The sermon preached by Bishop H. Gerard Knoche at the 2004 Delaware-Maryland Synod Assembly Opening worship, June 18, 2004
Texts:
Jeremiah 17:7-8
Romans 6:3-11
Mark 10:35-45
Everyone at summer camp had one thing in common. Everyone had been thrown into the pond. Sometime soon after someone new would arrive, a few of the counselors and older campers would sneak up and carry that person to the dock where he or she would be dropped in. I remember when an older deaconess from the national church office came for a week to recruit youth for church vocations. In spite of her age and position, one day she was gathered up on the way to the laundry and into the drink she went, dirty clothes and all. A bishop would have gotten the same treatment. Once one had gotten wet, the initiation was over. You were part of the group.
The one thing everyone gathered in this room has in common is that we were baptized. We were "Marked with the cross of Christ forever, we are claimed." As Christians our identity comes from our baptism. I have often thought that if the Department of Motor Vehicles really wanted to print on my driver's license what would identify me, better than the color of my hair which is slowly changing, (and which in some folks I know changes weekly), or my weight which changes quickly, would be my baptismal date. It would tell far more about where to find me if they are looking for me than most of the other information that is there. And that identity is what has gathered us together in this place for three days. We are baptized, "We are marked with the cross of Christ, we are claimed."
Now in the Gospel lesson for this evening, Jesus asked James and John who are looking to be favored in high places, "Are you able to be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?" And Paul in the second lesson talks of our being buried with Christ by baptism into death. So the first thing we need to understand about being marked with the cross of Christ is that there may be some pain and suffering if we are to live out that identity.
Kris Berggren tells how she went to a pre-baptism class for her third child where her pastor told this story. One evening a young man out walking heard troubling sounds of a scuffle in the alley. He approached the scene to discover that a woman was being assaulted. He had to think fast, to act immediately. The young man intervened, saving her from further harm, but he was killed in the altercation.
The pastor said, "That's exactly what I raised him to do." The young man was the pastor's son, and Kris Berggren was his mother. Their child lived out his baptismal identity. And it was costly. Mrs. Berggren went on to say: "What does the public commitment of my child to this faith community mean? Am I raising my children to fight for someone else's life or human rights? To go to jail for their beliefs? To "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable"? To preserve their integrity and their purity of heart despite the despair and cynicism they will encounter?… It is time that we too reflect on our baptismal call."
Youth speak out for what they believe in a college setting where they are mocked for believing something different from the norm. Folks are giving all their vacation time to taking servant trips to help rebuild houses when a hurricane disaster has hit. Pastors live in "unsafe" neighborhoods in the city for the sake of ministry to people who live there. Other rostered leaders endure abuse and conflict from their congregations because they believe a genuine love will win out in the end. I would love to know the number of our synod who have been deployed to Iraq. We know that many of the military police at the prisons are from a company near Cumberland. They see their sacrifice on the battlefield as part of their baptismal identity. All these are marked with the cross of Christ. They are claimed.
But the lesson in Romans says "we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life." Our identity in baptism makes us partakers in Christ's death, but also in the new life Christ supplies. In baptism we become resurrection people. For me that means we are people who are open to surprises from God. I have a poster in my office that reads, "A sign of God is that you will be led where you did not plan to go." For those who are baptized live as God directs.
I see evidence of sharing in Christ's resurrection. Fewer congregations are talking about "just keeping the doors open." I have been at several congregation council retreats where the focus was looking at the area around the church and how ministry might be done for them rather than for the members inside. As folks find healing or forgiveness or new life by meeting Christ themselves, increasingly they become part of small groups where their story can be shared to bring others new life. Each year the amount of money given for World Hunger increases. Last year it was $147,057 and there is a resolution that will come before us to increase that by 15%.
As a synod, and some congregations individually, we support the "Stand with Africa" Campaign to help eliminate the scourge of AIDS on that continent. In Tanzania, where we have a companion synod, they are beginning the ABC Campaign that was so successful in Uganda: A-Abstain until married, B-Be faithful in marriage, C-condoms, use them in marriage where one or both are HIV positive. Volunteers will be trained to visit every household with this message. In Uganda where this project was first introduced, the rate of HIV infection went from 20% to 5% in 10 years. Undertaking that kind of a program for the sake of Christian brothers and sisters is a way of living out our baptismal identity. "Marked by the cross of Christ, we are claimed."
Last summer I was with 23,000 high school students in Atlanta for the National Gathering, the best event I have ever been part of put on by the ELCA. Returning home, I kept singing one song over and over again. The words of the chorus go like this: "God sees me, God hears me, God names me, God loves me. I am the apple of God's eye." That, in a nutshell, is our baptismal identity. That is what it means to say, "Marked with the cross of Christ, we are claimed."