Sunday, January 12, 2020. Rev. Dr. Scott Ramsey, preaching.Scripture Readings: Isaiah 42:1-9; Matthew 3:13-17

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SERMON TEXT

Baptism of the Lord Sunday is one

of the times in the year when we focus on the church’s identity as the baptized, those who have been baptized

into the life of being disciples of Jesus. Baptism, among other things, is a rite of initiation; it is an

initiation into a particular way of life in the world, a way that is an

alternative to the dominant ways of living that are on offer from the world; it

is a way that subverts those other ways of life because it is deeper and higher

and broader than they are. Our world wants us to think of ourselves primarily

as consumers who buy things in the marketplace, but our baptisms tell us that

we are primarily disciples of Jesus. Our world wants us to think of our

identities primarily according to our party affiliation as Democrats or

Republicans or Independents, but our baptisms tell us that we are primarily

disciples. Our world wants us to think of ourselves primarily according to our

nationality as Americans, or Mexicans, or Canadians, or Swedes, but our

baptisms tell us that we are primarily followers of Jesus.

And before we think that being baptized sets us above other people, we need to remember that baptism is not a ticket into some first class, reserved-seating section of God’s love. God’s love is not for purchase, is not up for sale. God’s love is freely given to all of God’s creatures. Baptism is a public initiation into a particular way of life in the world.

And when we start thinking about our individual identity as disciples, that leads us directly to thinking about the identity of the church. Last year, we spent considerable energy articulating the basic WHY of Lewinsville, the reason Lewinsville exists. What we discerned was that Lewinsville exists to love and serve God by responding to human need. That’s WHY we are here. Drilling a little further into that, I’ve been thinking about WHAT we need to be up to, if we are to do that. And three core things occur to me that we need to be doing as a church, following Jesus. We need to be intentionally forming disciples of Jesus Christ; we need to be building a community of acceptance; and we need to be building a community of justice. Intentionally forming disciples of Jesus; building a community of acceptance; building a community of justice.

Another way that we sometimes talk

about being a community of acceptance is

to talk about being a “big-tent church,” where different viewpoints are

welcome, where there is not some hard party-line that everyone is expected to

toe, where we expect and enjoy coming to the communion table with people who

disagree with us on any number of issues. We may visualize a community of acceptance

as a community of embrace. And another way to talk about being a community of justice is to talk about

being a “prophetic community,” where we discern that there is a moral shape to

the Christian life, where some practices and policies are seen to be congruent

with God’s grace and others are not. We may visualize a community of justice as

pointing in a particular moral and ethical direction.

I hope you can feel the way that

these two things – being a community of acceptance and being a community of justice

– are in tension with each other. Some people and congregations may choose to

escape this tension by choosing one over the other. It is likely the case that

many of us are instinctually inclined towards one or the other. Some of us are

most comfortable hosting different points of view from different directions;

others of us are most comfortable saying, “Nope, we need to go in that direction.” While some

congregations may be called to do one or the other, my increasing sense is that

Lewinsville is called to work at doing both. And it is clear that the

only way to hold these two things together