Marked By Baptism

It seems to be part of our essential humanity to live in the midst of great change and the breaking forth of new ways without taking a serious measure of what is unfolding around us. We live so much in the midst of things that it is sometimes difficult to know and to name those forces and circumstances that are molding us. For that reason, it is an invaluable exercise to stop, step back, and reflect: Who are we, and who are we becoming? At a deeper level, we must ask: Are we becoming more who God wants us to become, or less?

From my perspective, one change has greatly influenced our perceptions of who we are and are becoming as God's people: That is a recovery of the understanding of the ministry of each of us, clergy and laity, by virtue of our baptism. Though we have always understood that through baptism we are marked as Christ's own forever, I do believe that in the past 20 years we have come to a deeper awareness of what that really means.

The promises of our baptismal covenant are very clear. Among them, as worded in the Episcopal Church's Book of Common Prayer, are these: "Will you proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ? Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself? Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?"

When these promises are taken seriously, they influence our thoughts and actions in all areas of our lives. They say a great deal about who we are and are becoming. Over these past 20 years, lay and ordained Christians, in abiding by their baptismal vows, have both broadened and sharpened the idea of what it means to be a minister of Christ.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF this fresh understanding of the ministry of all baptized persons have been several, and one of the more obvious, and encouraging, has been the local involvement of Christian people in numerous ways in the community. The examples are endless and we give thanks for them. In greater than ever numbers, and prompted by Christian commitment, we are working in soup kitchens, sponsoring refugee families, working for the protection of the environment, upholding our ethical values in the work place, and involving ourselves in the political process.

This last, political involvement -- in fact advocacy -- is of incredible significance. It is also greatly misunderstood and often viewed with suspicion. Indeed, there are those who say that "religion and politics don't mix." Yet we are pledged in our baptismal covenant to advocacy as a fundamental Christian calling. While it is good and right that we reach into the river of despair and rescue people who are drowning, we must also move upstream and see who is throwing them in.

I believe that over these last years Christian people have more fully accepted the responsibility coming directly out of their baptismal covenant to take part in the dialogue that informs our public policy decisions. These decisions are at their core moral choices. The insights of our faith must be brought to the debates that influence the fates of individuals, communities, and nations.

While it is true that our God is a personal God, and we each can have a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus, the personal nature of this relationship does not mean that our response to the world can be a private matter. The church has a responsibility that is nurtured and informed by the personal relationship each of us has with God. We speak to our hearts in silence upon our beds, as the psalmist says, but then we get up and remember that we are part of a church that has been sent. "As the Father sends me, so I send you."

By rooting our social activism in the baptismal covenant, we remind ourselves that social action and spirituality are two sides of the same coin. This in itself has been a healthy mark of the last years.

The challenges before us as a national and a global village are such that we desperately need the strength that comes from our understanding that we are marked as Christ's own, that we are ministers all, that we are servants of one another by acceptance of Christ's servanthood ministry, and we must behave as such in all parts of our lives, not just in some compartmentalized, "churchy" part of our Sunday-morning selves.

We face this challenge of being God's people in a world where each life is not seen as valuable, and where some people are treated as throwaways. We face the challenge in a world where the notion of community has so eroded that the pervasive attitude is: "If it is good for me then it must be good." This attitude is totally contrary to our Christian understanding and signals an alarming discrediting in our society of the deeper values of service and personal sacrifice for the good of the larger body.

I do believe we are facing the challenge. I believe we are moving in small steps along a bumpy and erratic path on our journey of becoming more who God calls us to become. Our acceptance of our baptismal promises is one mark of our progress. We can give humble thanks for any understanding we can hold onto of our empowerment in Christ and the continuing grace of God's Spirit. Thus armed, we, the blessed company of all faithful people, can move forward as the hands and feet of the cosmic Christ to carry out the gospel imperatives in this needy and broken world.

Edmond L. Browning was the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church when this article appeared.