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Epiphany 1 Lesson: Isaiah 43:1-7
Sunday, January 9, 2010 Psalm 29
The Rev. Canon Richard Callaway Epistle: Acts 8:14-17
St. James’ Church, Marietta Holy Gospel: Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
In the Name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Good morning. I am Rick Callaway and the reason I am here is because this is my job. (There is a little more to it than that.) I serve your Bishop as Assistant to the Bishop, and it falls upon me to come and be present in parishes when the lead clergy, when the Rector retires or resigns to go off to another position. I am called Canon to the Ordinary, which is one of those wonderful church titles, but it does not really mean anything to anybody until you impress them with it. If I do something sort of odd, I say I can do that because I’m Canon to the Ordinary! The reason I am here as Canon to the Ordinary, or Assistant to the Bishop, is to be with you on this day as we begin the transition of ministry in this place, as your previous rector has retired and now we set up a search process and begin to look for one who is to come.
I was at the Forum just a little earlier and had a wonderful interchange with the group who were there. We have lots of good things to look forward to as we move forward in this season of transition for you.
It also falls, and this happens to me a lot, about this time of year. People retire, or choose to retire at the end of the calendar year, so I end up in parishes in January. I get an opportunity, then, to preach on this particular set of lessons. These particular set of lessons have to do with the baptism of our Lord. In all our years of our cycle, we hear from Matthew, Mark & Luke about the baptism of our Lord. This is the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord. It begins with us in this season of Epiphany because in Epiphany when we begin with the baptism of Jesus, when we lead him into the Epiphany season, we talk about the gathering of the community of the disciples, the community of the faithful. It begins with baptism – quite properly, the baptism of Jesus. Then we work ourselves through the next several weeks of lessons in the gathering of the disciples who come to be the part of the community of faith.
It starts with baptism. Baptism for Jesus was immersion into the rite and ritual of Israel. Baptism existed before Jesus. Baptism became a Christian rite or sacrament as it was incorporated into the community of faith, because of its significance for Jesus, as God announces from heaven, “This is my Beloved,” as well as for a sign of the coming of the Kingdom, “Listen to him.”
He gathered his disciples after that baptism.
I reflect on my baptism at this time, and I invite you to reflect on yours, if you have been baptized or you are about to be baptized, or you are thinking about it. Today would be a good day. We have water. We are ready. We can do this.
I was baptized in the Episcopal Church for a couple of reasons: (1) my mother won the battle; and (2) God broke the furnace in the Presbyterian Church. My dad was a Presbyterian; we were going to be baptized in the Presbyterian Church, but the furnace broke. It was a cold day, like today. So they did not want to take us to be baptized there. As time and my mother would prevail, and we will say the Holy Spirit had a hand in it, then I became a baptized person in the Episcopal Church. I thin my brother was baptized with me, but I am not absolutely sure. We were both very young. We did not know it, but we were being baptized.
How did we learn about our baptism? We learned about our baptisms as we got a little older because we were taken to church and learned that the people in that community of faith were important to us. They were our Sunday School teachers and more than that, they were the folks who we saw as we moved around in town. They watched us; they kept an eye on us and not only did they speak to our parents on our behalf, but they would speak to us. We were brought up knowing we were baptized, not because of some event of water, but because it was announced to us by the actions of the community of faith around us that we were baptized.
We were baptized rather privately. It was a Sunday afternoon, no one there but the priest and my parents and godparents. It was in a church in Bluefield, Virginia, southwest Virginia, St. Mary’s. You could take that whole church and put it in this room. That small community of faith surrounded us in our lives, and we knew that we were a part of that community of faith when we went off to school, when we got our driver’s licenses, when we began to date, when we went off to college, and when we came home from college. We knew it when we prepared to enter into our careers, we knew it all of our lives. We still know it to this day, as we hear from those who were around us in that formative community.
You, St. James’, are that formative community for those who will be baptized today and for all of us who are renewing our baptismal covenant, in stating and restating the promises that were made for us and that we accept for ourselves now. This community of faith is important to us as individuals, to itself as a community of faith, and to those who are around us in this community in which we live.
You think of the crowds that were with Jesus. There were crowds there. Lots of folks came out to receive this baptism, and lots of folks witnessed this, and then lots of folks traveled with Jesus. That crowd which you are in, and I found myself in, has expanded itself. It is much larger now, much more anonymous, much more demanding, much more into our lives. I am speaking of Facebook, texting, and all of the aspects of our lives that expand the community that we are in. Indeed, the Church today has a voice in that.
My recent experience in community was just last night through to this morning. My wife and I were at a party in Roswell and we got a call from our daughter in Macon who said, “I’m on the way to the hospital; the baby’s coming!” Great news! Our fourth grandchild! So we took off, drove to Macon and stayed as long as I could, but at 2:30 this morning, Carson came into the world and I have a picture of him on my Blackberry! Yes, grandparents! Amazing community that we now live in, that was just a few people, but now it is such a crowd of witnesses.
That crowd of witnesses today is witnessing these baptisms, but also witnessing to a world outside of ourselves. What in the world are they doing – this holy baptism, this ancient rite of washing yourself for the forgiveness of sins and incorporating ourselves into the life of Christ. What is that all about?
There is a world out there that knows it not, that does not know the Good News that comes along with this baptism that I can proclaim – not because the water stuck, but because the community in its life in Christ, stuck with me, nurtured me and brought me along.
Today we remember and we re-new ourselves as baptized people. This anamnesis, which we call the Holy Eucharist, which is bread and wine until we remember that Christ did that for us, is also a baptismal anamnesis, when we re-remember our baptisms so that we might be renewed as a community of faith.
Here, what is holy is that God is invited into this. Indeed, I think it is the other way also that God invites us into it – as individuals, as tiny creatures, waiting to burst forth into the wholeness of life that has been given to them, and that is promised them in Jesus Christ. Brought forth from God as a community of faith, we have this whole world to proclaim this Good News to, through our nurture of one another and these new people. May it be for us to the Glory of God that as we baptize these people, we, too, are renewed as a community of faith here at St. James’, right of the Square. May it all be to the Glory of God. Amen.
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