Thank you, O God of grace, for bringing us into
your story of love through Jesus Christ. Amen.
Stories are powerful. Our family is deep into the Star Wars universe and after watching each new episode of Andor, I can tell that the throttles of our imaginations are wide open. And what else is tomorrow all about? Yes, free candy. But the costumes allow us to enter into a different story than the one we normally inhabit. Even if it’s just for an hour, we can be a world-famous athlete, a superhero, an astronaut, or a dinosaur and live by a different story. Last weekend, we went to the Carolina Renaissance Festival, which is always fun. If you’ve never been, it’s a 25-acre medieval village filled with actors and attendees dressed as knights, princesses, goblins, and monks. The website describes it as “A day at the Festival is about leaving your cares behind and escaping to a simpler time and place.” In other words, it is about entering into a story.
The
problem with our culture today is, as one theologian has put it, we believe
that we have no story except for the story that we chose for ourselves when we
had no other story. In other words, we have been conditioned to think that we
are born as blank slates, that all the world is our stage, that our story is
what we make of it. This, of course, is a pernicious lie; but it is one that
most of us live by.
We
are all born in the middle of history, into a family, within a context, with
genetic and personal traits, all of which are beyond our control and they story
us. I find it to be liberating to know that I am not the way that I am simply because
I’ve chosen to be this way. Our subconscious mind assimilates experiences and
changes our thought processes without us thinking about it. Our culture
presents us with choices that limit us. We all develop neuroses and quirks not
because we particularly want to be punctual to a fault or obsessed with things
being in their proper place, but because the story we inhabit has shaped us into
taking on a role. This is the power of story.
The
fact that we are a storied people matters because, ultimately, we are a part of
God’s story. It is both a grand cosmic story that is bigger and older than our
minds can fathom, and it is also a story that is intimate as it is about the belovedness
in which God holds each of us. And today, we have the joy of Baptizing Margaret
Ellis into this story.
As
a function of existing, all people are included in this story. Baptism, though,
is when we are plunged into this story and strive to be shaped by this story of
love, mercy, and grace as opposed to trying to tell our own story. It’s not
that God is waiting for me to pour some water on Margaret’s head to start
loving her or accepting her as a child of God. That’d be ridiculous to think
that. Instead, we Baptize people into the faith so that there is an actual
moment in time and space when it is declared for the whole world to see and
know that Margaret is God’s beloved daughter, that the story of salvation in
Jesus Christ includes her, that she is a chosen vessel of the Holy Spirit. So
when she gets older and the world does what the world does to each of us, we,
her family and her church, can remind her that she is Baptized and that is the truest
thing about her. When she makes a social blunder with friends, or doesn’t do
well on a test, or fights with her brother or parents, she can be reassured
that she is loved not because of the things she does, meaning that she will not
be unloved by the things that she does, rather she is loved because this is the
story that she is a part of. And this is true not just of Margaret, but all of
us.
The
problem is when we forget this story and try to make our own. The prophet
Habakkuk laments, “Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention
arise. So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround
the righteous- therefore judgment comes forth perverted.” Those words were
written 2,600 years ago, and yet they still describe the state of the world.
The problem isn’t so much that God has abandoned the people, even though it
feels that way; it’s that we have forgotten the story. Instead of living by the
dream of God, we have created nightmares for ourselves to live in. As we heard
in Psalm 119, the enemies of the Psalmist are enemies not because they are evil
or bad people, but because they have forgotten the words of God. Amnesia, when
it comes to the story we live by, is a problem our modern society struggles with.
This inability to see ourselves as a people storied by God’s radical, graceful,
and transforming love is what leads to so many of the personal and political problems
we experience.
Despite
our blindness and ignorance to this story, it remains. Through people like
Habakkuk, God continues to make the story known. And so he writes “I will stand
at my watchpost; I will keep watch to see what he will say,” to which God does
respond and tells Habakkuk to “Write the vision; make it plain so that a runner
may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time. If it seems to
tarry, wait for it; for it will surely come.” The story remains, even when we
forget it.
We
all know that life is busy and full, which is what makes this watching for the
story of God so difficult. I mean, who can believe that it’s essentially
November already? The pace of life can be dizzying. And because there are so
many other narratives out there we can get lost. There’s the news, finance, fitness, hobbies,
romance, parenting, entertainment, career, and friendships. None of these
things are bad, but they can become noisy distractions from the song of grace.
The story of God’s beauty, peace, and love is, without question, the truest and
most beautiful story there is. But it’s not always the loudest. Advertisers
have a bigger budget than the Church does. Politicians spend more on getting
you to buy into their story than we can. Hollywood can tell a story in a way
that the Church simply can’t. Part of this is because a movie lasts two hours,
an election a few months, and advertisers are just going after a purchase. The story
of God is about the entirety of our lives, which is a much bigger investment.
This
is why Baptism is best described as an immersion. It’s not about how much water
is used – 3 drops of water are just as effective as the entire ocean. Baptism
though is about being completely and totally immersed into the story of God.
This is why Baptism is spoken of in terms of death and new birth. In Baptism,
we die so that we can go ahead and get that out of the way and enter into the eternal
life of the Resurrection, which begins now, crosses the threshold of the grave,
and continues forever in the love of God.
The
story of God’s love is grand enough to encompass all of our lives. There is no
situation in which the love of God cannot bring new possibilities. There is no
sin or mistake so egregious that God’s mercy cannot lead to reconciliation.
There is no doubt so sincere that we cannot be surprised by joy. There is no death
so final that the Resurrection cannot make all things new. The story of Jesus
being the way, the truth, and the life is the meta-story of all things.
Economics, politics, voting, relationships, and vocation all connect to the
story of God. It’s when those things do not connect that things like injustice
and violence come out. Because the only story big enough and gracious enough to
hold all things and still have room to spare is the story of God’s love. Any
other story – democracy, capitalism, socialism, monarchy, technology, paganism –
these are mere fables when compared to the story of God’s creating, redeeming,
and sustaining of all that is.
Those other stories can
make promises, but they cannot assure that all shall be well, and in that
anxiety over whether or not all things shall be well we become captive to
stories that simply cannot bear the weight of meaning and purpose. Baptism is the
Sacramental sign of this deeper reality that we are a people who are storied by
God’s love.
There
are some helpful things that we can do to continue immersing ourselves in this
story. From the earliest days of the faith, Baptism and Eucharist have always
gone together. Baptism is when we enter into the story and Eucharist is how we
are given sustenance for the journey. In the Eucharist, this story of God’s
love is made present to us, we join with others in beloved community, and we
receive the Body and Blood of Christ as assurances of our forgiveness and
belovedness, no matter what.
Reading
Scripture is also an important way to be immersed in the story. It’s not “homework”
or something to get through, but an opportunity to find our place in the
ever-expanding story of God. Talking to others about faith, whether it’s in a
small group or with a friend or priest over coffee, also helps because it
reminds us that we only have a part of the story. Conversation with others
allows us to see how the Spirit is moving in the lives of others, and be more
reflective about how we are a part of the story of faith.
Daily prayer is also very
beneficial to being immersed in this story. Think about all the things that we
do daily – brushing our teeth because we want to avoid the story of cavities. Checking
social media or reading or watching the news because we don’t want to miss out
on the stories there. To be clear, I’ve got nothing against teeth brushing or
reading the paper, but if we make time for those each day, might we also say
the Lord’s Prayer as a way of reminding ourselves that our story is that we are
the beloved of God our Father, that we are anticipating the Kingdom as it is
coming on earth as it is in heaven, that we receive our daily bread from a gracious
God, that we are forgiven and there is no barrier between us and God? Again, it’s
not about adding something to the chore list; it’s about reminding us about
which story we are living in.
Being
storied in Christ really does make all the difference. Just ask Zaccheus about
that – his life was never the same once he came and saw that he was a part of
God’s story of mercy. Zaccheus didn’t earn his salvation by repenting and repairing,
rather he recognized that salvation was already his story as he received this grace
into his life. He then lived by this story, which is why we know his name and
not the names of those who grumbled about it. When we are lost in the many
stories of the world, Jesus comes to each of us and to all of us to save us by
reminding us that we belong to his story of love. And it is into that story
that we now have the joy of Baptizing Margaret.
