The Baptismal Life

“The Baptismal Life”, A Sermon preached by The Rev. Canon Dr. C. Denise Yarbrough on Sunday October 30, 2011 at NPEM, New York

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2“The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; 3therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. (Matt. 23:1-3)

Jon Huntsman this week called his rival Mitt Romney “a perfectly lubricated weather vane” and rival Herman Cain “the flavor of the week.” As the Republican candidates for president continue to duke it out in their debates and in public attacks between debates the rest of us are treated to a never ending barrage of hyperbole, charicaturization by the candidates of each other, and reductionist exaggeration as they vie to make the other person appear ridiculous or evil or stupid or whatever else they are up to. And this behavior isn’t limited to the political arena. We all know the extent to which religious people, leaders and lay, love to lob verbal volleys at people on the other side of the theological or spiritual continuum. As the Occupy Wall Street movement continues its activities, religious groups on all sides of the theological spectrum have become involved with the protesters. Some religious conservatives have criticized the faith-based support of Occupy Wall Street calling it a “60’s style, leftist effort to redistribute wealth.” The Family Research Council urged its members to pray that God would prevent what it called “these radical organizers from stirring revolution.” It seems an inescapable fact of human nature and the functioning of human communities, that we are incapable of disagreeing with one another, particularly when the issues strike close to the heart, without devolving to invective, hyperbole and heated rhetoric.

Our reading from Matthew’s gospel this morning is an example of just this kind of rhetoric, as we hear Jesus railing against the Pharisees and scribes. This section of Matthew’s gospel has been problematic in the long history of Christian anti-Judaism as it has been used, incorrectly, to foster contempt for the Pharisees, who, over time, have come in the minds of most everyday Christians to be equated with people of the Jewish faith. In fact, when Matthew’s gospel was written, in the late first century, probably between 75-85 CE, after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, the early followers of Jesus, the Jewish Christians in Matthew’s church, were one of a number of sects of Judaism and all were desperately trying to salvage their religious tradition and find a way to move it forward in the wake of the destruction of the temple. The followers of Jesus were Jews and they were embroiled in intra-religious controversies with other sects or denominations of 1st century Judaism. The rhetoric and invective could get pretty heated, as religious disputes tend to do. We in the Anglican Communion know something about this as we have endured years of arguing and dispute over issues of human sexuality and not much of that argument has been particularly respectful or friendly.

What scholars understand about the Pharisees suggests that they were the first century Jewish version of most of us in this room. They were traditional, religious Jews, they were educated and comfortably employed members of their society. Not necessarily rich, but well off enough to have time for education and religious training. They were the ones who preserved what is known as the Oral Torah, a whole strand of Torah interpretation that had been handed down for centuries by oral transmission, while they were also skilled at interpretation of the written Torah. They were very much invested in preserving Judaism after the destruction of the temple and in finding ways to continue their religious tradition and its practices in a world that had changed radically. After the temple was destroyed, Judaism could have simply died out and vanished from the face of history. That it did not is testament to the faithfulness and perseverance of groups like the Pharisees. Like many of us modern, mainline Christians who are trying desperately to determine how to keep our religious traditions alive and relevant in a new age which has seen precipitous decline in church participation and attendance, the Pharisees wanted to make sure that their tradition continued into the future as a viable and authentic tradition.

Given that context what do we do with this gospel passage? Matthew’s Jesus is pretty emphatic in his criticism of those who say one thing and do another when it comes to religious practice and piety. There is no escaping the clear directive to “walk the walk, don’t just talk the talk.” Indeed, as I read this scree against the Pharisees, it reminded me of much that I hear from people who have either fallen away from church or from those atheist/agnostic/”spiritual but not religious” young people who say that it is the hypocrisy of so many church goers that turns them off of institutionalized religion. So the strong message about being sincere and humble in one’s religious practice certainly survives the test of time. Religious play-acting was a source of contempt in the first century Jewish Christian world and continues to be a factor in turning people away from religion in our 21st century world. So as we strive to be faithful Christians in our contemporary context, we have to think hard about how we be disciples and apostles in a way that is genuine and authentic and spiritually grounded. And it is just as easy for us to fall into either an excess of piety, or, more likely, a detached and compartmentalized way of living our lives that puts our religious self out on Sunday morning and then a whole different self out in the world of Monday to Saturday.

In the diatribe against the Pharisees, Jesus accuses them of burdening people with way too much religious rules and regulations, so much so that the religion becomes an impediment to spiritual growth and sustenance. My guess is that in our modern Christian context, we do the opposite. We make it so easy to be a Christian, demanding so little of people in the hopes of enticing them to come to church or to stay once they’ve entered the threshold, that we give them spiritual pablum when they need solid food. And we’ve got good solid food to offer, food that sustains the human soul through all the joys and tribulations of the earthly journey.

Today we will baptize Anthony James M______ at St. Mark’s. At every baptism we all renew our own baptismal covenant. That baptismal covenant contains the richest spiritual solid food any of us ever needs. That covenant is how we promise to walk the walk with Jesus, not just talk the talk. And while most of us can say it almost by rote, we must guard against simply “going through the motions” when we do a baptism in church (or on the designated Sundays in the year when we all renew that covenant whether or not we have a baptism) If all of us lived into that baptismal covenant every day of our lives we would go a long way towards eliminating accusations of religious hypocrisy that are often justifiably hurled at us. The baptismal covenant is a blueprint for how we are to live our lives with God. We renounce evil and Satan, we turn to Jesus as Lord and Savior, we promise to repent and return to God when we fall short of the glory of God, we promise to work for justice and peace and to respect the dignity of every human being. The covenant calls us to participate in regular spiritual disciplines – being faithful in the Christian fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers – and it lays out our duties to the world we are called to serve.

Jesus tells the crowd and his disciples that they must be servants of one another and cultivate humility, something our contemporary world does not equip us well to do. The humble do not get ahead in our highly competitive society. In many respects, the baptismal covenant offers us a way out of the competitive, win/lose ethos of our society, and extends us an invitation to a life that is far more gracious, generous and healing than that of our secular society. Jesus calls us to a posture of humility and service, which is not servility and does not mean we become doormats for others to stomp on. The baptismal covenant says it well – “respect the dignity of every human being.” That simple line sums up much of what Jesus gets at in his “those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” We don’t have to agree with someone to respect their dignity. And we can dignify someone even as we engage in debate and discourse with them, the more so if we treat them with dignity. Jesus did it even in the midst of his tongue lashing in today’s reading, as he instructed the crowd and disciples to listen to the Pharisees and scribes because they sit on Moses seat and are wise.

We live in a complex and disturbing world and our religious tradition with its spiritual wisdom and practices offers us a way to navigate that world with serenity, generosity and peace. Our baptismal covenant is our spiritual “to do list” and not all of it is easy. Studying our scriptures and religious tradition so we can hear the living word of God in our contemporary day, living in community with others even when they drive us crazy, attend church on Sundays and holy days to participate in the sacred mystery of the Eucharist, engage in a regular discipline of prayer and self-examination, serve the poor and needy in our neighborhoods and the larger world, renounce the forces of evil that are always at work in our world and do it all with a profound respect for the dignity of every human being. Gandhi is famous for observing that Christianity is a great religion and would be more so if its followers actually followed the teachings of their Jesus. Like those Pharisees and scribes, all of us at some time or other somehow fail to walk the walk as we talk the talk, but we’ve always got our gracious God waiting for us to repent, that is to turn around and come back and try again. Today in many Protestant denominations our Christian brothers and sisters are honoring Reformation Sunday. So in the spirit of Reformation Sunday I will close with one of Martin Luther’s foundational instructions to all Christians as they struggle to live their faith with integrity. “Remember your baptism.” Amen.