First Presbyterian Church
Rev. Sam Pendergrast
January 13, 2008
Matthew 3:13-17
“Baptized for Ministry”
Walking to Baptismal Font –
This is where it all begins. This is the place each and every one of us enters the church. This is where our life as Christians begins – ritually, that is, in the rites of the church. Our life of faith begins in God’s grace. Without God’s grace none of us would be here. But here at the font is where we gather to acknowledge and participate in the activity of God’s Spirit in our lives. This is where we receive our identity as the saints of God.
The story is told of a time when Mother Teresa was in the
“Why, yes I am,” she replied. And, touching him on the shoulder with her gnarled and tender hand, she added, “And so are you. I’m no better than you. It is God who makes us saints.”
The saints of God. In popular usage we reserve that term for those we think of as especially good, or those who have worked miracles or done great deeds of compassion. Mother Teresa was exactly right, though. It is God who makes us saints. We do not achieve a special status by our own goodness. We are saints because God has chosen us, marked us and given us a purpose to bear witness to a new reality we call the kingdom of heaven.
The word, “Christian,” is used only three times in all of the New Testament. The word, “saint,” is used over and over. It appears nine times in Ephesians and fifteen times in the Revelation. The word is the common term for a believer, one who is part of the church. A saint is someone who is holy. But the holiness we speak of is not one’s own accomplishment. Holiness is a condition God gives us when we are baptized, marked as belonging to Christ and sealed with God’s Spirit.
God is holy. And God says to us, “Because I am holy, you will be holy.” The word, “holy”, means “separate”, “set apart,” “chosen for a purpose.” God chose
Today we will set apart one person for a holy purpose by ordination as an Elder in the church. We will install that person and three others to be Elders to lead the church in God’s holy purpose for us as Christ’s Body. Being an Elder is much more than serving on a board. It is living out one’s calling publicly and leading the church to live out its calling. It is work that can only be undertaken with humility and trust that God will guide and equip.
It is simple and it is a mystery. Baptism is what makes you a saint. Our Reformed theology of baptism is distinctly different from the practice of “believers’ baptism” found in other traditions. In the Presbyterian Church we do not choose God. God chooses us. You are saints because you have been baptized. You have been baptized because God is at work in you to bring you to mature faith. Some of us are dragged kicking a screaming into holiness. Some of us struggle against it our whole life long. That is because our conversion is a never-finished process of being transformed to be like Christ.
Baptism – it’s an ancient ritual. Because of the variety of beliefs and practices, it is sometimes confusing. What exactly happens in baptism? What does it mean? In the old Roman Catholic practice it is closely linked to salvation. The old Catholic teaching was that children must be baptized a soon as possible after birth to assure their salvation. I believe the
There is an old story about a time when the English Presbyterians were modifying their official theology to reflect a change in belief. The assembly of church leaders met to strike from the beliefs of English Presbyterians the tenet that children who die un-baptized were irredeemably lost to Hell. After the motion passed and the theological revision was duly recorded, a very serious-faced old gentleman stood up and said, “Mr. Moderator, I move we make this retroactive.” It may take you a minute to get the joke. How absurd that we would think that our motions, votes or systematic theology could control the grace and mercy of God!
Baptism is not a “get-out-of-Hell-free” card. It is a recognition that we are chosen by God for a purpose; we are marked as belonging to God; we are set on a path to follow our Lord. In baptism we are given an identity as the saints of God.
Still, we wonder why Jesus was baptized. Clearly, John the Baptist wondered the same thing. “Why do you come to me?” he asked. “I ought to be baptized by you.”
Jesus was baptized because he is the one who fulfills the vocation that
Jesus is the savior of the world. He is the only one with that purpose. We are given a purpose in our baptism to be part of his ongoing work of redemption and reconciliation. We are baptized for ministry. Whether or not you are an elder, you have a ministry of being Christian in the world. Like the slogan you see on some church signs, you may indeed be the Bible that someone else reads. You may be the hands and feet of Jesus in a particular situation. You are holy because God has a purpose for you.
I am embarrassed about the message the church has too often given that in order to be a good Christian you have to serve on committees and give your time to church programs. Too often we have led people to believe that service to the institution is what matters. Too often we have failed to recognize the ministries that people carry out from day to day as parents, teachers, nurses, business leaders, attorneys, mechanics. To do with compassion, integrity and faithfulness the work God has given you in life is to be a faithful minister. Your Christian life is a twenty-four hour a day enterprise. The purpose of the church is to equip you for that ministry, to support you to live it out, to celebrate your success and to be with you when you fail.
Granted, there are things we can do better together than we can do alone. We can organize as a congregation to pool resources and share ideas and reach out with God’s love into our communities. But we are called to live as Christians in the world very day, to be servants of Jesus, not to be servants of an institution.
The claim God makes on us in baptism is not an escape from the world, but a calling to bear God’s love into the world. As we gather here around the font and table, we are marked as belonging to God and we are fed by the life of our Lord, in order to go out as ministers. We are baptized for ministry.
I was baptized in the Presbyterian Church. But I was not baptized as a Presbyterian. I was baptized as a Christian. It just happens to have taken place in a Presbyterian Church. Baptism is bigger than any one church. It has big implications, some of which are difficult to live out. Being holy – that is, being sign-posts of God’s love, vessels of God’s new community – is often uncomfortable and demanding.
A pastor tells of an encounter he had that brought this home for him vividly. During the first Gulf War he was on a university campus for an appointment. While he was waiting, he struck up a conversation with the secretary.
She asked, “Got any yard work that needs to be done? Any chores around the house?” She then told him about how she had befriended an Iraqi graduate student. Then the war started and he was cut off, without money, unable to go home. He couldn’t continue as a student. She and her husband had taken this young man into their home and she was trying to find him odd jobs so that he could get a little money.
“What does he think about the war?” the pastor asked.
“Oh, he thinks we’re terrible and that Saddam is great,” she replied.
“Well, if that’s the case, I find it strange that you took this Iraqi into your home and wanted to care for him.”
With some indignation she replied, “I decided? I wanted?”
“Well, why did you do it,” he asked.
She slammed her fist down on her desk and said, “Because I’m a Christian, darn it! You think it’s easy?”
It’s not easy. It is who we are because God has chosen us. We are God’s saints, holy, set apart for God’s purposes in the world. We have been baptized for ministry. My prayer is that we can support each other in the various ministries God has given us. I pray that each of us can hear God’s call to serve and learn how to use the gifts God has given. We have a rich resource in each other. And we can trust that the God who calls us also equips us and strengthens us to live as saints in this world. To God be the glory. Amen.