This morning I awoke fairly early and after getting read found myself in the car. As I drove I relisted to the sermons… from World Conference. (Last night I downloaded them and put them on my mp3 player.) I got through all the files, and still had a bit more time on the road before reaching my destination: York Center United Methodist Church. It was a wonderful drive of reflection, of encountering the Holy’s wonderful creation, and of gaining new insight from the spoken word that I had heard in person a few weeks ago. Upon reaching my destination I spent some time meeting wonderful people and encountering the space where I would be worshiping with others, and would be proclaiming the Good News on this 6th Sunday of Easter.
I was sitting in for their pastor, a friend of mine from seminary who was on vacation. This sermon had slowly been forming for some time. In part it started while listening to Apostle Richard James speak at the Aaronic Mass Meeting at World Conference, but it took a long time to reach the sermon. It floated in my head, I reflected, I pondered, but it refused to form. Then Friday while sitting in the sunshine, reading, reflecting, praying, and looking over the lake before me, the sermon started to take shape, coming to near final form just before the thunder and rain started to erupt.
I tried to write the sermon down as I listened to the thunder outside, but this sermon was not meant to be written fully down, it down right refused to be written down. Rather bits and pieces of the sermon are written on various pieces of paper and in a few documents here and there, but not the entirety or even close to it in any one spot or collection of. However, I knew the sermon I preached to the lake was missing something, something I knew was part of the sermon, things that had been in earlier reflections, that had been floating through post lake, and in further reflections as well. One of those things was “baptism” and in the final form of the sermon, that spoke today, it was clearly there. It had been in it at various points, and it was a critical aspect of the sermon.
I had various notes for the sermon with me, but the only one’s I looked at where those I had in my hand the whole time: A white sticky note attached to page 238 of the Inclusive New Testament, that I looked at once to ensure I didn’t forget anything important, but realized I wasn’t following the order laid out on it but the message was flowing better than if I ahd followed this medium sized outline, which reads:
- Peace be w/ you
- Greetings
- Connection
- Baptism
- Walk through passage
- 8th grade
- Call to listen to & Respond to
- Go, Share
And the scripture passage for the day on page 239, cordon off by two purple sticky notes, which I read and glanced at a few other times: Acts 16:9-15.
As I proclaimed the Good News to and with his gathered community, as the words escaped my lips were blessed by the Spirit and landed upon my ears, I came to a few realizations about myself and my journey. One of those was how this Community of Christ minister has been blessed greatly through my encounter with Methodists, or former Methodists. Another, that perhaps did not fully start to appear in my realization until I was driving home was that Doctrine and Covenants Section 164 I think impacted the words I shared with them.
It wasn’t that I used 164, (though it was at times used in my reflection and preparation). It wasn’t that some words in 164 changed my understandings. My participation in the world wide discernment process on conditions of membership, along with with two separate papers I wrote specifically on baptism in Community of Christ (one for Ecumenical Theology while at Seattle U, and one for a worship class at MTSO) had been an exploration and starting point of expressing my understanding of Baptism. However, I am fairly certain the words I used, the way I expressed and related to baptism, could not have happened by me in a pre 164. I can’t be sure, but I am fairly certain that 164 with the blessing of the Holy Spirit, freed me to share more fully the Good News this day, to more fully engage this congregations of my sisters and brothers in the body of Christ, with the good news expressed in Acts 16:9-15, and our common call by the Holy Spirit, and common commitment in our shared baptism in Christ. The words that flowed from my moth as I explored our shared covenant, our callings, the witness found in the testimony of the crafter of Luke-Acts as that crafter steps into the story, and shares of their response to the Holy, to the Response of Lydia, the response of many who I have encountered in life. It was a great blessing. I can’t relate the sermon here, I’ve already drifted a bit from what was shared as I try and explore the insight I encountered as I drove with the cool spring air flowing around me and the sun shining in the glorious blue sky.
That insight is in part: The Holy blessed me this day, Doctrine and Covenants 164 along with that blessing has freed me to be more fully engaging the mission of the Living Risen Christ, in and with Community of Christ and with the greater body of Christ to which we as Community of Christ belong and are an important part of, and a part that is needed just as much as all the others for the peace of Christ to truly be proclaimed and the peaceable community to come forth. Let us be open to go where the Spirit calls us, even if its not where (or how) we were planning to go. Let us be willing to embrace our shared covenant through our baptism in Christ, and be like Paul, be like Lydia, be like the crafter of Luke-Acts, be like those who came before us and respond to the moving of the Holy Spirit, allow the Spirit to empower us AND Guide us for the journey ahead.
Peace of Christ I leave with you this day,
— Lyle II