Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Epiphany 1 / Year C
If you read what I wrote in the E-News this
past Friday, you already know one of the greatest occupational hazards of being
clergy is the tendency to collect a lot – and I mean A LOT! – of
certificates. I have framed and hanging
on the wall of my office the following:
·
A
certificate from Virginia Theological Seminary indicating I earned a Master in
Divinity degree.
·
A
certificate from the Diocese of Ohio indicating I am an ordained Deacon in the
Episcopal Church.
·
Another
certificate from Ohio indicating I am an ordained Priest.
·
A
certificate from the Diocese of Virginia know as a Letter of Institution giving
me the authority to serve as the Rector of the Church of the Epiphany in
Richmond.
·
A
certificate from Union Theological Seminary indicating I earned a Doctor of
Ministry degree.
·
And
finally, a Letter of Institution from this diocese giving me the authority to
serve as Rector of St. Paul’s.
And, as
if all this isn’t enough, I also have framed invitations to both of my
ordinations. The diocesan certificates
for ordination and institution are each signed by the bishop who presided at
the service. Each bears the mark in wax
of the bishop’s signet ring, which is a nice, quaint little touch.
I’ve
started to wonder what will happen to all these certificates when I retire and
no longer have an office. Will I want to
display them in my home? Probably
not. And even more, what will happen to
them when I am called to my heavenly home?
Will anybody want to hang them anywhere?
Again, probably not. At best,
someone might want to recycle the frames and matting, but who knows.
These
certificates seem to be designed on the premise the bigger the document the
more prestigious the thing it proclaims.
How interesting then the two most important certificates I have are not
framed, not on display, and not very large.
They are my birth certificate (an achievement I had little to do with)
and my baptismal certificate (again, my part involved being held and getting my
head wet). The birth certificate indicates
the date and place of my birth, but fails to record my parent’s surprise that
after the birth of a daughter a son was in route just two minutes behind. The OB had not shared with them his hutch my
mother was carrying twins. The baptismal
certificate again mentions the date (December 29, 1959), place (Sheridan
Community Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh), and officiant (Rev. Alfred C.
Peterson). It does not indicate my mood
or behavior at the ceremony, but I am confident I was “the cutest baby EVER!”).
My birth
certificate indicates who I am and to
which family I was born. My baptismal
certificate indicates whose I
am. I am God’s!
I am not
the first preacher to observe if we had this right the baptismal certificate
would be the size of the ordination document and the ordination the size of the
baptismal. The Lutheran theologian Gordon
Lathrop states ordination merely gives a clergy person a place to stand in the
assembly and a function to perform. To
be in the assembly one must be baptized, and this, he says, is foremost,
primary.
From the
catechism of the prayer book we learn several things happen when we are
baptized (page 858):
·
We join with Christ in his death by dying
to the old life of sin.
·
We rise with Christ in his resurrection to
a new life of grace.
·
We receive the forgiveness of sins.
·
We are filled with the Holy Spirit.
·
We are spiritually birthed as members of
God’s family, the Church. It conveys
upon us full and complete membership in the household of God.
Notice
nowhere in the catechism does it indicate baptism means you will go to heaven
when you die. This sacrament is not
primarily about next life life insurance, although this is how many treat it...
“I am so relieved to have the baby done.”
Foremost
in baptism we are named and we are claimed.
This is what happens to Jesus as he rises out of the water. God speaks, “You are my Son (naming and
claiming), the beloved, with you I am well-pleased” (being known and being
loved).
Did you
pick up on how these themes are present in this morning’s reading from the
prophet Isaiah?
·
I am the God who created you.
·
I am the God who formed you.
·
I am the God who redeems you.
·
I have called you by name.
·
You are mine.
·
You are precious in my sight.
·
You are honored.
·
I love you.
This is
what your baptismal certificate proclaims about you. Can any other document, description, or accolade
be more significant than this?
Perhaps,
like me, you were baptized as an infant and have no recollection of the day or
its meaning. For people like us,
Confirmation serves as a sacramental moment when we have the opportunity to
make a mature profession of faith by stating we embrace the vows, promises, and
beliefs made by our baptismal sponsors.
Again,
many a youngster has been pushed into and through Confirmation as a rite of
passage or as a graduation from Sunday School.
If this is your story, has there been a moment since then when the
Christian faith became your own? Has
there been a time when you realized you have been named and claimed, known and
loved? It would be nice if this all fell
neatly in line in our life with the sacraments of baptism and confirmation, but
it often doesn’t (in spite of our best attempts).
Still,
this morning I invite you to revisit your own baptism. Do you have a certificate or any other item
documenting the occasion (a picture, a candle, a cross)? Compare you understanding of baptism with
what the Catechism teaches. Ponder to
what degree you embrace being named and claimed by God, being known by God and
being loved.
“You are
mine,” says the Lord, “I love you.”
