\u201cCovenant\u201d is an interesting word. Mind you Episcopalians hear so much about the \u201cBaptismal Covenant\u201d nowadays that it is in danger of becoming one of those pious slogans often used and seldom contemplated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When The Book of Common Prayer<\/em> was revised in the 1970s, some of the leading thinkers in our church were developing a new emphasis on baptism and its place in our faith. A new emphasis doesn\u2019t mean something newly invented. In the sixteenth century some of our Anglican reformers who had spent time in exile in Switzerland eating chocolate and cheese and listening to a preacher called John Calvin came home and talked and preached a lot about Covenant. Anglicans were reminded that all are called into God\u2019s new world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even then there was nothing new about it all. The Old and New Testaments are full of language about God\u2019s agreement with human beings. Of course the word \u201ctestament\u201d means \u201ccovenant\u201d and the word \u201ccovenant\u201d is something like our word \u201cwill.\u201d The only difference is that God isn\u2019t dead, and we still get to inherit. In a manner we can\u2019t fathom, a manner that makes us gasp with mental pain, we know that Jesus sealed this covenant when he died on the cross \u201cfor our sins and for the sins of the whole world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today\u2019s gospel is about Jesus\u2019 encounter with his cousin John the Baptist at the River Jordan. John would horrify our ushers if he turned up in church today. He wore a smelly old camel skin, didn\u2019t cut his hair, probably only washed when he waded in the Jordan\u2014more a stream than a river\u2014and ate an extraordinary diet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even worse, John the Baptist was blunt. Yes, we all say that we like blunt people. No we don\u2019t! We may know where we stand with them, but who wants to stand feeling guilty? John had been telling off every part of the community and urging them to \u201crepent\u201d; literally to turn around and walk in a new direction. He even told off the equivalent of bishops, priests, vestries and even General Convention. In the end, his bluntness cost him his head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus meets this wild-looking preacher at the river and asks to be baptized. John doesn\u2019t want to do it. He knows that his cousin needs no baptism, doesn\u2019t need to turn around. He knows that his cousin is \u201cgood.\u201d The word \u201cgood\u201d and \u201cGod\u201d in English are closely associated. The translation is telling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Jesus is baptized a voice is heard by some, and they believe that they are hearing God, and God is acknowledging that Jesus is in a unique manner God\u2019s son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What has all this to do with a covenant? Probably all of you have been baptized. When water was poured on your heads, God adopted you. You are now children of God and heirs of God\u2019s world, God\u2019s kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On each of our foreheads there is an invisible sign, marked in holy oil, which signifies that we have been adopted by God and become members of Christ. In the Christian vocabulary, the word \u201cmember\u201d doesn\u2019t mean someone who joins, but rather, as St Paul reminds us, it means someone who is joined to Someone. Like the limbs and organs of a human body, we are joined to Jesus and to each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Being joined to Jesus in a sense means that we share in who Jesus is. Jesus is described as being, among other things, prophet, priest, and king.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Covenant means then that first, because we are joined to Jesus, through baptism, we are to be members of a \u201cprophetic\u201d community. That doesn\u2019t mean that we go around making up new things. A prophet is someone who says \u201cThis is what God says.\u201d We learn what God says in the scriptures, and above all, as we seek to live as Jesus lived. We belong to a forgiving, loving, caring Jesus-community. Our job is to tell the world that God is love and God is forgiveness. Telling also means living, and living means being practical and demonstrating where we are what a loving, forgiving, caring community looks like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Covenant means that because we are joined to Jesus through baptism we are members of a \u201cpriestly\u201d community. Priests represent people to God and represent God to people, normally in Jewish and Christian tradition in rituals and meals. As priests, we say to the world, \u201cHere is God loving you through Jesus.\u201d We say to God, \u201cHere is the world yearning to be loved through Jesus.\u201d In the Eucharist we bid the world to eat and drink with God and to receive God\u2019s Son through the Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Covenant means that because we are joined to Jesus through baptism, we are members of a \u201ckingly\u201d community. Kings, or at least good kings, rule the earth for God and for everyone. Jesus is the Good King. In Jesus we are to care for the earth, guard it from exploitation, and in Jesus we are to care for all beings, human and animal, and love and serve them sacrificially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So that invisible mark on our forehead shows that we are Covenant people. Yet two other points must be remembered. Alone we cannot be or do any of these Covenant things. Alone we \u201cerr and stray.\u201d We are to act like God\u2019s people, and when we fail we are to repent and ask God to forgive us and renew us. Secondly, we need feeding if we are to grow in strength. If baptism begins our Covenant life, in the Eucharist we receive Jesus into the very core and fiber of our beings as we dwell in Him and He dwells in us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inheritance is one thing, a very wonderful thing. God\u2019s Covenant tells us that we have inherited God\u2019s Word, God\u2019s sacraments, and God\u2019s world. Yet we must also listen to John the Baptist. Unlike Jesus, we have need to turn around and walk in God\u2019s ways all the days of our lives. Only then will we receive the Baptismal Covenant with thanksgiving. So be it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This sermon was written by Anthony F.M. Clavier<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cCovenant\u201d is an interesting word. Mind you Episcopalians hear so much about the \u201cBaptismal Covenant\u201d nowadays that it is in danger of becoming one of those pious slogans often used and seldom contemplated. 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