V & N—today you are going to affirm your baptisms. You are taking a greater responsibility for the relationship you have with Jesus Christ
—instead of your parents or Godparents holding onto the promises of at baptism—you will be saying,
“Yeah, that promise is true for me too…
yeah, that is the kind of spiritual life I hope to walk with God.”
And I want you to know something today about that Baptized life you will be confirming—affirming—
The Baptized Life is Truth and it is Freedom.
The Baptized Life is Truth and it is Freedom.
Prayer
The Baptized Life is Truth
It is truth about us…
On this Reformation Sunday, we ought to remember the opening lines of Luther’s 95 thesis:
"When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, 'Repent,' he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”
That doesn’t mean penitence—buying God off by being especially pious
—but being born again into the life of God
—isn’t that what our baptism is? Death and New Life!
A life of repentance is a simple recognition that we mess us, we… to use the language from scripture:
break relationship, sin, and are captured by forces we cannot control.
To use Luther’s language—we’re curved in on ourselves—selfishness is plainly present in our life.
Said another way we’re vulnerable and in need
and so we don’t show up with our best self.
Now, that can seem like mighty bad news, but it can be sort of freeing too…
-Think of all the excessive time and extravagant effort people put into portraying their life as perfect
—it never is, and that’s normal.
-Comparison—that thief of joy
—falls flat if we’re all in the same place,
all captive to sin and cannot free ourselves.
-Even Shame is put away,
replaced with humility and understanding
—we’re in the same boat.
And therefore, there is good news for everyone (to quote Luther again):
“God receives none but those who are forsaken,
restores health to none but those who are sick,
gives sight to none but the blind,
and life to none but the dead.
He does not give saintliness to any but sinners,
nor wisdom to any but fools.
In short: He has mercy on none but the wretched
and gives grace to none but those who are in disgrace.”
That is the truth about God:
God is gracious
—God acts first
—is giving
—is generous…
always seeks the least, the last, and the lost…
The whole Trinity is generous!
-In the beginning, God gave the gift of creation.
-Jesus generously joins us, God with us
—with us for his whole life and beyond.
-In the midst of dispersed and desperate disciples,
before the church can get its act together
the Spirit speaks holiness into the Church
—and continues to do so even to this day!
God never stops being gracious.
The Baptized Life is Freedom
The Lutheran way of being Christian can be suspicious
—you are almost obliged to ask
—if God is the active one,
what do we do?
We get to abide
—dwell with God
—lean on God’s chest like a newborn,
so that our heart beats with God.
The good we do is done not to pay off an angry creditor,
but out of gratitude!
Thankfulness is our starting point;
everything a joyous response!
Think of it
—threats don’t get results,
love does!
Think of that fable of the sun and the wind
—both want a man to take off his jacket:
the wind blows and blows and all that does it tighten the man’s grip on that jacket…
but then the sun comes out, and warms the man, until he takes off his jacket
and basks in the sun with joy!
So too this baptized life of ours!
We’re free!
We get to be Christian!
We get to!
It is freedom!
Freed to be disciples!
One of the dangers of the Baptized life
is that we can start to think of it as a sin management system…
It’s the idea that there is a sort of bait and switch
—God is gracious,
then once you’re friends with God,
God becomes a task master demanding perfection…
-sometimes this is as crass as the medieval indulgence system that Luther fought against,
-Other times it looks like the belief that God is a sort of omnipotent accountability partner,
-Or that the threat of hell is your new motivator to “be good”…
But being a disciple of Jesus is a dynamic relationship, not a system of self-control!
It is the ongoing unveiling of God’s love among our neighbors!
You hear the difference, right?
One sees Christian behavior as a series of discrete habits,
the other does things out of love of neighbor…
“I’m not going to cheat or lie, because I’m a Christian”
is different than
“I’m not going to cheat or lie because those things harm my neighbor…
who God loves, and I do too!”
It is freedom!
I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again,
I came to Lutheranism because of the grace, but I stick around because of Theology of the Cross
—God shows up in the opposite of where you’d expect him to show up
—the Blessed One on a cursed cross…
The God who shows up where we least expect him!
And that too is freeing
—we’re freed to be curious!
Freed to look for Christ,
after all he’s already found us!
Found us on the cross, born for us in the cradle.
He comes to us in the common things…
in Christian community,
a crust of bread and a sip of wine,
in word and in water!
God showing up for you in the waters of Baptism!
That’s what you’re affirming today N, V.
Truth about our vulnerability and need
and Truth about God’s trustworthiness.
Freed to dwell in the heartbeat of God,
disciples who love like Jesus,
always curious always seeking the one who has already found us
in the waters of Baptism.
A+A
