Lectionary 18.09                                                          Christ Church , York

It has been the fervent hope of every pope who has sat in the chair of Peter, every Patriarch who has presided in Constantinople or every Presiding Bishop who has sought to govern a disparate entity called the Church. And Jesus Himself, shortly before He went to His suffering and death, uttered His plaintive prayer – that they may be One even as He and the Father were one. We see such oneness and unity existing in the natural world all around us; there exists a coherence and a real order to the great design of the universe; there is even a deep longing in the hearts of many for us to come together. Yet there remains among we humans great divisions where the oneness of our common humanity is too often shattered by the divisions we create between male and female, rich and poor, young and old, white and black, educated and illiterate and in so many other ways. World leaders have sought to bring us together but generally have failed. In the Church the Pope may meet with the Patriarch of Constantinople but the first great division of the Church into East and West remains. At the same time there is hardly a church body in the United States today that is not filled with strife, dissension and division, not the least of which is our own Evangelical Lutheran Church in America . The great oneness for which Jesus prayed is sadly lacking in the world and even more especially in the Church these days.

It is to such a divided church body at Ephesus that Paul writes. A pagan city, given to the worship of the goddess Artemis, the beleaguered Christian community there is urged by Paul to live united by being faithful to the vocation to which they have been called. And this unity, this faithfulness to purpose, says Paul, will be achieved through the Holy Spirit. “Lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called,” pleads Paul from his prison cell, “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Faced with the diversity of gods and worship practices in the world around him, Paul holds up a different vision for the young Christian community in the midst of its pagan culture – that the community is one, that it is united in heart, mind and attitude, that there are not different kinds of Christians but only one – those who follow the Lord Jesus. Thus he tells the Ephesians, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.” Paul affirms, indeed confesses for this was probably one of the earliest baptismal creeds, that there is only one body, that is the Church; one Lord who is the head of that Church, one Spirit by which that Christ is confessed; one faith and one hope accepted in baptism and one baptism itself. This oneness is then brought together as Paul speaks of the one God who is the Father “above all creation,” of the Son who is “through all” for He alone is the one mediator and of the Spirit who is “in all” the family of God, thereby sealing us in the identity of the triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In spite of our divisions then, in spite of all that separates us, in spite of the forced distinctions we have set up between us, this confession of faith from Paul speaks to a unity that exists as a reality especially when Christians come together over the divided fences of our denominational allegiances, not to create unity, but to confess that unity which exists in and through our baptisms.

And it is a baptism that we have come to celebrate today for it is on this day that Nicholas Steven will be brought to the font to enter into the death and therefore the life of Jesus and on this day that he will enter into the body of Christ through this holy Sacrament so that he may become one with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit. And since this body of Christ is the Church it is into this one, holy, catholic and apostolic church that he is baptized. There is not this church or that church, although a multitude of denominations exists now numbering over 22,000 recognized Christian bodies throughout the world. There is no Lutheran church, as though Luther himself set up a new shop above which he emblazoned his name in order to sell different goods from those sold before. Indeed there is no separate entity called the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America as though what we do as Lutherans in this nation is distinct or different from the way Lutherans are called to live within our Lutheran tradition elsewhere in the world, for example in our companion Synod in the Konde Diocese of Tanzania. Rather Nicholas will be baptized this day into the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Jesus Christ, for that is the only true Church that exists and there is no other. Called into communion with that Church, we live our lives of faith, hearing the Good News of Jesus Christ and trusting in the promises He has given us.

But so that we might know and see this one true Church as it exists here on earth, God has given us the gift of individual communities of faith and for us that is this body called Christ Church here in York . As a living breathing body of faithful believers, we witness to the oneness of the Church in this place and time. As a living breathing body of faithful believers, we proclaim the Good News of salvation through Christ Jesus to all those around us. As a living breathing body of faithful believers, we make known all that God continues to do among us for the sake of the world through the service we give to others. For our baptism into Christ is not just for ourselves but for the sake of the world. Our baptism is not only to proclaim our own status as a child of God in the body of Christ but to call us to bring others into that body so that they too might know of His saving love for them. And to that end our baptism, as Paul goes on to tell us, gives us gifts, not for our own use but for the sake of the body, for the building up of the body. “The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until all of us come to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.” In baptism God brings us into the body of Christ. But then He also gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit. And it is that Spirit who shares its gifts with all of God’s children, again not for their own use but for the building up of the body of Christ.

Today Nicholas Steven will come to the font. Today Nicholas will enter into this one body of Christ we call the Church. Today Nicholas will be given the gift of the Holy Spirit. And that same Spirit will imbue him with particular gifts – perhaps to be a faithful apostle following Christ from beginning to end; perhaps to be a prophet, speaking the truth to the powers that be regardless of the consequences; or maybe to be an evangelist, a proclaimer of the Good News of salvation in Jesus the Christ; perhaps to be a pastor standing in a pulpit such at this or a teacher like those we installed earlier this morning who will teach our children the truth about this Jesus. We do not know what God has in mind for Nicholas. We only know believe and confess that the Spirit will be poured upon him this day and that Spirit will gift him in some unique way, not for his own good but so that he may build up the body of Christ either in this place or in some other. Where and when is not important. For if he serves the Lord here in York that may be wonderful for his family. But if serves the Lord in some other place, perhaps a place far distant from here, it matters not for he will still be building up the one body of Christ which is the Church in that new place, still adhering to the one faith, still worshiping the one Lord. For that which binds us together is greater than that which can ever divide us. Dying and rising to new life in Jesus through our baptisms therefore we, who are the whole body of Christ, also join together to eat the bread of life, to feast on that one who is the bread of life. Having been gifted by the Spirit in baptism, we come to the table to eat. And having eaten we set out to fulfill the ministries to which we have been called in our baptisms so that all may grow into the full stature of Christ. So the “whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.” In love then we pray as a community of faithful believers that the one Lord will continue to bless His one Church and, having been united through our one baptism and sustained with the one bread to eat may we, through the power of the one Holy Spirit, remain in the one true faith until Christ Himself shall come again. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen