’s representative to the world. But that fruit is not for
ourselves, but for others. Think of Paul’s fruit of the Spirit which are “love,
joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control.” Those are about how we are in relationship with other people.
They are not individual fruit, but the fruit of community, born for others. And
they don’t come from us, they come from the vine, and so if we are disconnected
from the vine, then we are disconnected from God, and we are not allowing God’s
grace to be working through us to further the Kingdom of God. We are not being
faithful
Which leads us to
the last point, and that is will you serve as Christ’s representative in the
world? The scripture passage we chose for the ecumenical Lenten program this
year is from 2 Corinthians about reconciliation, that we are reconciled with
God, through Christ, which baptism symbolizes, but that Paul says we are called
to a ministry of reconciliation and called to be ambassadors to the world. I
like that term ambassador, rather than representative, because, for me, it
becomes clearer what we are called to do. That an ambassador represents their
country, group, to others who are not them, and yes, I know I used the word
represent in that definition. But an ambassador also serves as a bridge between
these groups. And so, as we think of the US becoming more secular then we are
going out to be ambassadors for Christ, or being the ones who talk about
Christ, and through all that we do and say, represent Christ to the world, and
then serve as the bridge to bring others into relationship with Christ. And we need
to take that injunction much more seriously then I think we do. As I recently
saw someone say, be the reason why people want to know about Christ, rather
than the reason they hate Christians. And I have to be honest and say that the
vast majority of any animosity that may be coming back against Christians has
much more to do with how Christians act then about Christianity itself. For
non-Christians all they know of it is what they see, and it turns many people
off. But, what if instead we were living in peace and patience and love, with
gentleness and humility, that we were living in the fruit of the Spirit. I can
almost guarantee you that if that was how we lived as ambassadors that the world
would be much more receptive to the good news we have to proclaim.
As part of our acts of baptism, we say that through baptism we are incorporated into God’s mighty acts of salvation, which means that what we do matters. That we participate with God in bringing about the Kingdom of God here and now, for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, and so what we do matters. But, we don’t do it alone, nor are we called to do something for which we do not have the ability, the strength or the power or the grace, because God has given those things to us. We produce fruit not because it’s up to us, but because we are abiding in God as God abides in us. It is because of God’s grace that is freely and abundantly poured out for us that we can even begin to do the things that God calls for us to do. It is because we are a part of the vine, of the entire vine, that we gather as one body to know that we do not walk this journey alone, that we do this together, and so on behalf of the whole church I ask you: “According to the grace given to you, will you remain faithful members of Christ's holy church and serve as Christ's representatives in the world?” I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment