Will you strive for justice and peace among all people
and respect the dignity of every human being?
This is just one of the audacious promises that the church asks those who are to be baptized. Those of us who witness the baptism of a new Christian are also asked to recommit to that very same question time and time again.
Will you strive for justice and peace among all people
and respect the dignity of every human being?
As the Jesus people, there is no way around this levelling question.
It is the nonnegotiable and central work of our baptized lives.
It is the clear life's work of we who follow Jesus.
We live in a world that is awash in violence, war
and seemingly unending brutality and hatred.
We wonder what in the world we can do?
To begin with, we pray. As strivers, we always, always pray.
We pray for the peace of our world. Again and again we pray.
We bring those prayers right into the center of our liturgies.
We pray with really old prayers and we pray with brand new prayers.
Those clear prayers intentionally include the leaders of the nations of the world.
And we boldly and audaciously pray that those leaders around the world will have the wisdom and courage to strive for justice and peace too.
Like this prayer, from our Book of Common Prayer,
often said on Sunday mornings:
Guide the people of this land, and of all the nations,
in the ways of justice and peace
that we may honor one another, and serve the common good.
This kind of praying is at the central and sometimes surprising heart of our shared vocational life. We pray for justice and peace.
Again and again and again we pray.
We are the ones striving for justice and peace.
I hope you can join us this Sunday as we baptize a tiny baby,
Conrad Richard Blaine, and recommit ourselves
to being a community deeply committed to that kind of striving.
And then on Wednesday, February 22 we will begin the season of Lent
with Ash Wednesday.
During the 40 days of Lent we will continue to read together a provocative book by Gregory Boyle, "The Whole Language." It is available from online booksellers.
On the Sundays of Lent, we will gather around this book during our Community Circle time at 8:45am in Casey Hall.
If you are excited about the future of our life and ministry here, and if you are curious about deepening your commitment to this community of common prayer and the shared ministry that God is calling us to, we warmly invite you to add your voice and presence as we encounter this challenging book together.
As your pastor, I give thanks to God for every one of you and for the ways that you bring the presence of Christ into our midst. And I give thanks to God for the ministry that we share and all that God will show us together in the days to come.
See you Sunday!
David
