Sermon by the rev'd. John Bauerschmidt

Proper 7, Year C
June 24, 2001
Christ Church, Covington

"As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:27-28).

No one is a Christian by himself; each of us through our baptism is part of a community of faith, the "holy catholic Church" of the Creeds. Our society encourages us to think of ourselves as individuals, consumers who choose not only our brand of toothpaste and the sort of car we drive, but even our own identities. Nothing could be more alien to the self-conception of the Church, which is a community of faith rather than a collection of individuals; a community chosen not by its members but one chosen by God. We are Christians together, our scriptural tradition tells us; people who have been brought together by our relationship with Christ. We are engaged in a community business, a common venture in which we are connected on the deepest level. In fact, we are a People, the People of God; a family of faith which cannot exist as isolated individuals but only through a common abiding in Christ.

It is Baptism that brings us together in this community of faith. For the Apostle Paul in our second reading, Baptism clothes us with Christ, giving us a common identity. The metaphor is borrowed from Greek drama and the stage, in which the actor adopts the persona of a character by donning an all-enveloping costume. But as Paul develops the metaphor, Baptism does more than create a pretense of identity with Christ (play acting, if you will), but actually creates a new and common identity for us. "You… have clothed yourselves with the new self", he writes in the Letter to the Colossians, "where Christ is all in all" (Col. 3:10-11).

This is a crucial truth for Christians, who celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus. He has risen from the dead, and it is by being identified with him "in a death like his" (Rom. 6:5) through Baptism, that we are given new life in him. By being found clothed with Christ we take on his identity, and share together in resurrection life.

This common life we share in community bridges divisions, and makes what we share in Christ the decisive fact of our life together. Neither the difference between the sexes, given as a part of the goodness of Creation, nor the division between peoples based on class or race which come later as a result of sin, are decisive for our life together. What matters for us is that we are members of a community, the People of God who share a common identity through our Baptism into Christ. "For all of you are one in Christ Jesus", as Paul reminds us today: one in community, one in identity, one in the life we share in Christ.

It is this life that we celebrate today, in the Sacrament of Baptism. Today, James Sutherlin and Hyde Healy enter a new family, by putting on the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Rom. 13:14). Here division is overcome, as new relationships are formed in Christ by the assumption of Jesus’ identity. This is an identity given by God, and not chosen; an identity which we cannot create but which must be given to us. It is an identity that we share in common, an identity that makes us one; an identity that speaks of community, and the reality of the ties that bind us together in Christ.

Today we baptize James and Hyde into this community, in which they are reborn in Christ, and take on this new identity. In the years to come, we will have a chance to see them grow and mature in the Christian life. This is a life they will live in community, as generations come and go. Their Baptism is a challenge to us as a community, as we think about their continuing formation in the Christian life. What will be demanded of us, as we play the role of the community of faith in their ongoing formation in the life of faith? A good question for us, as we consider our mission as a parish, and the exciting adventure of faith these children have begun.

None of us are Christians on our own. In Baptism we are buried with Christ and raised to new life, so that we may be God’s People and share new life with him. James and Hyde today begin to share this identity, and challenge us to be the sort of community in which they and each of us can live the Christian life.

The Rev’d John Bauerschmidt is Rector of Christ Church, Covington.

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