You are marked as Christ’s Own Forever

You are marked as Christ’s Own Forever
A Sermon for the 170th Convention of the Diocese of Louisiana
St. James Episcopal Church
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
March 03, 2007


The story of my recent identity crisis is well known but I shall repeat it again to introduce the subject of my sermon for today. I have told you that for a time I suffered an identity crisis. I was labeled variously; an evacuee, a homeless person, a FEMA recipient, food stamp eligible and even an evacuee. Speaking one night from Jackson Square, the President of the United States helped me out. Complaining of something we had done or left undone, he said, “those people down there need to understand . . .” The next day, Bishop J.Douglas Wiley, himself a distinguished African-American religious leader, asked if I had ever been called ‘one of those people’ before. I replied that I had not. He said, “Welcome to the club.” So we gather today, as ‘those people.’ The name belongs not simply to those who suffered the ravages of wind and flood, the name fits all of us in the Diocese of Louisiana. We are ‘those people’ set apart in Baptism and given by God an identity that shall not be washed away.

I did not realize the deeper side of the story of my little identity crisis until I began to search for a way to get a handle on the violence of my see city. The mindless and seemingly endless violence, much of which occurs in the Central City neighborhood just behind the Bishop’s residence, is a sadness and tragedy around which I cannot wrap my mind. I did not realize what a loss of identity meant for a region, a society, an urban area. I did not know that when a group suffers a loss of social or corporate identity the members of the group will turn even unto political demagogues or violence, and often do turn to violence, to deal with the loss of identity. The anxiety and aggression with which we live seems to distort our identity. In fact, it is easier to continue to be identified by the trauma than to tolerate the modification of our pre-traumatic identity. So there is much more to our identification as “one of those people” than meets the eye.

The Christian community has a particular mission, a deeply spiritual mission, in the establishment of the new normal of our emerging identity. Our mission includes but goes beyond the technical repairs so badly needed in South Louisiana. Indeed, remembering Dr. King’s reflection upon the Parable of the Good Samaritan, we must do the work of charity, which is the first response to trauma. We cannot assume, however, that the technical fix of charity is enough. We must also seek the deeper, adaptive, remedies to our situation. In the second letter of St. Peter, we read: His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature. Our Book of Common Prayer expresses this wonderful Scriptural truth in the baptismal promises. Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being? The response is, I will with God’s help. I used to resist an embrace of the baptismal covenant. I even at one point wondered if these promises were not a type of manipulation. No more, no more. Several weeks ago, a lad returned to New Orleans from his exile in Dallas. On his first day home he was involved in a fight. The lad with whom he fought apparently went home and told his momma and them of the altercation. The mother allegedly gave her son a gun and told him to make it right. And in his twisted mind, he apparently did so. He is charged with shooting and killing the boy one day home. Does this speak of partakers of the Divine Nature? Tell me of the dignity of life in this circumstance. Surely this is an extreme example, but this same tragedy of indignity is lived out in less extreme ways in every hamlet, suburb, and city in our Diocese. Who shall speak for the dignity of life if we Christians do not? We are Christians evangelical and catholic. We speak not of a divorce between conversion and sanctification but understand both to be of God’s redeeming work. Through Jesus, God has granted to us “all things that pertain to life and godliness.” And, in Christ, “we are called to glory and excellence.” Religion has too often been the enemy of human dignity. Religion has often been twisted to rob humanity of dignity, glory, and excellence. It is only by realizing that those different from us are heretics, anathema, or barbarians, that one can practice religious prejudice. When trauma robs us of our identity, the Church has a very special ministry to speak to the dignity of every human being. It is our vocation to remind the world of our Divine calling to “glory and excellence.” In baptism, we are by Divine action given an identity, a new identity, which is in Christ, to be as Christ. We become partakers of the Divine nature. Certainly, I sometimes forget who I am. I do not always live into the reality of the new creation of God’s grace. My failures do not erase the indelible grace of God’s goodness. As “those people”, we have a radical role in the creation of new identity, our new normal. We must stand strong and unashamed as partakers of the Divine nature. This sounds grand but I must warn, it is no easy vocation.

To stand strong as partaker of the Divine nature there is required of us not only that we be converted to Christ and that we are being made holy, but even more. There is required of us a willingness to live in the paradox of a tough persistence and a gentle compassion. It is easy to celebrate Christ’s compassion for us; the difficulty comes when we celebrate Christ’s compassion for the other. In my travels around the country I consistently speak of the theological virtue of charity. It is easy to practice love towards those who deserve our love. It is not so easy to love those who do not deserve it. And yet, there it is. Christ died for us whilst we were sinners. We did not deserve Jesus’ redeeming sacrifice. He gave Himself freely even while we were sinners.

There is also required of us a tough persistence. Now, I must quit preaching and go to meddling. Prior to the recent Primate’s Communiqué from Dar es Salaam I had notice after notice that those on one side of our disagreements were ready to leave the Church. Since the Primates’ meeting, I have heard time and time again from those on the other side of the issue that they are going to leave the Church, if . . . I was not born an Episcopalian, I came to this Church in a time of trauma in my life. This Church chose me and I chose this Church so my experience may be different from that of many. I must tell you a secret. I was baptized twice and the second was not conditional. We had a young evangelist come to town, he is now a famous tele-evangelist but then he was a young upstart and thus available for revivals in small, bible-belt communities. He convinced me that if I did not what I was doing when I was baptized, then my baptism was did not take. He scared the Holy Ghost right of me. I did not know that I was a normal teen but I knew that I was a sinner. Out of fear, I was again dunked three times in the baptistery of the First Baptist Church. That tele-evangelist had big hair (and he still does); he rather looked like a bear. I did not know if he was going to save me or have me for lunch. The emotion of fear had nothing to do with my reality as partaker of the Divine Nature. A healthy dose of God fearing is right and good; not believing God’s promise to us because of fear is a distortion. Let us move beyond fear to persistence. I recently told Louise that we might be the last two left in the Episcopal Church and as constituent members of the Anglican Communion. As a catholic Christian, I cannot see victory but loss when my perceptions prevail at the departure of another. I am not responsible for the actions of others but I have perhaps driven more people from the Church than I care to see recorded in the book of life. It is not a victory but a loss when I prevail at the expense of the other. In such a situation, we are no different from the lad who allegedly shot and killed the teen with whom he fought. In his mind, he triumphed. In his mind, he regained his dignity. Disagreement need not justify anger. Must I sacrifice myself as a member as Christ’s one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church because I have suffered an indignity? I am as susceptible to the tenderness of loss of identity as anyone can be. Even so, I perceive in myself, and offer to you, a vocation to toughness that transcends the action of the day. I call upon you and this Diocese to display toughness (not meanness, insensitivity or stubbornness) and a persistence that speaks of our true nature as partakers of the divine nature. I am weary of the tactic of who is the most injured. It reminds me of a game show my mother used to watch on our black and white television set. It was called “Queen for a Day.” Whoever told the most heart-wrenching story won a wringer washing machine. Do you remember it? I would love to have the applause-o-meter (I remember watching that meter ascend and descend as the studio audience applauded the saddest sob story) that determined the winner! What is the place of emotional sensitivity in our discernment of God’s will? A Thomist will note that the heart, as the seat of emotion, is not to be trusted. A Jesuit would counsel that private perception needs be tested in community. Even we test an individual’s perception of vocation in the local and diocesan community. I have not written a reaction to the Primates’ Communiqué from Dar es Salaam. If I were to do so, I would have to speak of the reactivity in the Communion. No matter what you think of parts or all of the Communique’, none should miss the reactivity to it. I cannot command anyone to turn dial down the anxiety in their own life. I struggle with this myself. But what I can do is attempt at my best moments to be a non reactive person. Friends, let us stop the reactivity right here in Louisiana. This can be our gift to the Communion. Jesus was able to manifest compassion and persistence at the same time. The fragility of disappointment is not an option for us. The worst manifestation of schism is manifested in separation caused by personal disappointment. The comfort of homogeneity is not a catholic vocation. The ease of self-centeredness is a recipe unto death. The anxiety and stress of our ecclesiastical disagreement is not a definition of our identity. Why are we willing to allow ourselves to be so identified? If not for the sake of the poor and those who know not Jesus Christ, then for the sake of Jesus Himself, why do we allow ourselves the tenderness of disappointment? Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we have work to do, the work of God. We cannot afford the luxury of self-centeredness. This is our season for the radical rebooting of mission.

So, who are we? We are those people, sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever. God is good, all the time.