Baptism, Vocation and Community
Speaker: The Rev. Shearon Sykes Wiliams
The story of Jesus’ baptism is very important in our tradition, important enough that the occasion is marked by it’s own feast day. Every year, on the Sunday after Epiphany, we remember Jesus’ baptism and contemplate our own.
Matthew’s telling of Jesus’ baptism is a powerful one. As he comes up from the water, Jesus sees the heavens open and hears God saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” This story is a theophany, a manifestation of God in the human sphere. Theophanies are very important in the biblical witness. They are glorious and life-changing. They mark the beginning of something new and wonderful.
We think of God appearing to Moses in the burning bush. Moses was just walking along tending a herd of sheep and God spoke to him and told him he was going to lead the Israelites our of slavery to the promised land. We think of Mary, the mother of Jesus, a young, seemingly insignificant peasant girl receiving a visit from an angel and being told that she would bear God’s Son to the world.
These instances of God revealing God’s self to people are both exhilarating and challenging.
God does not appear to human beings just for the sake of giving them an otherworldly experience, as wonderful as that is. God intervenes in people’s lives for a purpose. God always has something for them to DO, something that will glorify God and help God’s people.
God anointed Jesus at his baptism. He was given power to live out his very particular vocation in the world. Jesus was given an extraordinary experience and he was also given his marching orders.
And what a glorious vocation it was. Jesus was given the power and authority to bring in the kingdom of God. He went about the Judean countryside preaching and teaching, healing the sick and bringing good news to the poor. And he changed the course of human history like no one had done before and no one has done since. Jesus had such a profound sense of purpose and he lived it out with deep resolve and fiery passion. God gave him that purpose and passion at his baptism and the world was changed forever.
That is what our baptism does for us. It gives us power to change the world in Jesus’ name. It manifests God’s glory to us and gives us our marching orders. Through the waters of baptism, we become aware of our identity as children of God and begin a life-long journey of discovering our vocation, our particular way of being in the world.
Frederick Buechner, the great theologian and preacher, said this about vocation. “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
Each of us is called to ask this question of ourselves. Where is my deep gladness? Where is my deep gladness and where does it meet a deep hunger in the world? Both are important- the gladness AND the hunger.
Next Sunday, 11 people will be confirmed or received into the Episcopal Church or reaffirm their faith here at Saint George’s. They will recommit to their baptismal promises, making a mature confession of faith. My prayer is that they will remember their baptisms and see the heavens open and hear God telling them, “This is my daughter, this is my son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Becoming aware of God’s very particular and personal love for us is foundational for everything. If we do not have that knowledge, we are rudderless and lost on a sea of the chances and changes of life. Awareness of God’s unconditional love for us is supremely important. It is the greatest gift that we can give our children and it is the greatest gift we can give ourselves. If we base our sense of well-being exclusively on our family or our work or sports, what happens when someone dies or our job ends or we get injured? Faith is what holds us together when everything else is falling apart. Faith makes us whole. And an essential ingredient in that wholeness is coming to understand who we are in Christian community. It’s not just about our individual relationship with God, as important as that is. It is about getting in touch with our belovedness within the context of the beloved community of God’s people.
That journey of discovery begins with our baptism. Baptism is our commissioning. And we are called to claim the power of that moment and go forth with passion and joy to serve God and others in our unique way.
Every one of us has a particular vocation and so do churches. The universal (capital C) Church has the vocation of inviting people into relationship with God. The Episcopal Church has the vocation of being a “via media” denomination, the middle way between the Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions. And Saint George’s Episcopal Church has the vocation of inviting people into a relationship with God in a particularly inclusive way.
When I think about all of the ways we are living out our vocation as a faith community here at Saint George’s my heart is filled, overflowing really, with gladness. We have been richly blessed this past year in many ways, and especially in two very particular ways. Firstly, we were blessed that our vestry discerned and acted on a call to re-establish the full-time Associate Rector position. Why? Because we have experienced so much growth and vitality in our parish in the last few years and we want to continue to support what God is doing here. Stepping out in faith to respond to the Spirit’s promptings in the way we manifest our deep gladness and meet the world’s hunger. And all of us have been filled with joy that John is with us to help us live out our Saint George’s vocation more fully.
Secondly, after having discerned a call to explore possibilities for renovating our building several years ago, the vestry recently funded a contract with an architectural firm to assess our buildings and provide conceptual drawings by late spring of this year. This is the first phase of a process that will enable us to do a renovation at some point in the future. Why? Because we want our building, and particularly our worship spaces, to manifest our deep gladness and to meet the deep hunger of the world around us. We are doing that already and we want to live out our vocation even more fully-going where God is calling us to go, one step at the time.
The world hungers for an inclusive Christian community such as ours that is firmly rooted in a rich tradition that takes us all the way back to Jesus and before. We all hunger for a place to come together to experience theophanies, to be lifted out of our everyday lives to experience God’s glory so that we an go back into our daily lives with that radiance still shining forth. We come together in this sacred place to get in touch with our deep gladness, the gladness that comes from realizing that we are all God’s beloved sons and daughters. And learning –together- to live out of that place in our daily lives.
Deep gladness comes from gathering to experience the beauty of worship, beauty that reflects God’s glory. Deep gladness comes from knowing that we are not alone and that God has vitally important and particular work for each of us to do individually and together. Deep gladness comes from meeting the world’s hunger with the boundless love of God.
“…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.”
Resources:
Feasting on the Word, Year A, Vol 1, pp 236-241. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors. Louiville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010.
Quote on vocation: http://frederickbuechner.com (originally published in Wishing Thinking.