“The Promise Rests on Grace”

by Bruce J. Johnson, Pastor

June 8, 2008

Baptismal Sundays are always very special for the children, for the parents and grandparents, for the families and of course, for the church. Within the covenant we acknowledge and celebrate is the promise God gives—the promise of an unconditional love, the promise of parental and familial generosity and fidelity, the promise of lessons to be taught, truths to expressed and explained and a journey to be undertaken individually but never alone. Baptism is the start of something—very divine but also very human.

Yet again the ancient Abrahamic promise is given ---Karl, Connor and MacKenzie are called forth by name to embark upon a journey we call life---to go to a time and place yet to be shown but never without the sense and assurance of a promise—the promise of blessings---

A GREAT NATION

A GREAT NAME--- SO THAT YOU WILL BE A BLESSING

GRACE IN THE EXPERIENCE OF BLESSING AND CURSE.

I can never really preside at a baptism outside the context of daily life, without pondering the challenge to somehow define the kind of world to which we are introducing to them. That is especially the case this morning. What an extraordinary week it has been for our country—as a nation and a people---with the historic nomination of an African American/ biracial Barack Obama by the Democratic Party for the Presidency of the United States. At the same time, though, Hillary Clinton’s bid for the same nomination was equally historic and almost as successful. I read the other day that in 1966, the year I graduated from high school, fewer than 1% of all federal judges were women, fewer than 4% were lawyers and fewer than 7% were doctors. Yesterday she was quite eloquent and moving in her suspension speech--- saying that although she was unable to break the last of the great glass ceilings, there are 18 million cracks in it.

Who could have even imagined 16 months ago, that an African American could become President of the United States in 2009.

Racism and Sexism may still be in play in our society but not nearly as much—there is certainly, and deservedly so, a certain sense of wonder to the moment.

Bob Hebert wrote the following in the New York Times just yesterday:

This election year has been a testament to the many long decades of work and sacrifice by men and women—some famous, most not; some still alive, many gone—to build a more equitable and just American society.”                  (NYT, 6/7/2008, A27.).

At the same time, however, many locally--- although its news all over the country, are wondering about what the Hartford Courant called “An Appalling Snapshot” and what it says about us--- that stunning video that was retrieved from a streetlight camera on Park Street, Hartford, capturing on May 30 the hit-and run accident that paralyzed a 78 year old man, Angel Torres, while cars fled past him and passers-by seemed to ignore his plight. Commentary has interpreted the incident as evidence of a lack of caring and compassion, of incivility or even inhumanity, a move backward into what’s worst about ourselves, not what’s best.

                                                                                                 (HC, 6/6/2008)

In some ways, this is what baptism is all about—the journey we take- this journey of faith in life through all the snapshots---experiences that will challenge us to be who God calls us to be, that challenge us to live in the way God expects us to live- even and especially when times and circumstances come upon us suddenly and without warning—and make it difficult.

Thursday/Friday was also the 40^th anniversary of the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Interestingly, much of the commentary had to do with an event that took place on April 4, 1968, a speech he delivered extemporaneously to a largely African-American crowd in Indianapolis about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

This was, of course, before the 24 hours cable news services, before videophones, u-tubes, up-links, and all the other technologies that make information so instantaneously available. No one in the crowd had yet heard the news something these days we simply can’t fathom.

This is what he said:

"Ladies and Gentlemen - I'm only going to talk to you just for a minute or so this evening. Because I have some very sad news for all of you, and I think sad news for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.

"Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort. In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it's perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in.

"For those of you who are black - considering the evidence evidently is that there were white people who were responsible - you can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and a desire for revenge.

"We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization - black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion and love.

"For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.

"But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond these rather difficult times.

"My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He once wrote:

'Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.'

"What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.

"So I ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, yeah that's true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love - a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke. We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times. We've had difficult times in the past. And we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; and it's not the end of disorder.

"But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings that abide in our land.

"Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.

"Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people. Thank you very much."

In baptism, we affirm for Karl, Connor and MacKenzie that there is promise for them and their lives that rests on the awful—or maybe I should say, awe-full grace of God from which wisdom and compassion and justice are born. Life is never really about the good or bad things that happen to people but what those things can call forth in us that challenge us to resist the temptation to dump God when we get hit, that enable us to check in with ourselves to see whether “there be any wicked way within us,” to use the psalmist’s expression, and that allows us to be open to what we can learn that can contribute to our self-understanding and to our growth as human beings made in the image of God and for whom, by God’s awe-full grace, Christ died and more importantly lives again.

The promise God makes to us is for the journey we all make as God’s children—it rests on grace which simply means that in the midst of all that will confront and challenge who we are and how we are to choose to live- grace will provide so that we might indeed TAME THE SAVAGENESS OF MAN AND MAKE GENTLE THE LIFE OF THIS WORLD.

                                                              AMEN