Year A - Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 7, 2023
Christening
Today we fold young Keira McManis into the household of God by baptism. We sometimes call it a christening, which literally means to make a Christ. By water, oil, and the presentation of a lighted candle, we make tangible the spiritual reality that Keira is dedicated to following Jesus by her parents’ and godmothers’ vows. Our Baptismal Covenant binds us with Christians of history and future.
In the first reading we hear about our forebear, Stephen, the first blood martyr of the Church. It is said the blood of martyrs watered the seed of the Church. Their sacrifice of life by sharing radical love and mercy led thousands to accept faith in Jesus.
We should admire them, but do not confuse their identity with our own. Being a Christian in Omaha, Nebraska is quite a different thing than being a Christian in first century Jerusalem under the Roman Empire or being martyrs across the globe today. In our context, Christians hold political, religious, and economic dominanceand are guilty of religious oppression.
Since Emperor Constantine gave Christians respectability, our faith can be used to bait sinful pride. The New Testament can be especially treacherous for our character if read without a healthy dose of humility.
Consider this verse from the author of the First Letter of Peter: “you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people.” It certainly makes me glow. I proclaim the mighty acts of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Pet 2:9). If I just swallow this verse as though it were true of me alone, I forget it is my darkness that covers the light of Christ.
The letter was not addressed to a Cathedral which is a spiritual anchor of our city. No, this is a panicked note to persecuted Jesus followers. Jewish Christians were being thrown out of synagogues, Gentile Christians were shunned from families and all lost employment, political leadership, and social standing. Baptism was costly, being marked as Christ’s own forever marginalized you from the mainstream.
The pastor writing this letter had no interest in beefing up my self-righteous toolbox, but to encourage persecuted believers. He tells them, “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people,” because in rejecting worship of the Emperor they were rejected by the Empire. Following Jesus bound them through affliction and also hope.
The author is a pastor painfully absent from his parish seeing their spiritual weariness. They expected the Final Resurrection immediately and its delay was painful.
Their doubt was not the threat, losing hope was the danger. Following the teachings of Jesus in all of life is the antidote he writes, in sacrificing ease, they will know peace.
If we are to claim the title Christian with them, and want to count ourselves among their chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation we must examine our lives. Are we worthy to be an example of faith to Keira? Are we loving in the face of insult and disrespect? When we are perplexed by the gap between the promise of Christ’s peace and the violence of the world, do we continue striving for God’s Commonwealth of love or throw up our hands in defeat?
With the relentless acts of gun violence this year, I confess I wanted to turn away. I take a break from the news on Saturdays so I can walk in these sacred doors with hope and joy, but the massacre yesterday in Texas and in the middle of this past week and last weekend and the many killings that just keep happening are too great a burden to avoid.
Like the martyrs before us, we cannot sidestep the evil in front of us. The work of interrupting gun violence here in Omaha and across our country cannot stop. Whether you strive to provide robust, immediate mental health for everyone, or pursue substantive action against domestic violence, or demand limits on possessing firearms for the common good, even when it interrupts our personal desire, we cannot just give up.
Being Christian is walking the Way of Jesus: Devoted to acts of Love for God; making choices to Love our neighbor as ourself; To change the world from the nightmare it often is into the dream God has for us all. This Christian way of life is a sacrificial way, placing our neighbors’ need before our desire. Like the author of first Peter, we are injured when our fellow Christians are injured. The Baptismal Covenant is not a get out of hell free card. We promise to act in a manner reflecting Jesus, adhering to his teachings as individuals and as an institution.
But do not leave here without hope in Christ’s light! We season the world with our efforts. This table is sustenance and our gathering sacred time of healing. The blood of Christian martyrs watered the seed of the gospel not because they suffered death,but showing sacrificial mercy and irrational peace. Their brave vulnerability to speak of the joy of being firm in following Jesus inspired conversion.
We need not shed blood for martyrdom. We must shed our pride, our social comfort, and our willful ignorance of evil.
Sow faith by honoring God’s love for you and love others equally. Sow faith by offering kindness and patience when it doesn’t make sense. Sow faith with private prayer and public action to protect the weak. It doesn’t matter the field you choose for mission, if we scatter seeds of faith, hope, and, above all, love, the Holy Spirit will bless our whole community with the harvest we reap. Amen.
Dean Vanessa Clark+