One Faith, One Baptism, One Community

Last week, I cut my sermon short and ended with a teaser for this week's sermon, an attempt to get you to come back to hear the rest. Sort of like the old Adam West “Batman” series, it would end right when it was getting good, just so you'd return to the same bat-time and same bat-channel. The original ending was this, “This is why our baptism is such a vital part of faith. It is not a life saving measure but an event that binds us together. We serve one another because we have been baptized into a new life and our new life is a life that is lived together. Through our baptism, we die to the ways of the world and are raised to the way of Christ: the Christ who ate at the table of tax collectors, prostitutes, and, yes, the pharisees. Through our baptism we have joined a family that we can never be rid of, because we are bound together in Christ. And it is our baptism that holds us to this truth, “We are none of us alone.” May the tie that binds, bless us, and you unbeliever, and you.”

I believe when we sing “Bless be the Tie” every 1^st Sunday, we are not only singing that it is Christ who ties us together, it is also a reminder of our baptism. A reminder that our baptism into the family of Christ, is the outward expression of our faith and our mark as followers of Christ. When we make the conscious decision to follow Christ, our salvation is met, but when we follow that with our baptism then we have made the decision to be committed to one another through baptism. Our baptism is similar to the laying on of hands deacons and ministers receive. It is a decision to commit and bind ourselves to live in the Christian community with one another. It is a promise.

In his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul writes, “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:1-6).

For us, who have been called and believe, we are bound together through one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God of all. Our baptism then becomes a promise the Christian community to faithfully live in the community and become a part of the community. It is not just an outward act in which we show the community we have become a follower of Christ, it is something more. Our baptism is our promise to live and work in the community of faith, to pray for another, to help one another, to bear with one another. We cannot fully commit to the three acts of service (attentive listening, active helpfulness, and bearing one another's burdens) if we have not bound ourselves together in the unity of our baptism. We cannot do so because we do not have anything holding us to a promise to care for the community. Our baptism becomes our promise, our reminder of the reason we've chosen to be a part of this Christian community.

I have stated this truth over the past few Sundays: staying in community with one another is hard. It is easier to leave a community and find a new one when disagreements arise or feelings are hurt. If we are a Christian community, bounded together in Christ and in our baptism, then we have an obligation to work together and work through any conflict that arises.

Part of my marriage ceremonies includes a charge to the couple. It goes something like this: Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens. A good marriage must be created. It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives. It is standing together facing the world. It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family. It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice, but in the spirit of joy. It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways. It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humor. It is having the capacity to forgive and forget. It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow. It is finding room for the things of the spirit. It is a common search for the good and the beautiful. It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal, dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal. It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner. There will be times of great joy as well as sorrow. Through it all, you will remain side by side one another until parted by death. Do you commit yourselves in this way?

The charge is done to remind the couple of what they are committing to one another for. They are not just getting married, they are making a promise to one another to remain side by side until they are parted by death. Likewise, when we gather in the water, we make a promise to the congregation gathered around us. We promise to listen and seek God. We promise to follow and obey God's call. We promise to join with the Christian community by participating in the life of the community. As we are lowered into the water, we bury our old life and as we come up, we are being raised in the newness of life. This newness of life is growing in the understanding in which we are urged to live a life worthy of the calling we have received. To be completely humble and gentle; being patient, bearing with one another in love. To make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as we were called to one hope—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

In our baptism, we bury our old understanding of community and we are raised in the newness of Christ's community. It is the newness in recognizing the beauty of the Christian community and the diversity within. It is the newness of living a life of service by listening attentively, actively helping, and bearing with one another. This newness of life binds you and I together while allowing room for others to join. This newness of life recognizes the important roles everyone has in the Christian community, the importance of welcoming in the sinner, the importance of living together both the weak and the strong. Our baptism is outward proclamation that we have accepted Christ's charge to live in community with not only our fellow believers, but with the unbeliever as well.

Our focus on the Christian community these past few weeks has caused to me reflect on past sermons and past lessons. I recall my fourth Sunday here preaching on an invitation to the wedding banquet. It was a sermon on the parable of the wedding banquet in Luke and the focus was urging us to stop looking at the people (inactive members) who have rejected the invitation and focus on those who have. I was advocating that the church needed to stop asking itself what they need to change in order to bring others who have left back in. Instead, I believed we were being asked to go out and bring people in who are looking for a place to belong. I still hold to that view. I still believe that the church shouldn't change worship styles or add programs just to appease one person. To do so, I believe, is to put the individual above the community and can do harm to the Christian community. However...

As I reflected on the stories of Lydia and the jailer, I realized something. I realized I was wrong to suggest we stop inviting them. If we our bound together in our baptism then we are not only bound to those who are here every Sunday, or those who have yet to believe, but we are bound to those who are not here. We are still bound to them in our baptism and we are required to go out and get them and bring them back into the community: for are they not among those who are hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, or the imprisoned? Are they not still a part of the Christian community? Then should we not go to them as well? Should we not seek to reconcile and bring them back into the community?

There in lies the difference between changing the community to fit the individual and being in true Christian community. It is to recognize, and remember in our baptism, that the Christian community is a gift of grace from kingdom of God, given and held together by Christ alone. And it is a fragile gift that can be taken away at any given moment. To remember that is to remember while humanity frustrated God, God remained in community with creation. Thus, we hold to the truth in our profession of faith, and through the expression of baptism, we belong to one another only through Jesus Christ (Bonhoeffer, Life Together pg 30-31).

We have been given this Christian community by Christ and it is sustained by Christ, which means, there is nothing done that cannot be undone or forgiven. What is it that binds us from going to the absent members of the community and offering forgiveness or seeking forgiveness? Think for a moment, how often in the scriptures are the wronged or the hurt, the ones who offer forgiveness and seek reconciliation? Being in community with one another is indeed a gift from God and we have promised to care for it and one another through our baptism; should we not then go out and seek to bring others who have left back into the community? It is really better for them to remain absent and in loneliness then to have that difficult conversation of reconciliation; then to sit in the tension of our past while worshiping in the present? I believe our baptism is important because it is our outward expression of our faith and our promise to actively live and actively care for the Christian community. A promise that includes reincorporating the lost and the absent. We are, after all, none of us alone.

“Once upon a time, there was a priest named Malcolm who worked in a parish that developed a particular ministry to rehabilitate young offenders which included a furniture resource center, which took old furniture and restored it and made available to any in need. One of those offenders was a teenager named Paul. Paul was 15 years old with a history of misusing drugs. He supported his drug habit by breaking and entering homes and stealing valuables that he could pawn off. During his ministry, Malcolm came to know a woman named Kristel. Kristel lived with her young daughter in a house down from the church. She too had a drug problem and financed by bringing men back to her house at night while her daughter was asleep. When Malcolm came to visit her, he discovered there was no furniture in the house, except a lone mattress. Everything else had been sold to pay her pimp. Malcolm thought she could benefit from the furniture resource center.

The day came when Paul and Malcolm filled the truck with tables, chairs, cupboards, chests of drawers, and wardrobes, along with toys, games, and books for the little girl. They arrived at Kristel's home and knocked. No answer. No Kristel and no little girl. Having no idea what happened to them or where they were, Paul had an idea. “Tell you what,” he said, “how about if we just take all the stuff in anyway—she'll get a surprise when she walks in!” It took Malcolm a little while to understand what Paul was suggesting. “You mean, break into the house?” but as soon as he said it, he recalled that a mere lock was no obstacle for Paul. In no time they were in the house, and the furniture was all off the truck, the toys all over the floor.

Then Kristel came home. She saw the opened door and ran into the house, shocked and terrified. She saw Malcolm and burst into tears. “I can explain--” he said but quickly realized that the tears of horror had turned to tears of joy. Her little girl had toys and books. She herself had comfortable chairs and a place to eat and talk and relax. Malcolm was thrilled to see her joy and then he saw Paul. Paul was crying too, but for a different reason. He'd never made someone happy before. He knew how to break into houses and knew that he had broken hearts and lives by doing so. Now he had broken into someone's house, into someone's life, and for the first time brought joy not tragedy, hope not despair. His new life had begun.” (Samuel Wells, Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics pg 148-149).

A new community is formed by Malcolm when he reincorporates, brings back in, both the lost and the absent. Both Paul and Kristel learn that they are useful and have a place in the community, even though they had been ousted. Reincorporating the lost and the absent may seem like tedious work and it may seem fruitless but in a community built in and through Christ, then every effort must be made to reach out and bring them back into the community; because Christ once reached out and brought us back into the community. Thus, why we need to remember our baptism. Not only does it serve as our promise, it serves as a reminder of when we became a part of the Christian community and the arms that reached out and took us in, and nurturing our lives sent us out to live as a part of the Christian community.

This past week I asked several of my friends to share with me there baptism stories and while, we may be short on time, I thought this one would highlight the importance of our baptism story as it relates to the Christian community. My friend Patrick tells his story like this: “I was scared to death of baptism. I had no problem accepting Jesus, but I was terrified I was going to drown in the baptismal. I don't know where that came from, I knew how to swim. It was always so intimidating when I saw others in the church baptized, though. What I remember most is when I finally got enough courage to go forward and tell the church, so many people came up to hug me that they broke my glasses with their forceful and happy hugs. I really felt like I was being welcomed into the family...and I did not drown. True story.”

In my mind the image of a child being hugged so hard his glasses break, is indeed the image of when we reincorporate and bring back in the lost and the absent. I think of the hymn coming to life in the here and now, “Oh what a day of rejoicing that will be.” May we remember to live a life worthy of the calling we have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as we were called to one hope when we were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Let us remember our baptism and let us ask ourselves, what is it that prevents us from coming to these waters. Amen.