|
First
Reading
|
Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
| Jeremiah
23:1-6 |
89:20-28 |
Ephesians
2:11-22 |
Mark
6:30-34, 53-56 |
Parents
learn very quickly that children do not come with an instruction
book tied to their toe. Rather there is a tremendous learning experience
ahead for both parent and child. The future is not all mapped out
or clear. It is a vision we all grow into as we go along. Baptism
is a commitment of parents, guardians and family to help shape and
support this future within a community of faith.
Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians
about the wall of hostility between Gentile and Jew. This wall
was a formidable one. It involved cultural, geographical, and
economic differences, as well as religious. Most biblical scholars
suggest that Paul was not only writing to a Christian community
of the Roman Empire in the seaport of Ephesus, Paul was writing
to the broader church scattered throughout the Mediterranean.
He was reminding sharply differing groups of people that Jesus
had included them; that they were now part of a larger body and
were not excluded from God's family. It was a radical step for
its day and the early church had to grow into it. There were many
stumbles and mistakes on the way and the process of integrating
Christians of Jewish background with Christians of a range of
Gentile background was not without struggle.
Paul's vision of Jesus’ breaking
down the wall of hostility was based on the conditions of his
time. Despite its circumstantial limitations, it serves as an
analogy of what people of faith are usually called to do. The
vision of a new humanity, of reconciliation among groups with
a long history of separation, of peace to people far and people
near, of a world where people were no longer regarded suspiciously
as strangers and aliens is a noble vision for our time. We don't
have to deal with the food issues that so consumed the early Christians,
but we are called to ask what are the walls of hostility that
separate people today. Does the way we communicate the Gospel
create more or fewer walls? What part of the history of alienation
and separation today do we own up to?
In Paul's world of the first century and
for centuries afterwards, walled towns were a given. An actual
city without walls would have been ridiculed as impossible to
survive in. Actually for most of human history in the past thousand
years, a good deal of the world’s population has lived in
cities surrounded by gates and fortifications. They knew no other
way of living and being able to protect themselves. While we still
have gated communities in the United States, for the most part
we live in communities without walls. This doesn’t mean that
we are significantly less safe than our ancestors who lived in
fortified towns, but it does mean that we have been able to change
the conditions that called for actual walls. New visions have
breached these walls.
That, I suggest, is a worthy task for
people of faith. Yes, our dreams are too small, but as long as
we are open to dreaming we can allow them to emerge Our children's
dreams and our children's children’s dreams will be larger,
and that's OK.
In the Gospel readings for the past weeks,
Jesus has been teaching his disciples, not simply what needed
to be done immediately, but to look beyond the horizon, to be
willing to grow into what would need to be accomplished. Jesus
turned no one away. There were no walls where the Good News stopped.
By his example Jesus clearly showed the disciples that the most
challenging years for discipleship lay ahead.
That's what every baptism tells us. The
most challenging times for this parish and for us as a dynamic
and vital community inevitably lie ahead of us. Whatever we call
the good old days, wonderful new days of witness for succeeding
generations lie ahead. Baptism is a sign of hope in the future;
not necessarily the future we would create, but the future God
leads us towards. Therefore, we don't give instructions, we offer
hope for an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to persevere,
and a gift of joy and wonder in all God's works.
And
I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
