Pastor’s Corner – March 9, 2025
Our Baptismal Identity/Luke 4:1-13
Already into our first day of Lent, I imagine ash on my forehead from last night, though rubbed off already, that marked the sign of one’s desire to be repentant and reexamine personal and communal life together as a faith community. On Ash Wednesday, the reading from prophet Isaiah reminds us of God’s desire for mercy and justice over fasting and observing religious rites that are empty. During Lent we are called to align our lives to God’s vision for our world. This requires, like any serious relationship, a labor of love that’s not easy, but includes discipline and obedience to God’s calling. In the words of Walter Brueggemann, “Lenten prerequisite for mercy and pardon is to ponder again the initial identity of baptism…’child of the promise,’ …’to live a life worthy of our calling,’ worthy of our calling in the face of false patriotism; overheated consumerism; easy, conventional violence; and limitless acquisitiveness. Since these forces and seductions are all around us, we have much to ponder in Lent about our baptismal identity.” (A Way Other Than Our Own, p.3)
Every Sunday morning worship, we begin with the pouring of baptismal water, reminding us of our identity as God’s beloved children, called to reject the power of sin and claim God’s promise in Christ. “Brothers and sisters in Christ, through the sacrament of Baptism we share in the death and resurrection of Christ, and are incorporated into Christ’s holy church. Baptism proclaims the faith of the church. By the sign of water God cleanses from sin, renews life, and prefigures the reconciliation of all things promised in Christ. In Baptism we are given the Holy Spirit as a pledge of this reconciliation. The same Spirit binds us to each other and joins us to Christ’s ministry of love, peace and justice.” (Book of Common Worship)
Our first Sunday of Lent begins with Jesus’ temptations. We all know the story. I encourage you to read it again and reflect what those temptations were, as found in the gospel of Luke. They were temptations to undermine Jesus’ relationship with God, his baptismal identity. More than ever, we need to be vigilant in the face of a growing authoritarian government and runaway capitalism that ignores the poor and rewards the rich and powerful. To reclaim our baptismal identity is more than inward introspection but to follow the way of Jesus in our time. When ancient biblical prophets called for repentance, it was always about returning to original identity, summoning people who were too eager to become false identities that empires offered. This Lent, let us come together and ponder our shared identity in Christ through baptism. Amen.
Pastor Dae