Renewing our Baptism and Renouncing Evil

January 10, 2021 The Feast of the Baptism of Jesus Christ Church, Exeter Renewing our Baptism and Renouncing Evil My plan today was to talk about baptism, today being the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, always the first Sunday after the Epiphany. If gathered for in-person worship, chances are we would baptize a baby or two as we did last year. And we would reaffirm our baptismal vows. This morning, I will still talk about baptism. And we will reaffirm our baptisms. But out of necessity -- in the light of events this past week at our nation's capital - I invite us to connect our baptisms to the world around us. It is right and natural to see and make this connection, for we do not believe or think or live in a vacuum devoid of history, conflict and experience. Christ became incarnate in this world. He was flesh and blood. In his short life, this carpenter's son -- or day laborer as some scholars like to refer to him as -- was sure to have known what it was like to work hard physically and to get tired. In the wilderness of temptation, he knew hunger and thirst. He faced betrayal by one of his own, Judas. He felt grief and loss when he heard the news that his mentor and cousin John the Baptist had been brutally killed by Herod, and he cried opening with Mary and Martha at the seeming death if his friend and their brother Lazarus. His anger bubbled over when we met corruption head-on and overturned the money changers in the Temple. Ultimately, he was tried, judged and killed by the power of Empire on the cross - crucified between two common criminals. This brief recap of Jesus' life is meant to remind us that what he saw, we see -- what he heard, we hear. He was baptized, and we are baptized. He encountered evil and darkness and it was not until the third day when he was raised that it was clear to anyone that death had not won -- that evil did not triumph, and that light and love and justice and hope would stand a chance against the darkness. When we hear of darkness or terror, bombings, mass shootings, earthquakes, wars or famines, what do we imagine God saying? When see injustice or cruelty, what is God saying? People ask all the time: how could a loving God let this or that happen...? Scripture tells us that God is ever present and ever speaking. In our Psalm 29 today: The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the voice of the Lord is a powerful voice; The voice of the Lord breaks the cedar trees; The voice of the Lord splits the flames of fire; the voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; the voice of the Lord makes the oak trees writhe and strips the forests bare. As Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordon River, again a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." Jesus said, "let anyone with ears listen!" Matthew 11:15. 'Beloved' is a penetrating and strong word. It is directed at those who are loved with an enduring love that knows no beginning or end. It was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who used the phrase to expand from one person to entire community, the Beloved Community, to describe his core belief that "racism, bigotry and prejudices will one day be replaced 'by an all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood' and that 'poverty, hunger and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it.'" He had a dream of a more Christ-like world. Our work towards becoming a Beloved Community, however halting and incomplete, took a significant hit again this past week for all the world to see. There has been much commentary on what we saw and heard in Washington this past Wednesday. What was your reaction when you saw the rioters enter the halls of the Capitol building? Horror? Disgust? Anger? It was surreal: unreal. The unimaginable sight of Confederate flags being carried through the halls. Five people dead including a police officer. The world watching with a mixed of sadness, embarrassment, and in some corners: glee. The lack of protection at the Capitol's perimeter compared to the massive show of military force during the Black Lives Matter protests this past June -- many saw that difference in the first moments of the mob attack. Noted activist Professor Cornell West has said: "The country is in deep trouble. We've forgotten that a rich life consists fundamentally of serving others, trying to leave the world a little better than you found it. We need the courage to question the powers that be, the courage to be impatient with evil and patient with people, the courage to fight for social justice. In many instances we will be stepping out on nothing, and just hoping to land on something. But that's the struggle. To live is to wrestle with despair, yet never allow despair to have the last word." What is our work after the events of this past week? The nation is divided. What can we do, each one of us, to bring about some matter of healing? Can our baptisms be a guide? For we promise to resist evil, and, whenever we fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord? It may indeed be an ancient formula and is often hard to de-code, but each candidate for baptism, or each parent or godparent renounces Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God, renounces the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God, renounce all sinful desires that draw you from the love of God? In so doing we are saying that there is darkness and evil in our world. What I saw for all to see on Wednesday was darkness, alienation, manipulation, agitation, and evil intent on full display. Will we have the courage, as Cornell West challenges us, to be impatient with evil and patient with people? I admit that my patience with people is not always Jesus-like. I have closed out contact with one-time friends who posts on social media were giving me more heartburn that I would be happy to admit. The distance of the platform didn't help. After Wednesday, watching the escalating violence and the true anger in the faces of the rioters, I hope that patience will come with God's help. How does one listen to those whose views can seem at times irrational, extremist, delusional and dangerous? (Let me up-front with whatever bias and experience I bring to this observation). How do we bring back the lost into the flock of community when they are so self-alienated and angry? I don't know, to be honest. But I pray that we can. I am sure it will feel, in the words of Dr. West, as if "we are stepping out on nothing, and just hoping to land on something." And that something can hold us and give us courage. Let me conclude with some of the language we have been using in the last month or two in our Morning Prayer for an Affirmation of Faith. The words remind us how and why God's voice is still being spoken in our world today and we try to listen amidst all the noise and distractions. We believe in God, One Who Walked with Us: Our Brother Jesus born in humility, who lived and died for us. We believe in God, Spirit with Us: Ever present and ever guiding, upholding us and showing us the principles to live by. We hear God's voice through the prophets. We are named in the waters of baptism as your own, all of us related, all of us your children.