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The First Sunday After the Epiphany, 11 January 2004
Isaiah 42:1-9, Acts 10:34-38, Luke 3:15-16, 21-22
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, West Valley City, UT

The Rev. W. Lee Shaw

Today in our Gospel we read of Jesus's baptism, and today is the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord. In a few minutes we will renew our Baptismal Covenant. So, I want to chat briefly with you about what we promise in baptism.

“Will you continue in the apostles's teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?” Continue: This is an ongoing pilgrimage as I mentioned last week. Apostles's: plural possessive, the collective teaching and tradition of the church. For us, this includes the first council in Jerusalem to the actions of General Convention last August. We take council with each other as we discern the shape and direction of our fellowship: Fellowship of parish, diocese, national church, province and Anglican Communion. Will you keep coming to church, making your communion and joining with the community in our prayers? Finally, fellowship includes the sharing of our life together, our stewardship of our common life. I ask you as part of your baptism to look at your offerings to St. Stephen's that maintain our programs and building. Your offerings are key to our growth as the only Episcopal Parish west of State Street. Our fellowship as a parish requires our time, our talents and the offerings of our treasure. Please make your pledge and even consider increasing your pledge as we begin this new year of possibilities and growth.

“Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?” I love the honesty of this question: whenever you fall into sin. Not if, or perchance, but the reality of when we mess up will we humble ourselves, turn ourselves around. In our Catechism, “Sin is the seeking of our own will instead of the will of God, thus distorting our relationship with God, with other people, and with all creation.” It is a breakdown of relationship. We recognize that this is ongoing, that we must persevere and seek repentance, metanoia, to turn around.

“Will you proclaim in word and example the Good News of God in Christ?” Baptism calls us to the ministry, the service of others. The ministers of the church are defined as first, the laity, bishops, priests and deacons. Baptism makes you a minister! Proclaim is the hard one. It is not going door to door wearing a white shirt and dark tie! It is living your life so that others may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven. To proclaim can also be the most simple of things to do. It can be simply, “Come and see.” The simple invitation to come and see this community of Christians praying and sharing in the common meal. Come and see. The invitation to the worship of the church is the simplest forms of proclamation there is, for you are opening the doors of the community to someone you know. Invite someone to “come and see.”

“Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?” Who is the Christ to you? Where do you see Christ? Last Wednesday Pearl said she sees Christ in people all around her. I pray we should all have Pearl's eyes of discernment. In the parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus notes that our neighbor is everyone, even the most unlikely or one unlike us, and we are called to serve them. Jesus simplifies our life considerably by saying that all of the law is summarized in love: love God, love your neighbor, love yourself.

“Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?” We are an Incarnational people. We believe that God took on human form and lived among us. God Incarnate, in bodily form with us. The Incarnation gives a unique dignity to each human being, for God chose to be one like us. Not only did God call all creation good in the creation of all things, but God deigned to come and be with us as one of us. We are called to respect the dignity in each of us that God sees in each of us. This goes so far beyond being tolerant, or even being inclusive. This is about seeing the God-given dignity in every person. There is no room for feelings of superiority or prejudice or bigotry. An author writing on race relations, but it strikes to all our relationships and views of others, notes: “It is the day to day indignities, the subtle humiliations, that are so devastating. It is the assumption of superiority of one group over another with all of the gross arrogance that goes along with it.”

During WWII, England was savagely bombed by the Nazis. One church was nearly destroyed and its large statue of Christ was severely damaged. Following the war they repaired the church and sought an artist to restore the statue. He did restore it, but could not restore or repair the shattered hands of Christ. The priest saw the message in this and placed a plaque on the statue: “You are the hands of Christ in the world.”

The Baptismal Covenant is our outline of how to be the hands of Christ in the world. Our hands include the ministries within the church, our ministries in the world outside these doors, and also the ministry of how we support this community financially. All of these are necessary to our vitality as a community in Christ, to be the hands of Christ in the world.