A Word to Lent

Command and promise. The Lord commands Abram, “Go,” and Abram goes. The Lord promises to bless Abram and the Lord blesses him. It is how the journey begins for Abram and his wife Sarai. Command and promise. Promise and command.

It is how the journey of discipleship begins for each of us as well. Through the water and Word of our baptism into Christ, we are commanded to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them . . . and teaching them” (Matthew 28:19-20). Through the water and Word of our baptism into Christ, we receive God’s promise to forgive our sins, redeem us from death and the devil, and give us eternal salvation. As Martin Luther writes in The Small Catechism, “Baptism is not simply plain water. Instead, it is water used according to God’s command and connected with God’s word” (Evangelical Lutheran Worship, p. 1164). Command and promise. Promise and command.

It is a good place for us to begin our Lenten journey, returning to where it all begins for us, at the font. At the font, Christ calls us into relationship, commanding us to follow him and promising that we belong to him forever. Everything we do as disciples of Jesus flows out of that singular command and promise. We belong to Christ. Now go.

I am really bad at building things. Whether it happens to be a piece of furniture from IKEA or a fence around my garden or a new Lego creation, something always and inevitably seems to go wrong. When this happens (and it almost always does!), there is oftentimes only one thing I can do. Go back to the beginning and start again. Tear apart the thing I thought I knew how to build and go back to the basics, one step at a time. It can be frustrating. It can be time-consuming. It can seem like I am not making any progress at all, but with a lot of patience and a good bit of stubbornness, things eventually seem to work out, even if imperfectly so.

In many ways, it feels like the things we used to do to be the church together are no longer working. Things that used to get results no longer do. Ministry structures that used to be effective are no longer getting the job done. Ways in which we used to experience community together are no longer cutting it. Even in our individual lives of discipleship to Christ, things feel different, harder, less sure. The thing we thought we were building is not turning out the way we had hoped. Sound familiar?

The season of Lent which we enter today calls us back to the beginning, to the font, to the basics of Christian discipleship, indeed, to the command and promise of our baptism into Christ. In the Service of Affirmation of Baptism, we are asked, “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?”

When nothing else seems to be working, we return to these five baptismal promises, both as communities of disciples and in our individual lives of discipleship to Jesus. When it feels like everything we once knew and loved is falling apart, these five baptismal promises remind us who we are, what we are called to do, and what faithfulness in Christ’s church looks like. No matter how big or how small our community of disciples may be, these five baptismal promises lived out in our daily lives are the marks of vital Christian community and discipleship in the world.

Command and promise. Promise and command. It is how it all began for Abram and Sarai. It is how the life of discipleship also begins for us, trusting that the promise we have in Christ through the water and Word of our baptism is strong enough to lead us and carry us as we go into the world to do what we have been commanded to do, no matter how hard it may be. “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 19:20).

Now, let us begin +

Bishop Greg