God At Work

Scriptures:     Exodus 20:1-20      Psalm 25:1-9     Philippians 2:1-13           Matthew 21:23-32

Last week, we celebrated our congregation’s 156^th anniversary – a milestone of ministry in the long history of our congregation.  While there are certainly older congregations, by any measure, we are not a young church.  We’ve been around, seen some things.  And now, today, we celebrate the baptism of one who is just starting her life’s journey, one for whom everything is new:  Baby Madison.  Baby Madison is a joy to her family – and a joy to us, as she proves that even at 156 years old, our congregation is not too old to have children.

Madison is just starting her life’s journey – and her baptism today will shape Madison’s journey, set it in a certain direction, with certain landmarks along the way, God willing.  Baptism begins the journey of Christian discipleship, and that journey has a cruciform shape to it.   We are to walk in the way of Jesus – and Jesus walked the way of the cross.   Indeed, in the 6^th chapter of Paul’s letter to the church at Rome, Paul writes: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death.  Therefore 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.”   So through baptism  we are incorporated into the cross of Christ, so that we will also be included in the crown Christ receives.  The first letter of Peter, third chapter, connects baptism to the story of Noah, in which our sinful nature is drowned, just as those outside the ark were drowned, and through Christ we are saved.

In our reading from Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi – I should say, one of Paul’s favorites among the churches he founded, a church that supported him when nobody else would –  Paul is writing to a congregation in conflict, a congregation in the middle of a good old fashioned church fight.  We’re told later that two leaders in this congregation are at odds, and the other members are lining up behind one or the other, dividing the congregation.  In trying to defuse the situation, to restore peace to the congregation, Paul writes, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit….let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.”   Paul told his readers – and tells us – to “let the same mind be in you” – that is to say, in us – “that was in Christ Jesus.”  And then Paul describes the mind that was in Christ Jesus: 

“Though he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, and emptied himself still further, becoming obedient even to death on a cross.  Therefore God highly exalted him, and gave him the name that is above every name.”

So just as Christ emptied himself out for us, Christ calls us to pour our lives out for one another and for others.   Paul’s solution to the church fight is to ask the believers at Philippi to remember who they are and whose they are. 

Baptism begins our journey of faith, as it will begin Baby Madison’s journey in a few moments, but as all of us can attest, it’s easy to get easy to get sidetracked, as the Philippian congregation did.  It’s easy to get lost.  Speaking as one who doesn’t have the best sense of direction, I get lost easily when I’m driving in unfamiliar territory.  I need – and we all need – road signs to follow and landmarks to orient us to where we are.  Our reading from Exodus gives us some road signs, in the form of the Ten Commandments.   Many of them are put in the form of negatives – “Thou shalt nots” – don’t kill, don’t steal, etc. - and so we may have a negative view of them.   But think of them as hazard signs along the way – perhaps as road signs that say “no outlet” or  “hazardous condition” or  “wrong way”.  Annoying as such road signs may be, it’s a lot better to see a warning sign than to drive obliviously down a blind alley, or into oncoming traffic, or into a ditch.  And some of the commandments tell us things we should be doing, paths we should be taking, such as loving God, resting one day a week, and loving our parents.  These commandments are a part of what Madison’s family promises to teach baby Madison as she grows up, and part of what we should all be teaching our children, and constantly relearning for ourselves.

Road signs are a  blessing.  But sometimes the road is not clearly marked – sometimes we’re faced, and down the road years from now, Baby Madison will be faced,  with decisions that aren’t as black and white as whether or not to steal or kill, forks in the road where the Ten Commandments don’t offer any direct guidance…. and so in addition to road signs, we also need landmarks for those stretches in our journey when the road is not clearly marked.   Our reading from Philippians, with its emphasis on self-giving love and looking not to our own interests but to those of others, gives us some landmarks.  When a decision isn’t clear, we can ask, where is this leading us?  How will this or that course of action change us?  Where is it putting the focus?  Who is it benefitting?  Is it leading us to become more self-centered and self-obsessed, or is it leading us to care for the well-being of others.   Paul asked his readers, “Is there any encouragement in Christ, any love, any sharing, any compassion, any joy?”   Such questions for us can also be landmarks for us, letting us know whether we’re on course or off track.

In our Gospel reading, Jesus is once again in conflict with religious leaders in Jerusalem.  The Pharisees were very concerned with religious observance – how sacrifices at the temple were to have been done, how much to tithe to the Temple.  But Jesus felt their religious observance was shallow, only on the surface, all about being seen as doing the right things.  It was a kind of religiosity that didn’t change them on the inside….much like someone who goes to church on Sunday and promptly forgets everything they’ve heard in church the second they go home.   And so he told them a parable about two sons, one who initially refused to do what his father asked, but then changed his mind and obeyed, and another son who said he’d obey his father, but didn’t.  

Today, Madison’s baptism is about saying yes to God.  It is about beginning the journey of faith, a journey that we all are on.  Since Madison is too young to make promises for herself, Madison’s family will make promises on her behalf – saying “yes” to God for her.  We pray that, when Madison is of age, she will come to say yes to God on her own, not only saying yes in a moment at church, but living her yes to God throughout her life.   Throughout her life, God will be at work in Madison’s life, as God is at work in all our lives, preparing us, strengthening us for the journey, so that Madison and all of us can accomplish the work God has for us along the way, and so that many decades from now, we can reach journey’s end and be at home with God. Amen.