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Our first
lesson today is called an “epistle” lesson. The letter to the
Ephesians is just one of several “epistles” that the early church
believed gave such good counsel to growing Christians, that it
became part of what we call the New Testament. This letter
instructs new followers of Christ how to be better disciples.
As such, this lesson from Ephesians is a wonderful gift to Anabelle,
who is being baptized today. So I decided to write a letter to
her myself, on behalf of all of us in the church. Maybe my
advice to her will be a reminder to us all of what our baptism into
Christ means for us and for others. Here is my letter:
Dear Anabelle Rose,
In a very special part
of our worship today, you will be baptized. I’d like to
imagine that you’ll remember something about it, but you probably
won’t. So I hope someone who loves you gives you this letter
from us, your first pastor and your first church.
Pastors often give
advice, and we quite predictably often talk in three’s-you‘ll see
that for yourself when you start listening to sermons in
church. Since you’re so small, today I’m going to give
you three simple pieces of advice, just tow words each: First,
“pray always;” second, “be ready;” and third, “stand up.” Now
I want to tell you what each of these three little phrases means to
me.
My first advice is
this, Anabelle: “Pray Always.” That word, “pray,” is a
verb. Maybe you’ve learned about verbs in school. And
maybe you’ve learned that this particular form of the verb is called
the “imperative.” That’s because it’s something that the
speaker wants or expects you to do. “Do this!” the imperative
instructs us, with a big exclamation point. This particular
imperative, “pray,” is something the author of Ephesians tells his
readers to do three different times in our short lesson for
today: “pray in the Spirit at all times,” he says first.
Then “pray also for me…” he says. And finally, “pray that I
might declare the [gospel] boldly…” (Ephesians 6:18-20, New Revised Standard Version)
This writer really thinks it’s a good idea
to pray. Anabelle, do you wonder why we’re told to pray?
I think it’s because praying keeps us in touch with God.
Praying always helps us remember God is in charge, and we are
not. Chevy Chase, a famous funny man from my generation, used
to make us laugh by saying, “I’m Chevy Chase, and you’re not.”
Praying is one way of reminding ourselves that God is God, and we
are not.
Here’s the thing
Anabelle, it is okay that you don’t remember your baptism. In
fact, maybe forgetting that moment is a good thing because you
baptism isn’t as much about you as it is about God. Though you
are the center of attention at your baptism today, the ritual we
call “baptism” is not really about you. Your baptism, like
every baptism before or since, is about God. Your baptism is
about how God claims you and loves you, and always will. Your
baptism is a reminder that, just as your parents loved you from
before your birth, so does God. You are deeply connected to
God. We hope you will remember this connection. Here are
two little words to help you: Pray always.” As safe as
your parents make your life now, some day you will leave them, and
us. One day you may find yourself confused, or afraid, or
lost. That has certainly happened to us. To prepare for
that time, “pray always.”
And, Anabelle, as
important as prayer is, I have another instruction: “be
ready.” I know your parents, so I know that your parents are
going to do everything they can to help you grow up strong and
straight and healthy. They’ll give you food, and a home, and
lessons in how to live. They want to give you their faith
too. They know that having a strong faith is as important as
having a healthy body. Today they promise to teach you the
faith. Today’s lesson helps them, and all of us, remember how
important that teaching is. Today’s lesson used a word
picture, an image, what we call a metaphor, to remind us how
important it is to learn and to trust our faith. The author of
the letter to the Ephesians said, “Put on the whole armor of God.”
(Ephesians 6:11, NRSV) I like that picture, do you, Anabelle? People who
first heard that understood that picture better than we do, because
they saw men in armor walking around every day. The men they
saw were Romans, and the armor showed who they were, and that they
were ready, always ready, to fight for the emperor. But today,
in our country, we Christians don’t walk around wearing real
armor. Of course not. Instead, this word picture, this
metaphor, reminds us that we prepare for spiritual “warfare” by
learning our values. These are some of the values that are
like armor to us Christians, The writer says: truth;
righteousness; peace; faith; salvation, and the Spirit. And
then, listen to this, “As shoes for your feet, put on whatever will
make you ready…” (Ephesians 6:15, NRSV)
Hear that Anabelle? He’s saying “Be
ready!” Learn your values well. And you know what,
Anabelle? Today your mom and dad’s church becomes your church
too. And today we in the church give our word, our promise, to
help your mom and dad teach you the values of our faith. We
will tell you, and we will show you, as you watch week after week,
our values. We will tell and show what we believe about God,
what we know about faith, and how we think God wants us to
live. We say we hope to love God and our neighbors, and we
want you to learn to love God and your neighbors, too. Pastor
Sabrina and I will do our best to help you get ready for a big,
confusing world. She and I will ask others to help you, too,
by teaching you. She and I will remind this church that you’ll
be watching us, and learning from all of us, just what it is to be
Christian. We’ll do that because we know the world isn’t
always a nice place, and we want you to be prepared. So
listen, here’s my second bit of advice, one last time, “Be
ready!”
Finally, Anabelle, one
last imperative. Do this: “Stand up.” We have a
phrase in our language, “stand up for yourself.” There is
another phrase like it: “stand up for what is right.”
Whenever you hear that remember that “stand up” doesn’t just mean to
get up on your feet, although maybe the phrase started there.
Sometimes we vote by standing up, especially when the vote is a
close one. Doing that means that others will see what you
believe. It’s important to let others know your beliefs, but
it is not easy, because when you share your beliefs, some people
will like you, and others will not like you. But here’s the
truth: you won’t be happy unless you stand up for what you
really believe. In the lesson that we all heard read the
day you were baptized, at least four time in just a few lines the
author tells the church, “stand.” Stand. Why? Because doing so
helps us know what we really believe. In fact, in our
language, holding fast to a belief is something we call “taking a
stand.” Because our world is not always a nice place, because
our world sometimes seems filled with bad ideas or when bad things
are happening for no good reason, you will most certainly have to
take a stand one day. Your parents won’t be there; I won’t be
there; the church won’t be there, but we will be pulling for
you. I hope we will have taught you values, helping you to be
ready. The world is not always a nice place; in fact, it is
sometimes evil. You will have to take a stand, Anabelle,
without a doubt. Another pastor I knew once told his
children “be brave. Then, be strong.” He was saying
this: “Be courageous enough to know yourself and your values;
then be secure in yourself so that you KEEP your
values.” That’s what I mean when I say, “Stand up,”
Anabelle. It will not always be easy to stand up.
Sometimes standing up will mean fighting back the weakness you feel
in your own knees. Standing up on the inside is like learning
to stand when you are little: the more you do it, the easier
it becomes.
Well, Anabelle, I’m
afraid that this sermon has been what sermons sometimes are:
preachy. But don’t worry about most of what I said. Just
remember these three phrases:
Pray
Always. Be Ready. Stand Up.
And remember this
too: God loved you before you were here; God loves you now;
and God will love you wherever you go.
And so will we,
Anabelle Rose. So will we.
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Amen. |
