The Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
One thing I looked forward to when I was a Letter Carrier with the Postal Service was a new National Agreement between the USPS and the unions, which would lay out pay increases for the length of the contract, usually three years.
Sometimes, the union and postal management would come to an agreement before the contract would end. Other times it would go to arbitration, in which case, we would get a retroactive check dating back to the end of the previous contract. Pay raises and COLAs were important to me as a carrier, as for much of the Carrier portion of my career, we were a single-paycheck household.
Towards the end of my time delivering mail, I became the Shop Stewart for our office. It was my job to be familiar with what the contract stated, in order to fairly represent other carriers in disputes with management. This experience helped me later when I was promoted to Supervisor, as I still needed to pay attention to new union contracts, in order to manage employees well. At Villanova, we filed few grievances. Some union members may think my predecessors and I were poor Stewarts because we rarely submitted them. My view is we were able to work things out before it got to that level. Since we were a smaller office, there was a sense of family there, even if it was a dysfunctional one at times. Our World today is one filled with legalities. In most cases, they are needed.
I would hate to imagine what would happen if all legal contracts and agreements, were to be deemed null and void. The chaos could bring down a civilization. However, in the spiritual realm, we have a history of a simple contract dating back to the time when God made a covenant with Abraham. A covenant is not only a legally binding agreement, but implies a relationship as well,.
I will be your God, and you will be my people.
God promised Abraham his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the Heavens, and they would someday inhabit a promised land and become a great nation. An important point to me in the story?
God is the one who chose Abraham.
Before their encounter, Abraham was not aware of God’s presence. All too often, people tend to complicate the simple, so I guess it is no surprise that Abrahams covenant with God grew to 613 laws, by the time of the book of Leviticus. The relational covenant had become a highly legalistic set of rules. That is why God’s promise of a new covenant in our first reading from Jeremiah is so important.
God promises a revamping of the legal system which burdened the children of Abraham. God admits they were unable to follow that law and promises to write a new one on our hearts. More like the spirit of the law as opposed to the letter.
We hear:
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts;
and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.
Jeremiah’s prophecy came to fruition through Jesus. His teachings about the kingdom laid down the foundation for the early Church. Rather than circumcision, which left out half of the community, followers of Jesus were baptized into the Faith. A question in some circles of Christianity is Who should be baptized? Should baptismal candidates be old enough to make the decision for themselves or should the Faithful be baptized as infants or children?
As Episcopalians, we rely on the three-legged stool of Scripture, Tradition and Reason. Therefore, we believe what we read in the Acts of the Apostles from Scripture, that entire households were baptized in the early Church, without any mention of excluding those before the age of reason. Tradition dating back to New Testament times, writings from the early Church fathers, and even a Church Council confirm that this is what we did and continue to do to this day. And it is reasonable. And this very day we are welcoming two new members into the Community of Faith. Domenic and Griffin will be baptized at (the 10:15 / this service). Later this morning
Since these two new Christians aren’t old enough to make this important decision on their own, their parents and godparents will speak for them. Those familiar with the Rite of Baptism will know that leading up to the actual baptisms, the baptismal covenant is prayed not just by parents and godparents, but all of us. We all confirm the promises we made or were made for us as children.
It is a healthy and needed practice to affirm our promises we made to God years ago. It is also important that we realize what is happening with Griffin and Domenic does not happen in a vacuum or in a back room, but rather in a community setting with grandparents, other family, and friends, who will join in supporting these children as they grow in Faith, and not only family, but the entire congregation and Church.
Our relationship with God is not only a vertical Jesus and me one, but also one with those around us, those whom God places in our lives. Sometimes the horizonal relationships are more difficult than the Jesus and me one. I’ve heard it said:
The church is alright, it’s the people I can’t stand.
Or as a friend mentioned to me yesterday that being a lawyer would be great if it weren’t for the clients. And likewise, our baptismal covenant. The first part affirms our Faith in God as revealed to His Church, Our affirming the Apostles Creed, and promising to resist evil, and to repent of sin are about our relationship with God. but the latter section:
To seek and serve Christ in all persons,
Loving our neighbors as ourselves.
Striving for justice and peace among all people,
and respecting the dignity of every human being are much harder.
But they are two sides of the same coin.
They feed into one another. When we are faithful to our prayers, study of Scripture, it becomes easier to love one another When we work on our relationships, trying to love another, even when it is hard, we find it easier to pray. If we really love God and neighbor as Jesus taught us, things will fall into place. I’d like to end with a thought shared with me by Rev Jane.
Every time we make the sign of the cross, Which we do several times during worship, we are reminded of our vertical relationship with God and our horizonal relationships with our neighbors. Lets think of this every time we do so.