Being Christ

Being Christ

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas

January 12, 2014; 1 Epiphany, The Baptism of Our Lord, Year A

Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

(Matthew 3:13-17)  Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

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We just celebrated Christmas, the Feast of the Incarnation, when we say that God has come to us as a child.  Fully human, vulnerable, humble.  God.

And today we bring three children to the waters of baptism, asking God to fill them with Holy Spirit that they also may be Christ’s presence in the world. 

We ask the parents and godparents to protect and nurture the divine presence dwelling in these children, just as they protect and nurture the vulnerable lives entrusted to their care.

In so many ways, growing the faith that is given to us in our baptism is very much like growing children.  Having a young grandchild living with me now reminds me every day what is necessary – necessary to protect and nurture the child, but also necessary to protect and nurture the divine presence within me. 

You have to pay attention.  We always want eyes on a baby.  Turn away for a moment, it seems, and crash.  Then tears.  Pay attention!  But there’s also a delightful expectancy.  Watch!  What funny thing will she say or do today?  What new thing will she discover?  And there is the regular business of diaper changes and baths.  And band-aids on bo-bos.  Underneath everything is love, unqualified love.  In that atmosphere, she will learn and grow.

The nurture of the faith given to us at baptism is a lot like that.  You have to pay attention.  Be awake.  We always want our eyes to be expecting God’s presence in every little thing.  Turn away for a moment from that discipline of seeing through the eyes of faith, and crash.  Stuck again.  Reactive and frustrated. 

When we nurture a delightful expectancy, wondering what funny or interesting thing God will bring to us today, we tend to discover new things and find that doors open.  Watch!

And there is the regular business of diaper changes and baths.  “Will you persevere in resisting evil, and whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?”  And there are band-aids on bo-bos.  “Oh God, make speed to save us.  O Lord, make haste to help us.”

Underneath, everything is love, unqualified love. 

I’ve just finished reading a delightful novel John Duval gave me for Christmas, Kind of Kin by Rilla Askew.  One thing I like about the book is how many of the characters bring their faith into their lives.  Each seems to have a different way to pay attention, to hope, to ask for help and to repent.

The story starts with a respected, churchgoing granddad Bob Brown being arrested for hiding a barnful of migrant workers.  In the jail cell, Bob clings to the scripture for comfort.  During the fifth chorus of “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus,” another inmate takes offense and knuckles Bob’s head bloody.  But Bob has a sense of calling and of divine support.  He is vulnerable and powerless, accused as a criminal, behind bars.  But he is not alone.

Back home, Bob’s 10-year-old grandson Dustin decides to run away from the chaos and abuse he suffers there.  Gathering supplies at his grandfather’s barn, Dustin finds Luis, the only Mexican undiscovered in the raid on the barn.  Luis befriends the boy and helps him along a perilous journey. 

On bicycle, on foot they travel by night to avoid the authorities.  Luis keeps up a constant conversation with our Lady:  repeating the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory Be over and over again.  When the boy Luis is protecting gets terribly sick, Luis remembers the many small miracles of passage given to him all his life from Our Lady of Guadalupe.  “Our lady will not withdraw her protection,” he affirms.

What is there to rely on, when a man must make choices?  Protection and guidance from heaven.  The blessings of the sacraments, if he is able to receive them.  Prayers.  Miracles and mercies.  Faith. [i]

In our Baptismal Covenant we are asked:  “Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers?”  These practices can uphold us.  They give us, Protection and guidance from heaven.  The blessings of the sacraments… Prayers.  Miracles and mercies.  Faith.

Just as we proclaimed at Christmas that God comes to us in the birth of the child Jesus, so we proclaim in baptism that God comes to us in every baptized child or adult.  God did not stop entering human life with Jesus; God enters human life in each of us as well.  We are to be Christ’s body in the world – Christ’s heart and hands and feet and voice.  We are to be Jesus’ public presence in our generation.

There is another whole world of this church’s ministry represented by our advocacy and activity in the political and economic sphere, and in public policy, in our supporting non-profits and our educational work on behalf of these same values of Jesus – to uphold the poor and the vulnerable.

The dramatic confrontation that comes toward the end of the novel Kind of Kin involves Bob Brown’s pastor, Oren Dudley.  How is he to deal with the crisis prompted by his parishioner’s arrest?  In good Baptist tradition, he searches the scripture.  When Bob Brown’s granddaughter and her undocumented husband take sanctuary inside Pastor Dudley’s church, Dudley stands at the church door, blocking the sheriff’s entrance, proclaiming:

’But the alien that dwells with you shall be as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself,’ Leviticus nineteen, verse thirty four.

’What the –‘  The sheriff started around the other side, but Oren Dudley sidestepped again.

’Vex not a stranger, nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt,’ Exodus twenty-two, verse twenty-one.’

…[The sheriff ] pushed forward.  ‘I’m warning you, man.’

Eyes closed, combing over a few damp strands of hair with his fingers, Oren Dudley quoted on: ‘And to the strangers that sojourn among you, which shall beget children among you: they shall be unto you as born in the country,’ Ezekiel forty-seven, verse twenty-two.’

The sheriff was stymied; his hand twitched on his pistol grip.  You couldn’t just shoot a blamed Bible spouting Baptist preacher for standing in your path. [ii]  

Oren Dudley and Bob Brown, grounded in holy scripture, acted publicly as the body of Christ, the voice and hands and feet of Jesus, acting as Jesus did out of love for neighbor.  Luis courageously befriended little Dustin, relying on the protection of Our Lady, grounded in the sacrament and prayer. 

As I read the novel, I thought of our Baptismal Covenant:  Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?  Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?  Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

I thought about the ways we try to incarnate Christ’s body in our congregation and community.  We are doing the nurturing business of paying attention and watching expectantly.  We are also doing the necessary business of repentance – of changing diapers and cleansing wounds.  Like the characters in the novel, we are taking responsibility for the structural sin in our community, and responding in the Spirit of Christ. 

First we had to pay attention; to see.  When we saw that some are sick and ill, without access to medical care, we started the Community Clinic at St. Francis House, and we now bring Christ’s healing touch to 30,000 vulnerable neighbors.  When we saw that some are homeless and poor, we created 7hills Homeless Center, and we now bring Christ’s hope and support to hundreds who are displaced.  When we saw that some are hungry and insecure, we helped organize Community Meals to give nourishment to hungry bodies.  And now we have visited those in prison – we see them and know them – and we seek to create a Magdalene House, a home of healing and resurrection for them as they leave incarceration.

As Christ’s baptized people, we are called to recognize not only our personal sin, but also our social sin and injustice, to identify as Christ did with the plight of the sick, the homeless, the hungry and the prisoner, and to take responsibility for their care:  to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself.

Today we baptize three more children into this growing life of faith.  We pledge to nourish Christ's presence within them and within ourselves, as we, by our prayers and witness, seek to grow into the full stature of Christ.

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[i] Rilla Askew, Kind of Kin, HarperCollins, NY, 2013, p. 269

[ii] Ibid, p. 302-2

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