“Baptized…Called Christian”
Fr. George Wertin
Sunday, January 9th, 2005

I remember in the early 1980’s when the TV series “Roots riveted the nation. In it Alex Haley recounted his family’s history across seven generations, beginning with his ancestor Kunta Kinte who was captured from his village in Africa and sold in slavery in America.

The story begins with Haley recounting the African naming ceremony that takes place on the eighth day after Kunta Kinte’s birth. The name a child is given is both a gift and a challenge. The entire village comes together to pray that God will give the child a long life, bring pride and credit to his family and tribe, and also the spirit to bring honor to the name he was about to receive.

Haley describes the gathering of the tribe at which Omoro gives his firstborn son the name Kunta: “Omoro lifted up the infant and as all watched, whispered three times into his son’s ear the name he had chosen for him. It was the first time the name had ever been spoke as this child’s name, for Omoro’s people felt that each human being should be the first to know who he was.” Then Omoro solemnly carried his son to the edge of the village. There he lifted his baby up with his face to the heavens and said softly, “Behold, the only thin great than yourself.”

In baptism we are given the name of “Christ.” In Christ we come to realize who we are. In Christ we are embraced into a new family. In Christ we learn to be disciples of Jesus, the Christ. In baptism we learn to discover our own identity.

Today I would like to reflect on two points:

1. reclaiming the meaning of Baptism today
2. living out our baptismal commitment here in this community of St. Joan of Arc

Baptism, therefore, is our welcome into a new family – a family not based on biology and bloodlines, but on compassion, justice and love. We are welcomed into a family where there is mutual respect. It is a partnership. St. Paul got it right in his letter to the Galatians: “Each of you is a child of God because of your faith in Christ Jesus. All of you who have been baptized in Christ have clothed yourself with him. There does not exist among you Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female. All are one in Christ Jesus. (Gal 3:26-28)

What a refreshing shift from the association of baptism with the persistent misinterpretation of original sin as a hereditary condemnation of innocents by a cruel god. Literal interpretation of such passages as the passage from John’s Gospel : “Unless you are born again of water and the Spirit you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven” have shifted the focus of Christian theology and made it seem that only Christians were pleasing and acceptable to God. I like the insight of the Buddhist monk Thich Nat Hanh when he says, “When we believe ours is the only true faith, violence and suffering will surely be the result.” Or consider it in reverse: the suffering and violence we might experience at the hands of those who consider theirs the only true faith.

A good question to ask is “Why was Jesus baptized?” Jesus’ baptism is important enough to be narrated in all four Gospels. Why did Jesus need to be baptized? Did he need to have sin removed??? Baptism, for Jesus, was the inauguration of a new way of relating to God. It was a commissioning and inauguration of “the Kingdom of God” in which the key element was not based on purity codes and avoidance of contamination, but on being compassionate as our God is compassionate.

Yes, baptism is about sin, but original sin is “the sin of the world” – the world into which people are born. The question is: how do we welcome people into this beautiful, but wounded and fallen world. It’s a dangerous place. It is a place of duplicity and lies. There is double speak. People speak of peace and love at the same time as they create weapons of destruction and carry out wars. This is a world where people sing about loving all peoples as sister and brothers, but vilify people who are different from themselves. It is a world where people say they are hospitable, but who reject and condemn people who do not conform to their standards of behavior. This is a world where people are encouraged to act compassionately, but where domination and oppression of women and minorities is rampant. This is a world where people extol freedom, but are totally trapped by the compulsion to consume.

Here at St. Joan of Arc we have a common vision. It is one that calls us to act out our baptism commitment of compassion, inclusivity and peace. We know it sounds easy, but it is a challenge, especially in a world that so often says being Christian means being pious and avoiding the contamination of this world.

We are a strong community. We have grown through the years. We have a sense of who we are and who we must be as a community called Christian. We have learned to be a collaborative community where everyone is called into partnership. We have learned to be a community of hope and healing in the face of adversity. We have learned what it means to be a prophetic community offering an alternative vision to violence, discrimination and legalism.

We have learned what it means to reclaim what it means to be Christian. It means we have chosen to be a part of a spiritual family based on a common vision. I am confident that St. Joan of Arc will continue to bring nonviolence, healing and hospitality into this world. Why? Because we have a clear vision and we know we cannot walk alone.

And we must remember: “Life is change. Growth is optional.”