“Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5-6a).
It was a season of transition for God’s people. Having just been rescued by God out of their slavery in Egypt, God’s people had now entered the wilderness of Sinai and were camping in front of the mountain. Moses goes up the mountain where God speaks to him.
First, God commands Moses to remind God’s people of everything God had done for them: “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself” (19:4). Second, having reminded them of God’s promise, God calls God’s people to a new way of living: “Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples … you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation” (19:5-6a). Third, having heard both God’s promise and God’s command, God’s people affirm their new calling: “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do” (19:8a).
As we enter these summer months, we, too, find ourselves in a season of transition. The first half of the liturgical year that stretches from Advent through the Day of Pentecost celebrates who God is and all that God has done for us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The second half of the liturgical year, the Season after Pentecost, that stretches from Holy Trinity Sunday all the way through Christ the King Sunday at the end of November, focuses on who we are as God’s people and how God calls us to live as Jesus’ disciples in the world. Having heard the promises of all that God has done for us in Christ Jesus, we now turn our attention to who Christ calls us to be and what Christ calls us to do.
It is a transition that is descriptive of the life of Christian discipleship. In the water and Word of our baptism, God has acted to rescue us from our bondage to sin, death, and evil, joining us to the death and resurrection of Christ. At the same time, in and through our baptism into Christ, God calls us into a new way of living as we follow Christ’s commands and live as Jesus’ disciples in the world. As we daily return to the promises of our baptism, confessing our sin and opening ourselves up to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, we, through the gift of the Spirit at work in our lives, affirm our identity as baptized children of God and recommit ourselves to following in Christ’s ways. First, promise. Then, command. Then, affirmation.
The mission statement of our Central/Southern Illinois Synod is Nurturing communities of disciples, equipped for Christ’s mission. Our identity as communities of disciples always begins at the font of baptism where God’s gracious promise in Christ is made real for us. However, our identity as communities of disciples does not end at the font. The promise of baptism sends us out into the world to bear witness to God’s love for all, a witness that becomes flesh for others through both our words and our actions.
In his work Just Beyond Our Grasp, theologian and author Frederick Buechner writes, “Faith is the direction our feet start moving when we find that we are loved.” For many years, I had this quote taped to my office door. As we live into the season of transition in which we find ourselves, may each of us be reminded of the promise that we, God’s people, are loved, carried on the wings of eagles into God’s very self and may that promise daily move our feet in the direction of faith as we live as Jesus’ disciples in the world. Empowered by the Spirit, may we join our voices in boldly affirming, “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.”
Called in baptism +
Bishop Greg