(c) 2013 C. B. Park, all rights reserved
Bumper Sticker Theology: A pithy saying that makes you
shake your head and groan or actually think about something differently. Today’s Bumper Sticker Theology topic is “The
Hokey Pokey: What if it really is what it’s all about?”
I give thanks to God that it’s the Hokey Pokey and that
it’s not the Chicken Dance. I’d hate to
think that it’s all about flapping your arms and saying “bock bock bock.” Similarly, I’m glad it’s not all about Locomotion. All that jumping up and down hanging on to
someone’s waist gets tiresome. Party
Rock – it’s not in the house tonight. At
my age, I’m not that into shuffling. However,
given my conversations and contemplations this week about today’s gospel on the
baptism of Jesus, the Hokey Pokey Bumper Sticker Theology isn’t too far off
base.
Really. Stick with
me, people. This is going to make sense.
Let’s review the steps of this traditional and ridiculous
American wedding dance. (You put your right hand in….) This is repeated with the left hand, the
right leg, the left leg, until finally you put your whole self in and take your
whole self out and put your whole self in again.
I think, in many ways, the Hokey Pokey is a great
metaphor for our journey in faith. We
take one move at a time, some prescribed for us, and some where we step out on
our own. We shake off what we don’t like
or just shake to test whether or not something is strong enough to keep. The goal, eventually, is to put our whole
selves into sacramental life, not to get something for ourselves, but to
immerse ourselves in the mystery and give ourselves up to the experience,
letting it shape us and how we live.
As a sacramental church, we use ritual to make holy time
and space. Our Prayer Book provides
language that we use to sanctify the hours of the day, certain days of the
year, and significant times of our lives.
One of those significant times is baptism. As this is the Feast of the Baptism of Our
Lord, I’m going to stick to this one particular sacrament. I think, though, that you’ll be able to see
the parallels in the others.
First of all, let’s be clear about Jesus’ baptism. It wasn’t about his getting to heaven, nor
was it done in the name of the Trinity. This
baptism was about repentance – making a new start – turning one’s life in a new
direction. In all honesty, John didn’t
really think Jesus needed to be baptized for that either.
In hindsight, we can interpret Jesus’ subsequential trip
to the wilderness, initiated by the Holy Spirit, as Our Savior’s new
direction. However, I don’t think that
this was the point either.
In his baptism, Jesus became a part of the community that
was surrounding him. He wasn’t signing
off on all of the statements of a creed. He wasn’t testifying to any specific
doctrine. He was putting his whole self
in community with the confused, damaged, and broken people who knew that they
needed God.
As he prays, the voice from heaven proclaims him to be
the Beloved, one in whom God is well pleased.
In essence, nothing is changed. Jesus has always been God’s Beloved,
before time and forever. God has always
been in solidarity with the downtrodden.
The act of baptism, though, made it visible to the world around
Jesus. No longer was the divine presence
something ethereal; now it was obviously real, in the flesh, not just to his
parents or to traveling royalty but to the hoi polloi, the folks at the river
who waded into the water to be cleansed from the impurity of their lives in
hopes of starting over. What had always
been was now made holy.
The reality of sacramental living is that whether it is
blessings or baptisms, communion or confirmation, anointing or ordination, liturgy
gives words and signs and actions to Divine Activities that are already taking
place. Christ is already present with the community before bread is broken; a
child is already loved by God before they are baptized; healing is already
taking place before oil and prayers meet the forehead of someone who is sick.
The sacraments signal to the community gathered that God is here, now, forever,
and we are given the opportunity to see the divine desire in the eyes and
hearts of the people next to us.
It is no accident that the sacraments cannot be
administered in the Episcopal Church without the community present. If we are asking people to put their whole
selves into this community, through baptism or the Eucharist or any of the
others, we need to be there to support them in the transformation of life that
will undoubtedly come. And, we need to
be there to hold each other accountable in that transformed life.
Accountability is the gift of the sacraments of the
church. The sacraments allow those over whom the Holy Spirit hovers to be
accountable not only to God but to the entire community of believers and vice
versa.
The sacraments require that we make a commitment of our
whole selves to the community in which we now find ourselves. We witness baptismal promises in a context
that includes our own promise to them – to support them, to pray for them, to
love them as the beloved children of God that they are. We are all God’s Beloved. With us God is well pleased. If you have any doubt of that, return to the
passage of Isaiah that we read earlier.
Read it to yourself and insert your name where it says Jacob and
Israel.
But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O __
he who formed you, O __
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
Is there anything that we cannot do, knowing that we are
loved by God so deeply? How can we stay
rooted in our pews when others equally beloved by God are in need? Why
would we want to distance ourselves from the Spirit that creates and sustains
this community? I can’t imagine: Unless
you’ve taken your whole self out.
So, put your whole self in – into community, into faith,
into the Divine Desire for you. That’s
what it’s all about. Amen.
