Baptism: Will You Nurture These Persons

Here is my message from yesterday. The text was 1 Thessalonians 5:12-24:

Once when I was across the street at the high school talking to a class about Christianity, along with several other Christian ministers, one of the students asked me what I would do if my children didn’t want to be a part of the church when they were adults. It turned out that she was a PK, or preacher’s kid, so had some idea of what she was talking about. And I said, not knowing she was a PK, that the tendency is for PK’s either to become preachers themselves or to reject the church entirely. That’s not universal, but it’s a pretty good general rule, which includes my best friend from seminary whose daughter is currently in seminary and whose son is not, shall we say. And so, my response was that I didn’t want either of those things for my children, but what I would miss the most for them, and what I would want the most for them if they were not in a local church, was to find a community that the church can provide. A group of people who care for you and want to walk the journey of life with you through the good times, very important, and through the worst times, even more important. And so, I wouldn’t be necessarily be upsetting if they weren’t in the church, although I certainly want them to be, but they get to make their own decisions as adults, but I would be sad if they didn’t have a church like community in their lives. And that is where the question we that we ask in preparation for baptism leads us to today. The first three questions are about sort of individual things that we pledge to do, including accepting Jesus and participating in the church, which is the question we looked at last week. But then today’s question in a larger one about those activities as a community. And that question is “Will you nurture these persons in Christ's holy Church, that by your teaching and example they may be guided to accept God's grace for themselves, to profess their faith openly, and to lead a Christian life?”

Now this question comes in this section of the liturgy and is, as stipulated in the hymnal, directed to parents and other sponsors for those who cannot answer for themselves. And yet I think it’s actually much broader than that. Later there is a question specifically for the congregation in which we ask if you will nurture one another and include those to be baptized in that care. And so, I believe that this question is certainly also directed to the church, to the community of Christ into which people are baptized, and I am certainly going to treat it as such. Because one of the things that we have to understand is that baptism is not an individual activity, it’s communal. While we might conduct an individual private baptism in an emergency, such as in a hospital for someone who is dying, that is really the exception. And even then, I would try and get other people to be present for it to be witnesses to it and on behalf of the person being baptized. Baptism outside of the community simply doesn’t make sense. I have even refused to do a baptism for someone based on that. I was contacted by their friend, which was sort of the first red flag asking if I could come to the house to baptize them, and my first question was “are they going to start worshipping with us, or attending another church?” and I was told no, that they just wanted to be baptized. And I said that didn’t match theologically and I’m sorry, but I couldn’t do it. I would be more than happy to talk with them, and talk about the why, and that it is the initiation right into the church. That, as the question last week said, we accept Jesus Christ as our savior in union with the church. These two things go together. And since baptism and community go together, not only does that mean there has to be community, but it also means that the community is doing something for those who are being baptized, those being welcomed into both the church universal and the local congregation that is doing the baptizing. Which is where you all then come into play.

Nurture is an interesting word. It’s one we use typically in regards to children and their development, or we talk about the difference between nurture and nature, which is taught and what is inborn. But the definition doesn’t actually say anything about age. The definition of nurture as a verb is “care for and encourage the growth or development of.” And as a noun, very similar, “the process of caring for and encouraging the growth or development of someone or something.” And so that means that nurturing isn’t just directed down, to those younger, but can be directed sideways to those roughly the same age, and even directed up to those who are older, sometimes significantly older. It means that our youth and children can nurture those of a more advanced age, showing them new ways of seeing things, new ways of being church, just as much as those elders in the church can nurture our youth and children. As most of you have heard me say many times before, although it doesn’t make it less true, the church is the real last intergenerational organization we have left in America. In that it’s not just adults seeking to teach children, like schools, but where everyone is growing and learning and maturing together. And, as Carey Nieuwohf has said, no one should be able to out relationship the church, and that includes online relationships, because being in relationship is not just part of the church, it is at the heart of being the church. We don’t go to church, we are the church. In as far as we fail in nurturing and building up one another, in loving one another, is where we fail in being church

In today’s passage, Paul is writing to the church in Thessalonica, which is in modern day Greece. The city was a major port and was the capital for the Roman Province of Macedonia. I also learned this week, which I didn’t know before, that the city was named after the sister of Alexander the Great. This letter is possibly the earliest of all of Paul’s letters, although some argue that Galatians is older, and dates from around 49-52, and was probably written to the church there while Paul was in Corinth. And he is talking about what it means to live a life in Christ, and turns here to issues of living in community. And if he is indeed writing from Corinth, probably some of the issues of that community are running through his mind. First, he calls for esteeming those in leadership positions, and notice it’s not because of their positions, but because of the work they do, which includes, sometimes, having to do hard things, to make hard decisions and to say hard things. As I said in our last series on leadership, leadership is hard, and I am thankful every day for the leaders in this church and in the church in general. And then he turns to more general instruction, which is first to live at peace with one another. Peace here is not just the negative of conflict, or being without division and dissent, but is the equivalent of the Hebrew word Shalom, which has the connotation of completeness, or wholeness or harmony. One of my favorite understandings for the scriptural idea of love comes from St. Augustine, and I have to admit that he’s not usually my favorite, but he said that to love another is to will the good for them. And so, we might think of peace here being the same thing. That we are seeking the highest good for them, and they, in turn, are seeking the highest good for us.

And so that makes sense then with his injunction to admonish the idlers, which is not about resting, but about laziness, or sloth maybe the better word, which is keeping people from doing the work they are called to do, which includes the work needed in the body of Christ. And then he talks more about what we think of the church doing and being and that is helping those who are in need which takes many different forms, which could also be seen from what Paul says in Galatians, that we are to carry one another’s burdens, to help and support one another. And then finally a call to be patient in all of these things, which here has a sense of endurance, of being faithful and not giving into either anger, which I will admit is one of my flaws, or not giving up hope. And then he turns to what has become a more familiar passage to “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances,” which he says is not just a good idea, but is actually God’s will for us, and please note, which I think so easily gets overlooked, is that this is not just for us to do as individuals, but in the context is about how we live in community with one another. So, when we say that we will nurture one another, what does it look like? That’s what it looks like, teaching, supporting, loving and being patient, praying and rejoicing together and for one another, and not seeking evil, but seeking the good for all, which also means calling out evil when we see it in church. And yes, there is evil in the church. I’ve not only seen it, but I’ve even, unfortunately experienced it.

But I think there is one more thing that’s missing from this. As I said at the beginning, although I think this question should also be seen as a congregational question, there is a question directly asked of the congregation later in the baptismal liturgy about nurturing one another, and as part of the response we say that we will surround them with “a community of love and forgiveness.” And it is that last part that also has to be a part of this community: forgiveness. As Jesus says, to receive forgiveness we have to forgive, and if any place should practice and live in forgiveness it is the church, because, as Paul says, we all fall short of the glory of God. We all do stupid things that hurt others, usually unintentionally but sometimes even intentionally, and so be in community, especially to be in community for the long haul, we have to practice forgiveness and to surround each other with forgiveness. And when we see forgiveness being done, when it becomes part of the culture, then it actually becomes easier to live in forgiveness, and so it becomes one of the ways that we nurture one another. And when we live in forgiveness and love, then we are also living like Christ and demonstrating the ways of leading a Christian life. We are not just called to come to church, we are called to be the church. And so, on behalf of the whole church I ask you, “Will you nurture these persons in Christ's holy Church, that by your teaching and example they may be guided to accept God's grace for themselves, to profess their faith openly, and to lead a Christian life?” I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.