Being and Doing Together

Dear People of Christ Church,
With the Baptism of Jesus, we’re swimming in the epiphany waters if the revelation of Jesus Christ as God’s beloved Son. Beloved, delighted in, enjoyed, God’s own longed- for firstborn.

Jesus, at this point, hasn’t done anything at all in his ministry. He has not taught anything of particular note, or called any smart people into community around him, or healed any diseases. The only ones who thinks he’s special at all at this point are John the Baptist and his mom. Still, the heavens are torn open by the voice of God. Throughout Epiphany, we’ll hear stories about where God’s power is made manifest in Jesus’ ministry—where there are epiphanies of all kinds, those desired as well as those never dreamed of.

For many of us, the question of our baptism never really comes up: sure, we say all the right words when the church “does” a baptism for a new member. But this beginning of the season of Epiphany invites us to ask ourselves what, really, our baptism means. It’s the foundation of our life in Christ, but what is it, really? Most often, it’s easy to skip forward to the action our baptism calls us toward, all of that seeking and serving and respecting and believing. We don’t often take the time to dwell and ground ourselves in what we become in baptism. Remember that Jesus didn’t do anything at all to earn the love of God or that holy voice on that day. Also consider this: the first thing Jesus does when he is baptized isn’t to run out do a bunch of things. Ministry comes later. Jesus goes to the wilderness to be loved, for time with his Abba (the time we practice in our tradition as Lent). In baptism, we are called by God’s grace just to allow God to love us. Not in spite of who we are, but because of it.

Church, it may go without saying, is a community centered around baptism. We are baptized, we do baptism. We live out our baptism. Eucharist recalls us to our baptism. Even the rite for burial recalls us to our baptism. It’s our thing. Being One with God in Christ.

If that’s our mission, becoming One with God in Christ, that shifts priorities in a certain way. Our parish vision statement is a reasonable picture of a community living out the baptismal covenant, but I wonder if there are ways we can more deeply welcome each other into a new life of faith in a more profound way. Our annual meeting is in one week from Sunday. In that meeting, we’ll talk about our hope for the future as well as celebrate our accomplishments. The format will be some small group conversation, some larger group listening, and, as always, new Christ Churchers will be invited to sign our membership book (how do you know if this applies to you? If you come regularly and pledge, you’re in.)

How, in 2016, can we be together as well as do together? What are the things that we are called toward in 2016 to pray, to imagine, to invite? How can our be-ing and loving naturally call others to the love of God?

Blessings,
Sara+
Update from the international Anglican primates meeting:

Remember how I mentioned in my sermon how a group of English clergy are calling the Archbishop and the communion to a John the Baptist moment and repent for the church’s treatment of LGBT persons? It did not quite go that way. Instead, the primates (the heads of all the individual Anglican Churches worldwide) decided to suspend the Episcopal Church from Anglican councils and from representing Anglicans as a whole on ecumenical or interfaith bodies, specifically because of the national church vote in July 2015 to make the marriage canons inclusive. See the whole thing at primates2016.org.

Speaking of Baptism, check out what our own Presiding Bishop/Primate, Michael Curry, had to say:

“Our commitment to be an inclusive church is not based on a social theory or capitulation to the ways of the culture, but on our belief that the outstretched arms of Jesus on the cross are a sign of the very love of God reaching out to us all. …Our decision regarding marriage is based on the belief that the words of the Apostle Paul to the Galatians are true for the church today: All who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, for all are one in Christ.”

Please also keep our sisters and brothers from St Peter’s Ugandan Congregation in your prayers, as international conflict like this comes even closer to home for them, and the Archibishop of Uganda did not stay for the whole conference because a provision like suspension wouldn’t go far enough for him.