June 20, 2004
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I want to invite us to think for a few minutes about baptism
and the way it ushers us into membership. How one becomes a member of the church is important for us
today because we want people to know how it is that others can join us in our
worship and in the work of building and growing this church. It is also
important because what is required for worship is central to the message Paul
wants to share with the Galatians. Paul was the founding pastor and teacher of
the churches at Galatia. Paul had worked hard to establish the church in Galatia.
He told the people there the good news of Jesus Christ; he instructed them in
the ways of worship and music, he helped them understand the rituals of
remembering Jesus at the table, and through baptism and stewardship. Now Paul is concerned that the Galatians have fallen under
the influence of some people who have many of them convinced that their entry
into the church had been incomplete. It seems that some teachers have come into the church with an
added obligation for membership in the church. They said to the Galatians who
were Gentile believers, and not Jews many of the followers of Jesus, that in
order for them to be Christian, they first had to keep the law of Moses. In
other words, before they could become Christians they had to become Jews. That
meant that the Gentile women would have to observe a time of monthly separation
and purification, and Gentile men would have to be circumcised. And you can
almost hear these teachers add, “and who is Paul anyway. He used to persecute
the church, where does he get the authority to say anything about the church?”
Paul surely feels as if the very thing God has called him to do has been
attacked; his worthiness to be an apostle, to be one who has been sent out by
Christ has been damaged. It is easy to relate to Paul if you ever poured your heart
and soul into project, only to have people come and tell you that you didn’t
do it correctly. It is like the time you sang a solo in worship and you believed
in your heart that you had done it well, as Theo and Elizabeth and Elizabeth and
Ellen did today. God was glorified and you felt good. Imagine then, if someone
did what no one here would ever do, what if someone said, “well you know, that
was good as far as it went, but I heard a record with Mahalia Jackson singing
that same song, maybe one day you will learn how to do it as well as she did”.
You brought your prize pound cake to the church picnic, it
was delicious, but it turned bitter in your mouth when someone said, “I see
you cover your cake with a pineapple glaze. If you really wanted to do it the
way it is supposed to be done, you would know that it is better with a butter
glaze. When you know what you are doing, bring another cake”. It does not surprise us that Paul begins his letter with a
vigorous defense of his call: “Paul, an apostle – sent neither by human
commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the
Father, who raised him from the dead – and all the members of God’s family
who are with me, to the churches of Galatia: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the
present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father to whom be the
glory forever and ever. Amen” (1.1-5). And then Paul gets to the point. “I
AM ASTONISHED THAT YOU ARE SO QUICKLY DESERTING THE ONE WHO CALLED YOU IN THE
GRACE OF CHRIST AND ARE TURNING TO A DIFFERENT GOSPEL – NOT THAT THERE IS
ANOTHER GOSPEL, BUT THERE ARE SOME WHO ARE CONFUSING YOU AND WANT TO PERVERT THE
GOSPEL OF CHRIST” (1. 6-7). The
different gospel required the law of Moses be kept. Paul says the good news of
Jesus Christ is that we are freed from the law so that we can live by grace.
Understand that it was not the case that Paul, who like Jesus was raised and
steeped in the law, believed that the laws and the commandments and dietary
instructions were irrelevant – they really did and still do provide structure
for faith and for daily living. It is that for Paul, God’s grace – that gift
of love and hope given through Christ is greater even than the law. For Paul,
the law restricts, it is like a disciplinarian whose job is to watch over us
“until Christ came” (3.24). In Paul’s day a disciplinarian was not the nearest adult in
the room, who punishes you and then tells your parents how you misbehaved in
Sunday school. In Paul day, “disciplinarian” refers to a particular kind of
household slave, one who was charged with overseeing the behavior of a boy on
his way to school and back. The disciplinarian had a largely protective role and
his services were temporary, no longer needed when the boy attained manhood” (Texts
for Preaching – Year C. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994, p.
396). Paul wants to remind the church in Galatia and this one that
it is a new day and he uses two little words to tell us that our days of
requiring a disciplinarian/guardian are over. “But now”. All that has gone
before us is truly in the past. “But now”, the discipline that was imposed
from outside now is a matter of inner spiritual obedience. “But now”, we are
disciples, learners and followers of the very one sent by God to show us how to
love, live, and liberate ourselves from all that holds us down and holds us
back. “But now”, faith has come and we have a new relationship
with Christ Jesus, through Christ Jesus, and in Christ Jesus. “But now”,
what holds us together, what makes us one is that we belong to God. “But
now”, each one of us who names the name of Christ, each of us on the journey
seeking a relationship with him as healer of hurts, friend in loneliness, a warm
and gentle embrace in times of fear and grief, the one who is present when no
one else is, is a child of God. Part of what it means for us to be the church, is that we
have entered into new and renewing relationships with God and with one another.
And for Paul, that relationship reaches a high point when we are baptized. One
way of understanding the ritual of washing and cleansing with water was that
Christians symbolically die to their sins and former lives, a death they share
with Christ, and are buried with him; as they rise from baptism in purity, they
share the new life brought by Jesus’ resurrection (Romans
6.1-4). So baptism may be compared to new birth (John
3.4-5)” (Harper’s
Bible Dictionary. San Francisco: Harper & Row. 1985, p. 92-93). Something happens as we come out of the water. When we’re
baptized, we put on Christ. When
Paul talks about being clothed in Christ, he is making a reference to early
Christian baptism practices. “The reference to being ‘clothed with Christ’
is probably an allusion to a feature of early Christian baptismal [worship].
Persons being baptized removed their garments, were baptized naked, and then put
on a new white garment, signifying the new life they were entering; [it is also
true that] to be clothed with some
quality or attribute is to take on the characteristics of that in which one is
clothed” (New
Interpreter’s Bible. Nashville. Abingdon. 2000, p. 272). Actors say that when they put on their costumes, they become
the characters they play. The one playing Napoleon struts a little as he walks
around the set. The woman portraying Juliet becomes young and vulnerable when
she dresses to go on stage. Every actor portraying Martin Luther King, Jr.
becomes a bit more serious when he puts on the costume including the black suit
or work clothes King often wore. We put on Christ. He loved God; we love God. He cared for the
state of the least and the lost among us, and so do we. Jesus Christ was a
teacher and servant. Our call is to teach the good news we know and then serve
the world. It is what the church does. When we are baptized, we see people in new ways. This
congregation has a great start on being the church Paul describes, we like to
say that this congregation looks like heaven, because all kinds of God’s
people are here, and we want more. Paul declares the new vision and is bold to
declare among the baptized, there is neither Jew nor Greek; neither slave nor
free; neither male nor female. It
is not that nationality, or social status, or the gift of gender does not matter
any more, it is that our status as important as it is does not offer the final
definition of who we are. God is doing a new thing here, among everyone –
especially women. One writer puts it this way: “If the church is to be a sign
and foretaste of the new creation, it must be a community in which gender
distinctions – like the ethnic and social distinctions noted in the first two
parts of the formula – have lost their power to divide and oppress. This does
not mean that those who are in Christ cease to be men or women, any more than
the male members of the community cease to be circumcised or uncircumcised.
Rather, it means that these distinctions no longer determine our identity
markers; they are no longer a ground for status or exclusion” (New
Interpreter’s Bible, p. 273). Our identity markers are our baptism and our oneness in
Christ. They are signs that the promise to Abraham and his offspring is a
promise to us. We will share in all that God has for the world. Because we are
baptized in Christ’s name, we will be clothed in Christ, changed through
Christ, and claimed by Christ, living for Christ. And as we are, the church will
be renewed. Let this be the day we remember our baptismal vows. I
certainly remember mine. It was a warm October day in Southern California in the early
60’s. Enoch Henry preached a sermon whose title I do not recall. I do remember
that somewhere in the sermon he did a really simple thing that has challenged me
ever since. Some of you have seen others do this. He asked us to imagine a piece
of paper with the letters CH written on it. Then he asked us to imagine a little
bit of space on the paper and then the letters CH again. If you write it down it
will look like this CH_____CH. He went on to say that each member of the church had an
opportunity to fill in the blank space because the “church can’t exist
unless “UR” (you are). Put all together, the letters spell the word church.
His point was that unless we are here worshiping, learning, giving, teaching,
working, singing, praying, caring, unless you are, the church cannot be. Then he did what he always did. He ended his sermon by
walking down the chancel steps, and into the aisle, extending his hand and
saying, this church needs you, won’t you come? Give me your hand and God your
heart, won’t you come? Don’t delay, won’t you come? I knew it was time. I walked up to him and declared that I
was ready to be baptized. He asked two questions, do you believe that Jesus is
the Christ, the son of the living God? And because I said yes I did, he then
asked if I was willing to buried with Christ in baptism, to rise and walk in the
newness of life. And so I met with him during the week and was baptized the next
Sunday. Even then I knew that baptism meant that I was in a new relationship
with Christ. I grew up in a congregation in which people addressed each other as
brother and sister, because we all belonged to Jesus Christ. It meant that I was
able at last to receive communion, because in that congregation, baptism was a
prerequisite for participation in the Lord’s Supper. But mostly, baptism meant
a period of church membership and discipleship had begun, and it has continued
to this day. Today, as the hymn of invitation and discipleship is played
you are urged to come join me at the foot of the chancel. You are urged to come
either as a candidates for baptism, you are urged to come as one already
baptized, and if you were baptized as an infant, confirmed in your faith that
Jesus is the Christ. As you come, we will be joined by the elders for prayer and
welcomed into this household of faith. Then you will have the opportunity to sit
with me and others for a series of classes on what it means to be a member of
Broad Street Christian Church. This is indeed the day to remember that we are baptized. If
that day for baptism has not yet come, pray and reflect, and discern whether God
is preparing you even now. If you are ready come now. We are promised a
connection with God through Jesus Christ that cannot be broken. As we find
connection with him, may we be renewed, and may Jesus Christ be praised. Thanks
be to God.
Amen. Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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