"Living In Love With God" Pentecost May 27, 2007

(First, read the text for this sermon: John 14:8-27)

You and I are on a path to loving God more and more deeply. It’s the path of the baptismal life.

When parents bring children to the baptismal font, this is what is said to them:

As you bring your children to receive the gift of baptism, you are entrusted with responsibilities:
To live with them among God’s faithful people,
bring them to the word of God and the holy supper,
teach them the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments,
place in their hands the holy scriptures,
and nurture them in faith and prayer,
so that your children may learn to trust God,
proclaim Christ through word and deed,
care for others and the world God made,
and work for justice and peace.
Do you promise to help your children grow in the Christian faith and life?”

Why is all of that said to the parents of children at the baptismal font? Is this simply a list of rules to follow, for its own sake? A list of “shoulds” and “oughts?” (After all, many people think that is what religion is: rules of what’s right and what’s wrong.)

What a shame for someone to hold that opinion! Instead, what’s named in the baptismal liturgy are practices of the faith. And the joyous reality is that, through these practices, God forms us into people walking along the baptismal path to loving God more and more deeply.

So, for instance, when we hear the word of God and eat and drink the holy supper over the years, we are drawn to love God deeply. When we live according to the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments over the years, we are drawn to love God deeply.

Can a person be a Christian without “going to church?” Well, I guess you can hold a set of beliefs, even if you don’t assemble with other believers for worship. You can hold yourself to rules of right and wrong. But much more life-giving than that is following the baptismal life of loving God more and more deeply, and that’s done with others, in community.

The baptismal life is not so much getting straight a set of “head trip” beliefs (so you can argue with those who disagree with you, and declare them to be wrong). The baptismal life is certainly not following a bunch of rules for their own sake! Rather, from those waters of the baptismal font, God the Holy Spirit set us off on a path to loving God more and more deeply. That only happens as God the Holy Spirit forms us through the practices of the faith (and we’re back to the list in the liturgy): as we live among God’s faithful people, as we digest the word of God and the holy supper, as we live the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments, as we are nurtured in faith and prayer, as we learn to trust God, and to proclaim Christ through word and deed, and to care for others and the world God made, and to work for justice and peace.

Isn’t this what Jesus means, in this morning’s reading in John: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” If this is the way we’re living because we love God so deeply, then they are not “commandments” in the sense of a bunch of rules, imposed from the outside, that we feel we have to follow! Instead, they become part of who we are! We want to live in a certain way – because we love God so deeply. We want to please the One we love!

Then, according to this morning’s verses from John, God lives within and among us, in a mystical way. Philip and Judas are mistaken in their assumptions. Philip asks, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied" – as if God is somewhere “out there,” where we can’t see God! Judas (not Iscariot) says to Jesus, "Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?" – as if God is something “out there” to be revealed!

Instead, listen to what Jesus says: Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” We walk the baptismal path within the love of God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God draws you and me more and more deeply in love through the practices of the baptismal life.

In the liturgy for Holy Baptism, the promises asked of the parents make it clear that they must be partners with God. Here’s something else that happens in that liturgy for Holy Baptism. The pastor asks this of the assembled congregation: “People of God, do you promise to support Colin Alexander, and pray for him in his new life in Christ?” The assembled worshipers respond, “We do.” Why do we all make promises when we celebrate a baptism? It’s because the baptismal path is not one that we walk alone, on our own. Instead, along the way, we surround each other, with support and nurture and care, as we live in love with God.

And after years of being nurtured and supported in the practices of the faith, the baptized Christian comes to the point of affirming his or her baptism. She comes of age, to make for herself the promises others made for her at the font. This morning, after speaking the words of the Apostles’ Creed, this will be asked of those affirming their baptisms:

You have made public profession of your faith. Do you intend to continue in the covenant God made with you in holy baptism:
to live among God’s faithful people,
to hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper,
to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed,
to serve all people, following the example of Jesus,
and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth?

The one affirming his or her baptism responds, “I do, and I ask God to help and guide me.” And then here is the next question asked: “People of God, do you promise to support these sisters and brothers and pray for them in their life in Christ?”; and you assembled worshipers respond (if you’re willing to do this!), “We do, and we ask God to help and guide us.”

And the baptismal life continues. It is a life-long path to loving God more and more deeply. It is a life of practicing the faith along the way, because through those practices God forms us in love. It is life in community, because we so much need each other’s nurture and support and encouragement along the way; because we need each other to hold us to account, as we take the risk each day of letting go, to trust, to love God more and more deeply.

What a joyful path!

Thanks be to God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.


Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia