Last Pentecost

The Reverend Martha Frances

Year B, Last Pentecost, Proper 29

Christ the King

22 November 2009

Text:  John 18: 33-37

Other Readings: 2 Samuel 23: 1-7; Psalm 132: 1-13; Revelation 1: 4b-8 

      Once again today I return to the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale "The Emperor's New Clothes" because it reveals so much of the encounter between Pilate & Jesus we just read.  In this story, the emperor is a clothes horse.  This king of a distant land really likes to dress for success.  He can choose from several outfits each day, kept ready for his wearing by a whole team of palace servants.  This emperor has a closet for every day of the week, but he's not satisfied; he likes to stimulate the economy with new additions to his wardrobe.

      Along come 2 "tailors", they call themselves.  They've heard of the emperor's clothes' fetish, & they have a scam they figure he'll fall for.  They talk their way through the palace security system & tell the king they can fashion him a wardrobe addition that will not only be stunning, but to those who are foolish & aren't fit for their office, the clothes will be invisible.  "What a deal!" figures the king.  He can feed his clothes' fetish & uncover those attendants who are incompetent, all at the same time.  He sets the tailors up in a corner room near his private quarters, & they go to work.  None but the king's closest aides are allowed to see the progress of the wardrobe, & they don't dare reveal that, up on the large loom the tailors are using, not one of them sees a blessed stitch of cloth. 

      Time comes for the king to model the clothing, whereupon he'll lead a parade through the streets in his new outfit.  As he dresses, even his wife is stunned to realize that she must not be fit as queen.  Amazed silence greets the king as he appears on the palace steps & descends to his open-air coach, standing in it as it moves slowly through the streets lined with parade aficionados, all eager to spy the king's new threads.  Well, they certainly glimpse more than they have anticipated. All fear they are unworthy until an innocent child cries out, above the clamor of horses, "Look!  The emperor has no clothes on!" 

      Indeed, the emperor appears naked to his whole kingdom, his desire to look good & appear clever & brilliant uncovered, & his shallowness obvious to all who spy his naked self.  This ruler who judged the world for its earthly values reveales, in the end, his own lack of truth.

      In contrast, we turn to Jesus in his simple though seamless garment standing before Pilate in the Praetorium.  Pilate, the puppet king of Judea, taunts Jesus as he asks, "Are you the King of the Jews?"  Jesus answers Pilate's attempt to entrap him: "Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?"  Jesus includes 3^rd persons in the conversation for of course, others' opinions matter greatly to Pilate.  Pilate is trying to find middle ground in dealing with this Jesus who seems harmless to the State yet is deemed dangerous by the pesky Jewish leaders.

      Pilate continues to quiz him as if he were, indeed, a king, taunting him that it is the chief priests & the Jewish people who have accused him.  Ever calm & collected, Jesus responds that he does, truly, have a kingdom but it is not of this world.  Jesus doesn't mean, by the way, that his kingdom is other-worldly, but rather that, in the Kingdom of God, values other than those of this world hold sway.  Jesus reminds us that no amount of clothes or position or posturing to accept accolades such as the emperor or even some present-day politicians would do can remove Jesus himself from the kingdom over which he reigns. 

      Pilate tries again. "So you are a king?"  Jesus still does not flaunt his position as ruler but answers vaguely, turning the focus from himself to the truth.  Those who listen to Jesus' voice belong to the truth, he says, & Jesus does not need to dress himself up in fancy clothes or titles to be the truth who comes from God, indeed is God enfleshed. 

      What a contrast between the Gospel story for Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday of the Christian year, & the fairy tale about a pompous but foolish emperor!  That emperor thought he could show his importance by the clothing he put on his body & a magic trick to determine the ability of his staff, yet he was stripped bare & revealed as foolish & pitiful, a mere shell of a man.  Jesus, the King of Kings & Lord of Lords [about whom we sang a few minutes ago], makes few claims for himself, pointing only toward the consequences of his living as God's faithful son on earth:  being stripped bare & hanged on a cross, deprived of all this world considers essential for success yet exalted even as he is raised on the cross & goes to his death.  We know the rest of the story, don't we?  We are witnesses to his resurrection.

      Jesus Christ & his kingdom still stand over against the values of this world, & sometimes we forget this very basic tenet of our faith.  We declare as if we believe it that God's ways are not our ways, but then we question God in our pain upon losing a friend or relative in an untimely death or when our lives don't go our way.  It's easier to blame God than to evaluate our own actions leading to the natural consequences of our irresponsible behavior.  Sometimes circumstances happen which can't be blamed on our actions but rather are consequences of free will in the world.  Further, we cannot, of our own accord, get ourselves out of the scrapes we get into.  At those times, we must rely upon the God who died for us yet also rose.  Hopefully, we learn to depend on the will of God who redeems us from all the foolishness we get ourselves into.

      That's the point of our celebration today as we acknowledge Jesus as Lord of our lives.  Each year, at the end of Pentecost season through which we have studied the words & work of Jesus, as we prepare for the coming of Christmas about a month from now, we pause to celebrate Jesus who shows us the Way, the Truth, & the Life.  As we move into the new Christian year next Sunday, Christ the King poses important questions for each of us:  What attitudes & behaviors will you have to modify or give up in order to welcome Jesus the Christ into your life anew, in order to let the Jesus who comes again at Christmastime enter your heart & mind once again & lead you to the peace which the world cannot give?  Which false emperors have you been worshipping instead of the true King of kings?

      In just a few moments, as I set the table for the Kingdom feast which we offer each Sunday at this altar, we will honor the power of Jesus' name & praise God for crowning Jesus the Lord of all.  Yet in today's world, Christian triumphalism makes me very uneasy.  If we're not careful, we give Jesus the crown yet keep the power for ourselves.  As many of us tighten our belts to anticipate a more conservative holiday season, it is natural for us to try to hang onto whatever illusion of control we think we have in our lives.  It's very hard for us to remember that the kingdom over which Jesus reigns has values which he has turned upside down from what is important in this world.  Jesus refuses to entertain a military solution to save his own skin, &, in fact, his being raised up as king consists of his reigning from the cross, & we are called to share his cross with him. 

      Last week I shared a bit of the revelation which has come to me as I have bemoaned the severity of our financial crisis this year.  Once again, we have a tendency to believe that our own personal & our church community's success or at least faithfulness is up to us.  Although we need everyone to participate fully at Hope by giving sacrificially of time & talent as well as money, we are called to recognize that our well-being is up to God who loves us dearly & wants the very best for us.  As I suggested last week, each of us has a mandate to pray frequently for the ongoing ministry of Hope & to put feet to our prayers by contributing of ourselves, returning a portion of God's gifts to God through the support of our parish.  Jesus showed his disciples just hours before the Bible story we heard from the Gospel today that his way to manifest his kingliness led directly to his death.  We can truly pray today that we learn to emulate Jesus in his willingness to give of himself in grateful response to God's gift of life itself. 

      We at Hope are at a crossroads in our mission & ministry.  Now that we have been together for nearly 5 years, we must ask ourselves what our priorities are for Hope to reach out to each other & to the wider community.  Who we are in the future will be determined to a large extent by the commitment you & I are willing to make to Hope Episcopal Church as we finish out this year & begin 2010.  We are not alone, however.  Our gospel today reminds us that God has made an everlasting covenant with us, evidence of which we see in the lessons from the 2 Samuel passage as well as from the psalms.  God has cast God's lot in with us & has no alternate plan.  How have you done in praying for Hope this week?  Will you do so again this next week, making sure to include our church community in your Thanksgiving prayers?  For starters, I'd like you to turn back to the Collect for the Day on the front page of your pew bulletin, & let us pray this prayer aloud again with special intentions for this congregation & for you & your neighbors as we move into a new year of Hope:

Almighty & everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings & Lord of lords:  Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided & enslaved by sing, may be freed & brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives & reigns with you & the Holy Spirit, one God, now & for ever.  Amen.

Pentecost 24

The Reverend Martha Frances

Year B, Pentecost 24, Proper 28

15 November 2009

Text:  I Samuel 1: 4-20; Response: 1 Samuel 2: 1-10

Other Readings: Mark 13: 1-8; Hebrews 10: 11-14 [15-18] 19-25 

      There's probably not a collect of the day that I cherish so much as I do today's: calling us to hear, read, mark, learn, & inwardly digest the scriptures so that we may embrace & hold fast to them.  If you've been around me very long, you know I consider Bible study a keystone to growing as disciples of Christ.  Today once again we turn to a story from the Hebrew scripture which may be familiar to many of you.  The story which begins the first book of Samuel is fascinating in itself because we glimpse much of the familial & ritual practices of Israel at a pivotal time for the Hebrew people but also because it has much to inform us here at Hope about hope for the future.

      Elkanah is a faithful Hebrew man living at a time of upheaval & decline in Israel.  Regularly, he makes a personal pilgrimage to Shiloh from Ramah to sacrifice at the temple.  Elkanah has 2 wives, so he must be fairly well-to-do.  Elkanah tries to be fair to his whole clan by dividing out the portions of the sacrifice to each wife & child, but perhaps to ease Hannah's pain at being childless, he provides her an extra share.  Despite Elkanah's assurance of his love for her, Hannah is brought to tears & will not eat, for she knows that her worth as a woman is determined by her ability to bear children.  Peninnah, Elkanah's other wife, taunts Hannah about her barrenness which makes the annual trips to Shiloh even more difficult for Hannah to bear. 

      Hannah is not a woman to sit back & complain, doing nothing constructive.  After the obligatory festive meal, she enters the temple where sacrifices are made & opens herself up to God.  Her pain is simply too great to bear alone, & clearly her husband does not understand the severity of her frustration & longing, so she boldly turns to God in prayer.  At this time most prayer was uttered aloud, yet Hannah has no voice at present, so she prays silently though her lips are moving.  Hannah wants a male child so badly that she vows to God that, if God grants her request for a son, she will return him to God, offering him as a servant at the temple, & sealing her vow by placing the hoped-for son under a Nazirite vow throughout his life—forbidding him to drink intoxicants or to cut his hair.

      Eli, the priest, sits at the entrance of the temple observing her, presuming that her silent moving lips indicate that she is drunk.  He reprimands her for entering the temple & praying drunk but she vindicates herself, explaining that she is deeply troubled & is laying her heart open to God.  How remarkable for this woman who has been called worthless to begin to find her voice by correcting the priest, the power figure.  And her protestation finds acceptance, for Eli doesn't even learn what she is asking of God before he assures Hannah that God will answer her petition. 

      Clearly, Eli is not the only one who hears her, for she goes on her way a transformed woman, & when she & Elkanah have sexual relations, we're told that God remembers her & she conceives & bears a son whom she calls "Samuel" which means one who has been asked for.  Although the later story is not included in today's reading, you may remember that after he is weaned, Hannah indeed brings Samuel to this very same temple at Shiloh & presents him to Jhwh to be cared for & trained by Eli.  Samuel grows up to be the first prophet of the Davidic dynasty, anointing both Saul & David as kings of Israel & acting as counsel to both of them. 

      Not only is this a powerful story of God's grace being poured out on this barren woman & through trust in God was made fruitful, not only did her son Samuel grow up to advise Israel's greatest king, but Hannah's personal story becomes a microcosm for the regeneration of Israel, the story of a people who have perpetually been the underdogs as they move from a scattered group of tribes to a unified realm led by a series of kings including David, considered the epitome of an ancient leader.  Hannah's story models the larger story of Hannah's people with this Yhwh, the God who remembers a person & by extension a people & responds when asked to the heart's desire of those who trust in Yhwh. 

      Of course, the story of a barren woman's being granted the blessing of a male child when God hears her plea is not confined to Hannah's story, but hers becomes the backdrop for this theme of God's presence & response to women who otherwise might be considered worthless in a society which prizes male offspring.  Eventually, this motif plays out with Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, & then a variation with the Mother of God's son Jesus.  All the symbolism of rebirth & regeneration of those who have been neglected & considered no-count are highlighted in Hannah's story.

      Our liturgical response today is the response known as Hannah's song, a prayer of thanksgiving to God who makes such reversals possible.  Hannah bursts forth in praise, worshipping the God who creates & recreates, who responds when asked.  Hannah's song is actually the background for the song of Mary which we call the Magnificat, that glorious affirmation of God's gift of grace to Mary & to us all as her cousin Elizabeth recognizes the child in Mary's womb to be God as Savior & Redeemer come to earth as a human so that we may become more God-like.  This morning we began our worship with a hymn version of the Magnificat when we sang "Tell out my soul the greatness of the Lord."  You may want to compare Hannah's celebratory prayer to the Magnificat in the Morning Prayer service in the Book of Common Prayer but also with today's opening hymn.  What gifts to the church are these prayer hymns of praise to Yhwh who hears our pleas!

      This wonderful story, these wonderful passages assigned as readings for us near the end of the church year are particular good news—gospel—for Hope Episcopal Church at this time in our parish life, it seems to me.  Samuel's birth & the promise of a new life as a nation under the leadership of a king are all claims on a new future Yhwh makes possible as we see today.  God remembers Hannah & will remember Israel, our scriptures tell us today. 

      And today I declare that God remembers Hope, our church community, as we go through a particularly difficult time, at least financially.  In the great scheme of things, even things Episcopal in the Diocese of Texas, Hope Church doesn't stand out much, do we?  We came together from 2 different congregations over 4 years ago out of need for survival, really, but also because we deliberately chose to form a multicultural parish, a sign of the kind of world we are becoming & an affirmation that we need each other in our differences as well as similarities to fulfill God's promises in this place at this time in our lives.

      We have struggled with our identity & with how to respond best to God's call to us to show forth God's love in our community & beyond it.  Now, at this time, we are suffering economically as much of our society is doing, having gone through many of the growing pains that other churches suffer intensified by our new search for identity & commitment.  Hannah's story & the story of Israel growing into who God called it to be under King David can teach us several things.

      First, it is important to express our needs before God, recognizing that Hannah couldn't do it on her own or even with her husband Elkanah.  They needed the intervention & grace of God to fulfill their destiny.  We at Hope need to pray diligently for our church community & for our future, letting God know our needs as a community & asking for God to fulfill them so that we may fulfill God's intention for us in the next little while.  Do you pray for Hope daily?  Will you commit to doing that?  Will you ask God faithfully what God would have you do to strengthen Hope's witness in our neighborhood & larger world?  We have asked Bob Biehl, our Diocesan treasurer, to visit with our vestry next Saturday, & we hope to glean some help from him, but in the long run, we must place our trust in God to lead us to be the congregation God wants us to be here in this place.  Please join me in that daily prayer!

      Secondly, & as an extension of the first point, we must be as persistent in our prayer as Hannah was in hers.  Hannah's name means "woman of stubborn spirit," & she reminds me of the Syrophoenician woman who begged Jesus to heal her daughter even tho they were not Jewish.  Hannah pestered God until God's attention & intention were focused on her & on Israel.  Let us commit to being just as persistent in our petition to God as was Hannah.  Remember, however, that Hannah's prayer was first of all a prayer of gratitude & thanksgiving for the amazing grace God had bestowed on her.  God creates new possibilities of grace, & we can call on God to remember us again.  Please join me in persistent petition to God for our parish which flows out of our trust in what God has already done for us at Hope as well as what God has in store for us. 

      Finally, just as Hannah turned the grace God gave to her around & dedicated Samuel to minister in God's name throughout his life, the proper response we have to God's gift of grace is to give it back, to be willing to give our all to God who gives so generously to us. If we hold onto our possessions, our gifts, keeping them to ourselves, we lose them, or sometimes our possessions begin to possess us.  This year we are not having a regular pledge drive for we feel the good people of Hope will prayerfully consider what we have to give to God & give it faithfully, generously, recognizing that we would have nothing were it not for God's gracious generosity.  However, we are not just talking about financial obligations here, as crucial as they are for our keeping the doors of Hope open & reaching out to others though our own unique congregation.  Each of us needs to ask God faithfully what God would have us give of our time & talent for the mission & ministry of our parish.  It is only through our willingness to be faithful in attendance at worship, to pray & work for our parish regularly, to commit our very selves to spreading God's love to others here but also beyond these doors that Hope can truly be hope for the future.  Some dismissals at the end of our Eucharist state it well:  "our worship is over; the service has just begun."  When God's grace brings new life in our midst, we must make a conscious decision to give back to God.  Hannah's story is the story of God's faithfulness to Israel as well as to her as an individual.  It is also an invitation to us to pray fervently for Hope as we open our hearts to what glories God has in store for us.  Please join me & your fellow parishioners in such prayer, praise, & commitment.  Now is the acceptable time;  now is the hour.  Come, Holy Spirit! 

Pentecost 23

The Reverend Martha Frances

Year B, Pentecost 23, Proper 27

8 November 2009

Text:  Ruth 3: 1-5, 4: 13-17; Mark 12: 38-44

Other Readings: Psalm 127; Hebrews 9: 24-28 

      This morning we encounter 3 widows, two in the story of Ruth, & the other as observed by Jesus at the door of the Jerusalem temple.  Widows did not have right of inheritance, so they were dependent on family or community for their very survival.  Jews were expected to provide for the least, the last, & the lost, & widows & orphans represented some of those must vulnerable in society.

      We know little about the widow whom Jesus watches make her contribution to the temple except that she is a widow, which tells his listeners that she is needy.  His emphasis is upon her willingness to give sacrificially to the glory of God's house & work in comparison to those in charge in society who ostentatiously garner honor & wealth & give out of their plenty.  Although scribes are often mentioned along with Pharisees & other temple leaders who try to entrap Jesus with their questions, Jesus doesn't condemn all scribes.  A couple of chapters back, he affirms one who rightly recognizes that love of God & love of neighbor sum up all the other Jewish laws.  Here, however, he lays bare the motives of those who are all about putting themselves & their positions first. 

      As you know, we at Hope are dealing with a deficit in our income for 2009, & though many in our congregation are struggling with their own financial woes in this economy, others are able to return to God through giving to Hope more generously than you had intended to do.  We're all called to consider faithfully how much our parish & its ministries mean to us, musing perhaps on what it would be like were Hope not here.  

      I'm put in mind of another widow at a former parish, a woman who is aunt to one of our parishioners here at Hope.  The parish budget was already tight when a storm revealed some roof leaks which couldn't be patched adequately, so we were asked to stretch to give to a roof fund for the re-roofing.  I'll never forget what she shared with me.  She said, "I didn't see how I could give more of my income, but then I decided if I gave up my weekly beauty shop appointment, I could contribute that money to the roof fund."  Now, perhaps only the women of the parish can fully appreciate how much a sacrifice was my friend's level of giving!  This fall we've been talking about the fulfilling of covenant commitments, & it is my prayer that each of us take our Baptismal Covenant which we renewed last Sunday seriously for the ongoing health & ministry of Hope.

      The other 2 widows who appear in today's readings are 2 of my favorites:  Naomi & Ruth.  We're probably familiar with their story, but we may not be fully aware of what makes it so compelling.  When Naomi tries to send Ruth back to Moab, she is aware that a Moabite woman will be accepted in Israel about as well as an undocumented worker is in our country today.  While Naomi may be flattered that Ruth wants to make her home with her mother-in-law, she also recognizes the difficulties 2 widows will have when she returns home accompanied by a foreigner.  Of course, in Ruth's case, she may have had no family to go back to in Moab, so her decision to accompany Naomi may have been for survival as much as for affection.  Would that this story were limited to the ancient past.  However, I have had several women come to me recently with similar stories of dislocation & desperation.  The unemployment figures released this week assure us that we as a faith community will be called upon to provide for widows & orphans & other vulnerable persons in our society at an even greater level in the near future. 

      Naomi & Ruth settle back in Israel, & Naomi is resourceful in sending Ruth into her cousin Boaz's fields to garner the leavings of the barley harvest.  However, harvest time is nearly over, so Naomi comes up with a longer-term plan for her own survival as well as Ruth's.  The first section we have recorded in today's reading is filled with euphemisms, sort of like the "G" version of an "R"-rated movie, but early hearers would pick up the societal & sexual innuendos of Naomi's plan.  Boaz, as the well-to-do male relative, has an obligation to marry the eligible widow of his deceased kinsman, yet his attention has flagged, perhaps because Ruth is a Moabitess.  Therefore, Naomi's scheme encourages him to fulfill the familial obligation to care for Ruth &, incidentally, for Naomi herself. 

      The women's plan is successful, & Boaz indeed marries Ruth.  At this point, even Naomi's well-laid plans need some heavenly intervention, & our account tells us that God made Ruth conceive & bear a son.  The women of Bethlehem act as a Greek chorus of sorts, commenting on God's action in response to the value in which male children are held in the community.  Even though the baby Obed is born to Ruth, the women celebrate God's gift of an heir to Naomi, the Jewess, so the barrenness of the loss of her husband & sons has been transformed with the birth of Obed.  In fact, the imagery of fullness & fecundity is emphasized in that Naomi becomes his wet-nurse.  Ruth drops out of the picture, & it is the townswomen who name him Obed.  Clearly, part of the importance of this story is that Obed becomes the father of Jesse who becomes the father of David, the greatest King of Israel & an ancestor of Jesus.  Ruth therefore joins Tamar & Rahab as the women—all of questionable reputation—who are mentioned in Jesus' genealogy.

      Scholars differ on the time of this story, but most presume it was told in the time of Ezra & Nehemiah, at least partly as a corrective to the super-nationalism which led to their forbidding mixed marriages, marriages between Israelites & pagan citizens of neighboring areas.  In fact, Ezra & Nehemiah wanted to cast such foreigners out of the covenant community.  It seems, however, that foreigners who join themselves to God's interaction with humanity are an essential part of God's plan for Israel's redemption. 

      When former Presiding Bishop Edmund Browning was consecrated, he declared that, in the Episcopal Church, there would be no outcasts.  Whether in the spiritual or political realm, God's acceptance of people is much broader than many people those in charge in a society are often comfortable with.  As the rhetoric builds surrounding the religion & ethnicity of the psychiatrist who shot so many people in the massacre at Ft. Hood heats up, may we be voices of reason & tolerance in not vilifying all Muslims for what this one man has done.  The horrors of last week's mass murder in Ft. Hood as well as the shooting spree in Orlando, Florida, have stunned all of us, & all involved need our prayers & support.  May we stand firm in recognition of God's love for all & not let these tragedies further splinter our society. 

      Our readings today show us God's blessings upon 3 widows who contribute to the good of the larger community & who help us visualize God's gifts showered upon us, God's often doing for us more than we can ask or imagine.  Please join me in praying for Hope parish that we continue to find ways to return to God & God's work in the world resources necessary to fulfill our commitment to share God's Good News with all we encounter.

All Saints

The Reverend Martha Frances

Year B, All Saints' Day

1 November 2009

Text:  John 11: 32-44

Other Readings:  Wisdom of Solomon 3: 1-9; Psalm 24; Revelation 21: 1-6a 

      We have the privilege this year of celebrating All Saints' on the actual feast day, the 1^st of Nov., in addition to the joy of baptizing several young ones, publicly welcoming them into the household of faith with the same initiation rite Jesus underwent as he began his ministry.  One of his final instructions to his disciples was for them to go out into the world & baptize in his name.  On All Saints' Day, new saints are initiated into the Church universal by baptism.  Did you know that a saint's day is determined by their death day, if we know it, for at their death they are baptized into the nearer presence of God? 

      All Saints' Day is not the time we remember those saints who don't get a day of their own in the church calendar but rather a recognition that many faithful people have gone before us, both famous ones & also those who are known only to those around them—families & friends—but whose faith was a witness to others in their lives.  Asked to name the biggest spiritual influence in their lives, it is remarkable how many people mention a grandparent who began his or her day in a rocking chair, Bible in hand, giving both day & concerns over to God's care.  Who might that person have been in your life?  Perhaps you are that person for someone close to you.  Saints aren't only those well-known folks who show up in stained glass windows but are also those otherwise anonymous persons through whose life others can glimpse God's work.

      Our children will lead us to the baptismal font today representing one of those more famous saints, some of whom are mentioned in the hymn we'll sing, "I sing a song of the saints of God."  Saintly characteristics the song mentions are patience, bravery, truth, & a love of God whose love for them gave them the strength to toil & fight & live & die in Jesus' name.  They did not rely on their own abilities but upon God's guidance & fortitude to live lives worthy of sainthood.  The third verse is quaint but essential, for it reminds us that saints are not just folks who lived in the past but are still among us, that we can meet them just about anywhere, & that we, too, can aspire to be saints.  I pray this song always reminds us that we Christians are in the process of putting on sainthood as we live lives of integrity &, thank God, joy!

      God is the primary actor in the drama which we enact at the font today.  We are "God with skin on" as we baptize & name & anoint each of these children, marking them as Christ's own for ever, as the baptismal rite says.  Parents & godparents & other family members promise to be the primary teachers in rearing their children as God-lovers, but we in the larger community vow to be the second line of support, forming a fellowship in which it is safe for them to try out who it is Christ is calling them to be, practicing their Christian vocation to which we're all called.  Notice that we're all called to renew the Baptismal Covenant, the sacred promises to continue to grow in belief & to pass those beliefs on to others, especially the youth in our community.

      The covenant begins with our joint recognition of the Apostles' Creed which includes our belief in the holy catholic or universal Church & in the communion of saints.  Then we make five promises with the phrase "I will, with God's help."  We agree to continue to worship & fellowship & study & pray with one another, & that vow is a description of how the early church grew.  We recognize that all of us sin & fall short of the glory of God, & even our most revered saints were rascals who did vile things at times, so we promise that when we fall into sin, we will repent & return to God.  Sometimes we need each other even to recognize the sin, much less to have the courage to admit it, ask for forgiveness, & continue in the process toward sainthood.  In fact, our third vow is to show by the way we live our lives as well as by what we say the Good News Christ brought us.  One of our best- known & loved saints, St. Francis, instructed us to "Preach the Gospel at all times; when necessary, use words." 

      The last two promises are those which perhaps separate the saints from the riff-raff, so to speak, for we promise to actually seek out those we can serve, recognizing that Christ is in them as well as in ourselves.  They are our neighbors, & whether we like them or not, we are to love them, to treat them as if we were welcoming Christ into our midst.  Another early saint, St. Augustine of Hippo, tells us that each of us has a God-shaped space in our hearts & that our souls are restless until we find God.  When such love seems impossible, we can recall that we have responded to these vows with, "I will, with God's help."  I have to tell you that sometimes I just have to get the me out of the way & let God love that annoying other person.  Perhaps I am the annoying person to someone else.

      Finally, we are called to pray & work for justice & peace among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being.  Now I know that some people don't behave in a dignified way, & sometimes it's difficult to respect them when they don't appear to respect themselves.  However, this is Christ's call to us, & once again, we don't get to pick & choose which of these vows are comfortable or convenient.  We must, with God's help.  This vow is often lived out in the public arena: caring for others by contributing to causes we believe in, volunteering with organizations we support, making meaningful financial commitments to our faith community & fulfilling them,  voting for those candidates who will hold the public good as more important than their own partisan well-being, & holding elected & appointed officials accountable for the decisions they make for the whole constituency.  If you have not already voted, you are vowing in a few minutes to do so thoughtfully, prayerfully, & knowledgeably. 

      Our Baptismal Covenant is the bedrock of how we live & grow lifelong as Christians but also how we bring up our young ones in the Christian faith.  These children are our children, & we celebrate the privilege of forming their primary faith community.  Alleluia!