This Is Not Okay
Lent is a season of preparation, but preparation for what? Although most of us spend those forty days fasting, praying, and renewing our faith in anticipation of another glorious Easter, Lent was originally a time for converts to the Christian faith to prepare for initiation into the Body of Christ through Baptism. Eventually, the whole church, having observed the spiritual benefits experienced by those catechumens, decided to make Lent a time for everyone’s renewal of faith. Now, as Christians, we spend Lent not only getting ready for the joy of Easter but preparing to renew our faith and our place in the Body of Christ.
At this year’s Easter Vigil, we were not able to celebrate any baptisms, but we were able to renew our own Baptismal Covenant. Right before the lights were turned on and we proclaimed the resurrection of Christ with our joyful alleluias, Suzanne, as Presider, addressed the congregation, saying,
Through the Paschal mystery, dear friends, we are buried with Christ by Baptism into his death and raised with him to newness of life. I call upon you, therefore, now that our Lenten observance is ended, to renew the solemn promises and vows of Holy Baptism, by which we once renounced Satan and all his works and promised to serve God faithfully in his holy catholic church.
In other words, before the church could celebrate the miracle of Easter—God’s great victory over sin and death—we needed to renew our commitment to and participation in the transformation that the resurrection of Jesus Christ has brought to our lives and to the world. We needed to complete our Lenten preparation by reclaiming our baptismal identity.
Given how long it has been since we have celebrated baptisms in church together, it may have been a while since you renewed your own Baptismal Covenant. Let me remind you about it. In that covenant, we first declare our faith as contained in the familiar words of the Apostles’ Creed. We state our believe in the triune God, in the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus, in our expectation of Christ’s return, and in the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Then, in response to what we have proclaimed in the creed, we declare our intention to, with God’s help, live the lives of faithful disciples.
What does that Holy-Spirit-enabled Christian life look like? It includes continuing in the faith and practice of the church. It includes resisting evil and returning to the Lord through repentance. It includes proclaiming the good news of God to others. It includes recognizing the presence of Christ in our neighbors and loving them in Christ’s name. It includes striving for justice and peace and respecting the dignity of all people. We do not pursue that life in order to become Christians. We pursue it because we already are Christians and because being a Christian means pursuing the resurrection in our daily lives.
While I often criticize our tendency to confuse our work with God’s work and supplant the saving grace of God with the good we enact in God’s name, I think we have reached a critical moment in our civic life when our faith in God and our commitment to God’s unconditional love require action on our part. We cannot be faithful to our baptismal identity and remain silent on the recent legislative efforts to restrict necessary, life-saving medical care to transgender youth. Last week, our state’s legislature passed and overrode the Governor’s veto of a bill that prohibits medical professionals from caring for some of the most vulnerable people in our society. To say that lives are put further at risk by this law is no understatement. If we believe what we say we believe about God and if we are truly committed to pursuing the truth of Easter in our lives, we cannot fail to act.
I write this not as a politically motivated appeal but as a faith-focused reminder of who we are as Christians. We are people who have been redeemed and reconciled to God and to each other because of God’s grace. Our identity as beloved children of God in no way depends on who we are or what we have done. It rests completely on God’s love for us and for all people. Being loved like that—without qualification, without limit—changes who we are and how we live. It must! In response to that love, we must seek out and honor the dignity of every person. We must recognize and serve the presence of Christ in everyone. We must share the good news of God’s love with the whole world and persevere in resisting the evil that would undermine it. Anything less would be a denial of our faith—of what we believe God’s love means in our lives.
Now that our Lenten journey is over, it is time for us to renew our commitment to our faith. During the Easter season, we have fifty days to celebrate the power of Christ’s resurrection. How will you pursue the transformation that God’s victory over sin and death has brought to your life? We will not all agree on the political issues that surround us. We do not have to. But, in order to be Christians, we have to agree on the centrality of God’s love for us in Jesus Christ. If you are not sure what to think about issues affecting the LGBTQ+ community, I encourage you to start with your faith. What do you believe about God and God’s love? What does being a recipient of that love mean for you? How is God calling you to live out your baptismal identity? If we start there, we will, with God’s help, be faithful to the love that is within us.
Yours Faithfully,
Evan