Fulfilling our Baptismal Vows - Service

Scriptures for Sunday, November 20th.

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

Matthew 25:31-40

Sermon

Today is the liturgical version of New Years Eve.  We have journeyed together through scripture and through the Christian year and have reached the culminating point in the journey-  Christ the King Sunday.  This is a day in which we celebrate the majesty of our King Jesus, and one in which we recommit our entire lives to his authority.  In fact, there is probably no more appropriate day for us to have renewed our baptismal vows and to have given our commitments for the next year.  We are testifying in all ways possible that we intend to live in this world as if it is the kingdom of God.

However, I sometimes come to Christ the King Sunday with mixed feelings.  I tend to think our culture does not have any problem picturing Christ as this great and powerful King to whom we need to submit.  We often sing of God or Jesus with grandiose language and talk about how powerful the name of Jesus is.  And though we may struggle with some of the implications, and though I may resist strongly the idea that our loving Christ would cast anyone into eternal punishment, I think our culture also has no problem picturing Jesus sitting in a throne in judgment at the end of the ages.  In a way, it is the perfect Sunday to discuss our baptismal vow of service.

We tend to respect and idealize power.  Though not all respect the president, most respect the office of the presidency as it has always been the most powerful position in the world.  We often respect the titans of industry who have helped shape the world.  When the founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, passed away, we as a nation reveled in just how this amazing man reshaped society because of his visionary image.  Our American dream often encompasses moving up the economic, corporate and social ladder to reach the optimum level of success.

In a vacuum, there is nothing wrong with the lauding of any of these displays of power.  In Christianity, however, we temper this idea of Christ as King, Christ as all powerful, with many other contradictory images.  Our great and powerful King enters the story not as a conqueror, but as a helpless babe.  Our mighty shepherd is himself protected early in life by those who would cause him arm.  Our Lord of life had no physical kingdom, eschewed all armies, and washed the feet of his closest servants.  This is a King unlike any we have ever known.  Someone whose power comes not from accumulating might, but by rejecting every opportunity to embrace power.  Thus, part of me wonders if Jesus would be a little embarrassed by devoting a day each and every year where we celebrate him as a grand king.

Kingly imagery has its place.  But when we think of Jesus on the thrown, I think we struggle to understand the implications of today’s scripture.  How can Jesus both be on a throne, but also declare “just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”  Is Jesus in his palace, or in a cardboard box?  Is Jesus wearing an Armani suit, or a thread bare t-shirt that provides no warmth?  Should we seek an audience with the King, or figure out what time visiting hours are at the prison?  Frankly its kind of confusing.  How can Jesus be both?

Just because it is so confusing, I want us to supplement our kingly image of God with a different image.  One drawn from the very symbol of God’s love that we celebrated today-  that of water.  The water in baptism makes present God’s love for us in the here and now.  It allows us to touch and feel God’s presence when we touch and feel God.  But we know there is far more to water than just its use in baptism-  water is at the core of all life as we know it.  It is water that allows crops to go.  Water, whether in the ocean or the lake, teams with life.  When scientists search other planets for life, they begin their search by looking for water.  Where there is no water, there is no life.  

Do you know that we as humans are 60% water?  In fact, water is perhaps the largest ingredient in all life forms.  But the water does not stay trapped within us.  We take it in, we sweat it out.  It passes through the skin.  It is absolutely necessary, and cannot be contained.  I cannot prevent the water that is in me from being absorbed into the air and possibly flowing into one of you.  

What if Jesus is like that water?  What if it were impossible to have life if God through Jesus was not present.  And what if that water that is Jesus flows in and amongst every single living thing?

What would it look like if we really believed God was in and through everything?  If God were actually present in each one of us the way water is present in each one of us.  How would we live differently?

Once a great order, as a result of waves of anti-monastic persecution in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the rise of secularism in the nineteenth, all its branch houses were lost and it had become decimated to the extent that there were only five monks left in the decaying mother house: the abbot and four others, all over seventy in age. Clearly it was a dying order.

In the deep woods surrounding the monastery there was a hermitage. As the abbot agonized over the imminent death of his order, it occurred to him to visit the hermitage and ask if by some possible chance the hermit could offer any advice that might save the monastery.

The hermit welcomed the abbot at his hut. But when the abbot explained the purpose of his visit, the hermit could only commiserate with him: “I know how it is,” he exclaimed. “The spirit has gone out of the people. It is the same in all the nearby towns. So the old abbot and the hermit commiserated together. The time came when the abbot had to leave. They embraced each other. “It has been a wonderful thing that we should meet after all these years,” the abbot said, “but I have still failed in my purpose for coming here. Is there nothing you can tell me, no piece of advice you can give me that would help me save my dying order?” “No, I am sorry,” the hermit responded. “I have no advice to give. The only thing I can tell you is that the Messiah is one of you.”

When the abbot returned to the monastery his fellow monks gathered around him to ask, “Well what did the hermit say?” “He couldn’t help,” the abbot answered. “We just commiserated and read the scriptures together. The only thing he did say, just as I was leaving — it was something cryptic — was that the Messiah is one of us. I don’t know what he meant.”

In the days and weeks and months that followed, the old monks pondered these words and wondered whether there was any possible significance. The Messiah is one of us? Could he possibly have meant one of us monks here at the monastery? If that’s the case, which one?

Do you suppose he meant the abbot? Yes, if he meant anyone, he probably meant the Abbot. He has been our leader for more than a generation.

On the other hand, he might have meant Brother Thomas. Certainly Brother Thomas is a holy man. Everyone knows that Thomas is a man of light.

Certainly he could not have meant Brother Elred! Elred gets crotchety at times. But come to think of it, even though he is a thorn in people’s sides, when you look back on it, Elred is virtually always right. Often very right. Maybe the hermit did mean Brother Elred.

But surely not Brother Phillip. Phillip is so passive, a real nobody. But then, almost mysteriously, he has a gift for somehow always being there when you need him. He just magically appears by your side. Maybe Phillip is the Messiah.

Of course the hermit didn’t mean me. He couldn’t possibly have meant me. I’m just an ordinary person. Yet supposing he did? Suppose I am the Messiah? O God, not me. I couldn’t be that much for You, could I?

As they contemplated in this manner, the old monks began to treat each other with extraordinary respect on the off chance that one among them might be the Messiah. And on the off, off chance that each monk himself might be the Messiah, they began to treat themselves with extraordinary respect.

Because the forest in which it was situated was beautiful, it so happened that people still occasionally came to visit the monastery to picnic on its tiny lawn, to wander along some of its paths, even now and then to go into the dilapidated chapel to meditate. As they did so, without even being conscious of it, they sensed the aura of extraordinary respect that now began to surround the five old monks and seemed to radiate out from them and permeate the atmosphere of the place. There was something strangely attractive, even compelling, about it. Hardly knowing why, they began to come back to the monastery more frequently to picnic, to play, to pray. They began to bring their friends to show them this special place. And their friends brought their friends.

Then it happened that some of the younger men who came to visit the monastery started to talk more and more with the old monks. After a while one asked if he could join them. Then another. And another. So within a few years the monastery had once again become a thriving order and, thanks to the hermit’s gift, a vibrant center of light and spirituality in the realm.

When the monks began to see the Messiah in one another, new life sprang forth where only death had existed.  What would happen if we embraced the hermits vision?  What if we really and truly believed that the Messiah is present in our lives and that we will interact with that same Messiah potentially every day of our lives.

Would your treat your neighbor differently?  Would you look at the beggar on the street in the same way?  Would you think the same about a person put before trial?  Would we act in the same way when we serve a community meal.

My friends, this is what our baptismal vow of service calls us to.  We are to submit to the kingly authority of Christ by assuming that Christ is in each and every person we meet.  When we act that way, and when we love in that fashion, God’s kingdom will be truly present.

Fulfilling our Baptismal Vows- Presence

Scripture

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Matthew 25:1-13

Sermon

Have you ever been just off? Just a little late?

Maybe you were joking back and forth with a friend, were playfully insulted, and then no comeback comes to mind.  Its only a minute later, when the moment has passed, that the perfect thing pops into your mind.

Or perhaps you find yourself attracted to someone across the room at a party.  You sit and try to work the nerve up to approach them, figure out the right thing to say, and finally decide you are going to risk being foolish and open yourself up to a stranger.  In the moment you make to walk over, they get up and leave with their friends.  The moment has passed- your opportunity missed.

On the other side, have you ever been in the right place at just the right time?  A friend is in crisis, and you happen to pop in just when they needed you?  Or perhaps a child was about to run into the street in front of a car and you grab a hold of them just before they are about to be hit.  

In all these scenarios, the difference between experiencing utter joy and utter misery, the difference between a life changing experience and just another humdrum day, is mere seconds.  I know that in life, sometimes I am prepared to respond at a seconds notice when a situation occurs, but all too often I am  oblivious until it is too late.  The difference?  I am only ready to respond when my heart and mind are fully engaged in the moment.  Or, to put it in terms of the our second baptismal vows, I’m only ready when I’m actually present.

Now, of all the baptismal vows, of prayer, presence, gift and service, surely this seems like the easiest.  I mean, the other three require you to do something, whereas this one just asks-  are you there?

The parable Jesus tells today reveals the true complexity of being present.  All 10 of the bridesmaids were waiting for the groom to arrive.  Apparently, they were waiting so long that day turned into night and the groom had not yet arrived.  The story tells us that 5 of the women were prepared for that delay but 5 were not.  And who can blame them?  Who expects the groom to be late to his own wedding?  But, when suddenly, unexpectedly the groom arrives in the middle of the night, it is only those who have the presence of mind to be ready that get to enjoy the festivities of the wedding banquet.  The others can only morn another opportunity lost.

We are told in the parable that this is what the kingdom of heaven is like.  In a way, this can seem harsh and scary.  If this is about the eternal fate of our souls, are we really all prepared for that moment to come?  But I think, at times, that Matthew’s choice of language might obscure the point here.  You see, Matthew uses the phrase “kingdom of heaven” a lot in scripture- 31 times in his Gospel in fact.  This is a phrase, at least in the NRSV or NIV translations, that is unique to Matthew.  This is because Matthew has a particular quirk in his writing style-  he follows the Jewish practice of not using the Lord’s name so as not to take it in vain.  Thus, instead of saying Kingdom of God, he instead called it kingdom of heaven.  2,000 years later, we miss this nuance because we tend to use the word heaven to refer to a place of reward in the afterlife.

If you consider that Matthew is referring to the here and now instead of some unknown future time, I think this parable takes on a whole new dimension.  Rather than a pop quiz designed to separate out the good from the bad- rewarding one and damning the other, the text actually becomes a key revealing how we can experience the kingdom of God.  What separated out the 5 wise bridesmaid from the 5 foolish ones?  They were prepared for the moment?

How can we be prepared to be present for someone?  First, we have to learn to look beyond ourselves.  I am incredibly guilty at times of thinking the whole world revolves around me.  When a friend has a crisis at a bad time, I can at times coldly bemoan the timing of the crisis and its impact on me rather than focus on the person going through the crisis.  Thus, I become less present for that person, and I become a barrier, rather than a gateway, to the kingdom of God entering into that moment.

How can we move beyond ourselves?  One of the ways I’ve found is right here at the communion table.  I haven’t always appreciated communion in the past.  It seemed ritualized and ordinary.  It was only after I started seminary that I realized that this is the one regular moment when we all come together to experience God’s presence.  Too often, I as the pastor end up being the central point.  At communion, it is God’s presence, represented by the juice and bread, that is to take over our senses.

At times in our history, we Christians have missed the point.  Rather then being present at the table, and celebrating God’s presence there, we have fought over the specific nature of that presence.  Is Jesus really there, in body, or in spirit?  Or is it in memory?  Its not that these questions aren’t important, but when the debate distracts from the presence of Jesus in our midst, we are like foolish bridesmaids who miss the opportunity to experience the kingdom.

In a moment, I’ll be privileged to invite Rev. Bob Springer, a retired Lutheran pastor to lead us in communion.  I’ve grown to know Bob and appreciate his willingness to come do this.  A key aspect of Bob’s work in ministry has been working to overcome those things that divide us at the communion table and prevent us from fully experiencing God.  And, as a pastor, I’m especially privileged to have the opportunity to just come to the table this morning worried about nothing more then experiencing the love of God.  

Whether its communion, or church, or just life, the kingdom of heaven is waiting to burst forth into your life today.  And the kingdom of heaven is waiting for you to be the one to open up the kingdom of heaven to others.  If you are distracted, you may miss the opportunity to create a piece of the kingdom of God right here and now.  But if you are present, you’ll experience the joy that is the kingdom of God right here in your midst.

Fulfilling our Baptismal Vows- Prayer

Scriptures for Sunday, October 30th:

1 Thessalonians 2:9-13

Joshua 3:7-17

Sermon

Today we begin a four week journey where we explore baptism, the vows we take, the grace it provides, as a way to examine our own commitment as individual Christians and as a church.  We are at the time of year where we are called to lay out a vision for the future of our congregation.  We do this in several formats-  through our charge conference, through a strategic planning meeting this Thursday, and through our commitment campaign that will culminate on November 20.

The fullness of that commitment can be found in two vows that we take during the baptismal process.  The first is the vow we take as a congregation, and the second is the vow we take upon confirmation or upon joining the church.

Let's start with the congregational vow in baptism-

With God’s help we will proclaim the good news and live according to the example of Christ.We will surround these persons with a community of love and forgiveness, that they may grow in their trust of God, and be found faithful in their service to others.We will pray for them, that they may be true disciples who walk in the way that leads to life.

In other words, we make a significant commitment that should never be taken lightly-  we are declaring that we hold ourselves responsible for creating the environment in which Elaina (the child we baptized during the service) here will grow.  We are making a solemn vow to create the kind of loving atmosphere in our church, in our community, and in our world, that will enable Elaina to grow up trusting God so much that she too may seek to follow our Lord Jesus Christ in serving others.

Today’s scripture- of Joshua leading the Hebrew people across the Jordan, is one of the  most important pivot points in scripture.  The new generation of God’s chosen people are finally crossing into the promised land, but they can only do so because someone else has prepared the way.

I did not realize the significance of this story for today until I heard then Senator Obama speak in 2007 at the commemoration of the Selma Voting rights march.  In 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led over 600 civil rights marchers to demand equal access to the ballot.  The marchers were attacked by state and local police with billy clubs and tear gas.

So, on the 42nd anniversary of this “Bloody Sunday” march, Senator Obama said 

“So I just want to talk a little about Moses and Aaron and Joshua, because we are in the presence today of a lot of Moseses. We're in the presence today of giants whose shoulders we stand on, people who battled, not just on behalf of African Americans but on behalf of all of America; that battled for America’s soul, that shed blood , that endured taunts and formant and in some cases gave -- torment and in some cases gave the full measure of their devotion.Like Moses, they challenged Pharaoh, the princes, powers who said that some are atop and others are at the bottom, and that's how it's always going to be.  My very existence might not have been possible had it not been for some of the folks here today.”

That generation of civil rights workers endured considerable pain and even death to help to create the more just and kingdom centered world that we live in today.  While we may not yet be at the promised land, we are significantly closer today because of their work.

The people of Israel made a very similar sacrifice for future generations.  They dared to challenge Pharoah, to wander through the desert, to risk starvation to find a future in which their own children would be able to grow and blossom.  But, as is often the case, they create a more just world through their blood, sweat and tears and pass long before they can ever experience it.

When that generation, and when Moses, passed away, it would have been almost natural for them to shrink back in fear and return to the desert.  After all, who was this young upstart in Joshua, someone who had not paid his dues, to lead these people who had suffered so much?  It had only been 30 days since Moses had died-  how dare Joshua be so insensitive.

And really, was the desert so bad?  They had survived for 40 years after all!  And isn’t hanging on and surviving enough?  Shouldn’t we be happy with that?

Have you ever seen a church, a family, or a person who has adopted that desert mentality?  That all time, effort and energy is devoted to simply surviving?  Of course, that is completely appropriate at times!  If we cannot survive, how can we ever hope to be fruitful.  A survival first mentality can help to preserve a person or a church through its darkest days.  It ensures that there can be some vitality in the future when things improve.  

The problem can come when its time to leave the desert.  “Look- I survived this way for 40 years!  Now you want me to change?!?!  I know this works- I won’t die this way!”

That is sort of half true.  You see, the Israelites had arrived at the Jordan before.  And they got scared and turned back.  And though that generation survived, they would die without seeing the promised land.  Who knows what would have happened if they had refused to leave the desert once again.  Eventually, even in survival mode, we all must pass away.

So, the people come face to face with the Jordan.  And the river is raging.  Scripture says it was overflowing the banks.  Throughout the Hebrew Bible, water, especially raging water , stands in for chaos.  So, the people who have survived in the desert must confront this teaming chaos to move forward.  And they must do so led by this pip-squeek who has proved nothing!

And yet, they manage to shake their fears, to trust their new leader, to cross over!  How do they do it?  

They “Draw near and hear the words of the Lord your God.”  We have a word for hearing the words of God-  we call it prayer.  Now that might seem a little odd, because we usually think of prayer as us saying things to God.  But in its fullest sense, prayer is supposed to open us up to hear from God.  That can come in many forms.  For some, it might be a vision or an auditory message from God.  This is what happens to Joshua.  But, for most of us, this is not the form hearing from God takes.  It is more subtle, it is the way that we feel calm after we make the right decision, it is the way we get excited about new ideas, and it is when we look back and can see in retrospect that the decision we made led to new life and new creation.  For me, the most frequent way I feel like I can hear from God is in reading.  Sometimes its scripture and I’m trying to train myself to read in such a way that I am more open to hearing from God in scripture, but often it is the works of other Christians who are sharing their understanding of God.  That’s why we do the reading with the pastor series-  I hope you get something out of it, but even more, I hope it creates a discipline through which I can learn to hear God.

How do you hear God?  Is it with the Monday night prayer group?  With a daily scripture reading?  With a walk in the woods?  With singing a favorite hymn?  Its important, especially now, to try and determine how you best hear from God.  Because today, we have an important commitment to make.  We are declaring that we will listen to God to create the best place for Elaina here to grow and prosper.  Its crucial that we listen to God as we try to envision this future, because after we hear from God-  there is a second important step.

We need to get into the river and get muddy.  Its orderly to keep surviving.  Its messy to step into the chaos and seek new life.  We are afraid we might get swept away.  That we might sink into the mud.  That rather than being filled with new life, that we might perish.  But, my brothers and sisters, if we have truly listened to God, we can be assured that when we step forward in faith, we will find dry land.  When you joined this congregation, you committed to faithfully participate in its ministries through prayer, presence, gift and service.  As we remember our baptismal vows and as we commit to the future of the church, let us renew our commitment for listening to God through prayer.  When we do that, we will find the dry land; we will find that God’s grace allows us to be reborn.  And we will find that we are ready to nurture Elaina and all of the other members of her generation to create a world and a church in which they can prosper.

Creating a mess of the perfect opportunity

Isaiah 5:1-7


Psalm 80

Luke 12:49-56

Sermon
In both Isaiah and the Psalm today, we see an image of God as a vineyard keeper. Now, the process of growing and tending to grapes, of selecting and fermenting the fruit of the vine until is produces a luscious wine may be lost on most of us. But it would not have been lost on an ancient Hebrew audience. Ancient Israel was a rich, arid country and thus well suited to the task. And yet, they knew that cultivating a vineyard was demanding and tedious work because it took a long time to bring a vine to maturity. “Vinedressers must be dedicated, patient people, not unlike shepherds. Both are dealing with living things that follow their own laws of growth, which the ones tending cannot really control. They must be willing to forgo their own comfort in the face of long hours and inclement weather." 1

So while this image may not be as familiar to us, what a beautiful and accurate description of God- both then and now. God had certainly put in long and tedious hours with his people Israel. God had transplanted the Jewish people out of Egypt where they had been oppressed. He had listened to their cry when they feared starvation in the desert. He had led them to a fertile land where they could live in prosperity. Indeed, the scripture makes clear that God had set up the perfect conditions- the stones had been cleared, the vines planted, the watch tower built, the vat dug, shade provided, irrigation- accounted for. There was no loose end that God had not accounted for. In its description, it sounds like a new Eden- a paradise where all was perfect.

Having created the ultimate setting to which life could flourish, God turns over the vineyard to his chosen people. Imagine being handed a successful business, a livelihood where if you but follow instructions, you are guaranteed to profit. You’d be excited right? And yet, when God leaves the tending of the vineyard in the hands of the chosen people, God returns to find the paradise trampled. The well-manicured fields are now overgrown. The hedges left in disarray. The grapes crushed beneath the tracks of wild animals.

What had happened? How could the people have gone so wrong? How could the perfect situation have been turned upside down so quickly? Luckily, this is one parable that the scriptures give us a direct explanation. In Isaiah, chapter 5, verse 7, “For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!” The full turn around that took place is made even more poignant in the Hebrew- the word for cry, tse'aqah, is particularly important and revealing. “When God’s people were being victimized by Pharaoh in Egypt, their response was to cry” or tse’aqah to God for help. This is a famous phrase in Exodus that Isaiah is using for a purpose- The people of Israel have recreated the oppressive conditions of Pharaoh’s Egypt- only this time it is their leaders and actions that have followed a system that created victims who cried out to God for their help.

So, why do they not tend the vineyard? Why do they not follow the will of God? God created the conditions by which the people could flourish- why not follow through? We can speculate about human nature, about the persistence of evil, about the oppressive economic and political systems of those ancient days. But, perhaps the more poignant question to ask is, given those same conditions, given that same vineyard to tend, how are we doing?

I don’t know about you, but if I suddenly inherited a vineyard, I’d make a mess of it. It sounds as if it requires considerable patience, never-ending attention, and a green thumb that I’ve never managed to develop. Amidst my crazy schedule and at times non-stop life, where on earth could I find the time to care for it? I might be able to squeeze caring for the garden in for the first few weeks, but eventually my attention would stray so that the vines would wither and the yield would dry up.

In these last few weeks, many of you know that we’ve been having a series of coffee chats so that I could get to know you better through some small group discussions. Thank you for taking the time to host or attend one. By the way, if you couldn’t make it, next week I’ll have a signup sheet for one last coffee chat that will take place here at church the last week of August. But one of the consistent struggles that I heard people express was how busy they were and thus how difficult it was to fit more activities, including those in the church, into their busy schedule. Now the reasons for the business varied, including those who were already ensconced in a number of church activities, but finding time without dropping from exhaustion was nearly a universal concern.

Theologian Richard Gaillardetz, in Transforming our Days- Finding God amid the noise of Modern Life, argues that one of the quintessential features of western culture is the desire to control and manage time. He points to the myriad of devices that are advertised as time savers, the prevalence of microwave meals instead of those prepared from scratch in the kitchen, and the constant need to be digitally connected as ways in which society tries to control, take back and conquer the ever moving clock. He continues that in today’s society, the new normal is a kind of hyper-reality in which any time spent at rest or in leisure is considered to be wasted, or at the very least, boring.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Gaillardetz isn’t saying that we should try and turn back the clocks and ignore modernity, but simply to consider the tradeoffs that are occurring so that we might use timesaving devices to create more space rather than pack more into every minute. For instance, I have both a “smart” cell phone and an Ipod that allows me to organize my time and stay connected to the world. I can always get my email, be available by phone, and know my schedule. This frees up my tendency to double schedule and helps aid my brain in remembering tasks and appointments. But, it also creates in me an urge to constantly check the news, my email, and the events of the world in any free moment I have. It even can intrude into my face-to-face conversations as I habitually check my email or news updates and ignore what is right in front of me. In essence, I allow the timesaving device to consume more time and effort rather than create more space and leisure.

I think one of the more interesting parts of the vineyard analogy are the duel roles in which we play. Yes, God gives us a vineyard to tend and we hold the very real potential of destroying it. But, we are also part of creation, this vineyard that God himself is trying to tend to. We are the fruit of that creation that God wants to flourish, we have to take time to- and I know I’m starting to take this too far- to ripen on the vine. We have to give time over for prayer, study, reading, meditation, some form of quietness in which God can intrude in our lives and expand our range of vision. The time to do this can be difficult in our modern lives, but without it, we can become self-centered and exhausted.

But as people created to be vinedressers, we must find the time to care for those around us and the world in which we live. We must take the time to serve in mission so that we might help those who are struggling to get by in the world. We must be patient and supportive of those who struggle with the grief and to actually be present with them as they go through the healing process. And we must make space for those whose doubts and ideas may not conform to our understanding of God’s will in the world and be open to give both them and ourselves time to grow so that we might reach new understanding. If we fail to do this, the part of creation that we can touch will inevitable wither and go into disarray.

Today we have an opportunity to renew our pledges as God’s vinedressers. We have the honor of baptizing Kody. As part of this process, we will make several pledges. First, we will vow to renew our own baptismal commitment in which we declare ourselves to be children of God and set out to live out our lives in accordance with the divine will. And second, we vow to be an extension of Kody’s family, one that will take the time to ensure his best interests and to help him as he grows. We will have to commit the time to teach Kody in our Sunday schools. We will have to support him as he grows and cheer him on. We will have to help his family create the perfect environment so that he too may go forth to tend fields of his own. This is a difficult commitment. We are signing up for many years worth of work. But it is a mission to which we are called. It is one of the purposes for which we were created. Let us take the time to do so so that God need not come in response to his or the wider world’s cry.