What in the world is our baptismal covenant?
It starts with the Apostles Creed. Do you believe in God the Father? Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God? Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit?
What we believe about God is the first and foundational part of our Baptismal Covenant. It is God who initiates the covenant, and it is His faithfulness, His steadfastness, and His reliability that ensures that its validity. Our participation in the Sacrament of Baptism is to accept God’s promise and then to receive His grace. He purifies our soul; He washes us from all our sins; He makes us His sons and daughters; He gives us His Holy Spirit. We cannot make or take any of these things for ourselves; it is only through God’s work and our acceptance (and that “by grace…through faith”, Eph. 2:8) that we are His people.
What we believe makes us different from others. People around the world have similar, though not identical, forms of worship. Buddhists have sacred texts, they pray and meditate, they use incense, they make offerings which are symbols of their life and labor. Certainly there are differences and some are great. But nothing is greater between religions than their beliefs about who God is, and these trickle all the way down into daily life.
We believe that God is exclusive. “The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Dt. 6:4). “You shall have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:3). “I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to he Father except through me” (Jn. 14:6). There is no wiggle room around God’s word. If we accept the Bible as the divinely inspired word of God, then indeed, “small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life” (Mt. 7:14).
But the way is big enough for all men to come within. God desires the salvation of all men, not their death. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (Jn. 3:17).
“Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?” (cf. Acts 2:42).
Once we’ve received basic faith, the beginning of Christian life is our participation in the life of the Church.
We sit at the feet of the apostles and those to whom their mantle has been passed, learning about the Lord from those who have seen His body and heard His voice, who have touched Him and been touched by Him.
We fellowship with one another, bearing one another’s burdens (cf. Gal. 6:2), encouraging one another (cf. 1 Thes. 5:11). “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity” (Ps. 133:1). There are no hermitages in heaven. In paradise we will have perfect union with God, and perfect union with our neighbor.
Breaking bread each week, “we remember his death, we proclaim his resurrection, and we await his coming in glory.” In this shared meal, we have intimate union with Christ, He in us and we in Him, and we share of the one loaf with one another. Breaking bread is the tie that binds together all members of our St. Thomas family, and us to the cathedral, and the diocese to the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
And of course we pray. While pray by ourselves, “the prayers” are the faith community’s combined action of raising one, relentless, deafening voice to the throne of mercy. When we pray we say, “Let us pray to the Lord, Lord have mercy,” and, “Lord in your mercy, Hear our prayer.” We don’t discard our individuality, but we each place it on the altar and offer it up to God, that we may become one, “So that the world may believe that [the Father has] sent [Jesus]” (Jn. 17:21).
“Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?”
After we have accepted belief in God, and walked in the safe cloisters of the Church, we must learn to live as Christians in the world. Persevere in resisting evil. Death has lost its grip over us; the Devil has no claim on our souls. But baptism is not magic; temptations don’t just disappear.
Several years back, my sister and brother-in-law were struggling with credit card debt. It was crushing their finances and, although technically the end was calculable at a decade away, it seemed an impossible burden. So I offered them my house if they would use their former rent to pay off debt. Relieved from the pressure of current burdens, they were able to resolve past obligations. And in less than two years they cut up their cards.
In Baptism, God does the reverse: He wipes out our past debts, and lets us rejoin life with Him, things we could never do on our own. But if I had a problem with arrogance, I’ll be arrogant until I open that part of my life to the Holy Spirit who is already within me and sanctify it with His help.
Sanctification requires resistance. We are to persevere in this resistance. Resisting evil happens again and again. Evil in the world is an ocean, and it’s waves crash upon us daily; wave that feel like they’re wearing away at us. And in a sense, they are. When a wave of evil things comes upon us and we resist it, the wave that intended to do us evil becomes an instrument of God’s grace to purify us. It washes away barnacles and sand that are not part of who we are, and wears away stone that doesn't conform to God’s purpose. Joseph told his brothers who sold him into bondage, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Gen. 50:20).
Repent and return to the Lord. Sometimes we are swamped by the waves of evil. God knows that it happens. He doesn’t like it, but He is prepared. Jesus said, “If [your brother] sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him” (Lk. 17:3-4). The sin of Judas wasn’t that he betrayed the Lord. Peter thrice denied the Lord. Judas’ sin was that he refused to believe that Jesus would forgive him. God said through Ezekiel, “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live” (Ezekiel 33:11).
How did Jesus resist Satan in the desert? By an intimate knowledge of God’s word that He held up against the Devil’s lies. If you are like me, you struggle with memorizing chapter and verse. Here’s a little exegesis to encourage you. In Luke 4:4, Jesus didn’t say, “Deuteronomy 8:3 says,” rather He said, “It is written.” Knowing where to find scripture is wonderful and allows you to share it with others. But knowing scripture itself is far more important. Jesus didn’t fight Satan with citations, He fought him with God’s truth and God’s promises. Jesus had utter faith in His Father’s faithfulness and truthfulness and goodness. That is how Jesus resisted evil: by believing with unwavering faith in God and His words.
“Will you proclaim by word and example the Good New of God in Christ?”
Having believed in God, joined in the life of the Church, and made some progress in resisting evil—all of these internal to ourselves—, we then reach outside and proclaim the Good New of God in the world. Until we have a foundation of belief, we are ignorant to speak of God. Until we are part of the life of the Body of Christ, we cannot share that life with the lost. Until we have found a way to resist the evil that besets us, we do not know that power of Christ that is in us.
This is not to hold back anyone’s efforts, but to ensure that the Gospel that is proclaimed in word and example is not the good news of Jon Mark, but in fact the “Good News of God in Christ.” St. Paul, after his conversion, had some interesting run-ins and running outs (cf. Acts 9), and eventually retired to Tarsus for about three years (cf. Acts 9:30-31) before Barnabas took him to Antioch for another year (Acts 11:25-26). He taught and evangelized, but the core of his ministry came after he was seasoned.
“Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?” “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity and right to life of every human being?”
One we have started to live in the Church, resist evil, and evangelize intentionally, we’ve completed the Baptismal Covenant, right? Wrong! We must move onward. We should strive see past the letter of the law—past the outward signs of the covenant— and attempt to comprehend its underlying truth and meaning. The Old Covenant Law, the Torah, became a legalistic end unto itself for some Jews; the literal keeping of the rules, including every permutation and obscure application, was their highest good. But the true heart of the Law isn’t rules. The heart of the Law is that God is holy, and He has a people who are His children, and He wants the very best for them. Christ came as the perfection of the Law.
And the heart of the new covenant is that “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them” (2 Cor. 5:19). Our Baptismal Covenant is about being reconciled to God and becoming ambassadors of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:20). The Father wants all of His children to come home to Him. This is the heart of the covenant. This is the Good News.
Lord Christ, may we be filled with your truth; may we be active members of your Body, living holy lives and resisting evil; may we return to you always; may our word and example faithfully witness to the Gospel; and may we attain to the heart of the covenant, perfect love of You and our neighbor. Amen.
