Baptism: Belonging In the Body of Christ

The Rev. Sara Warfield

Scripture: Luke 14:1, 7-14

You have to understand something about ancient Palestinian wedding politics to understand what Jesus is talking about in this gospel this morning. I think the best modern comparison that I can think of and that we all have access to are presidential inaugurations. Who the new president places closest to them tends to reflect who’s important to them, whose ideology or culture is in favor, or who may have power in the coming administration.

That’s what Palestinian weddings were like for important people. Those who are invited to sit closest to the bride and groom and their family were those who were in favor, those who society deemed important, and those who had power that might be leveraged if you happen to show them some favoritism in front of all their peers.

It’s a game, a quid pro quo, a transaction. I boost your reputation at my daughter’s wedding, and maybe you give me a sweet business deal or put in a good word for me with the king for a position in the government later on.

But wait, Jesus says, I have a hack to this system. Actually, sit further away from the bride and groom so that when the host recognizes you they will publicly call you to the front, displacing someone with less honor and further pointing out your importance, elevating your status in real time.

That doesn’t sound very Christ-like, does it? Well, I think we need to remember what the first verse of this pericope says: On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. Jesus is invited to this meal not as an honored guest but as a person of interest, a person under surveillance. He recognizes his predicament, he sees the kind of people he has around him, and he decides to play the role of the trickster.

Basically, with this story, this suggested hack for garnering even more favor, he’s saying, “I see your petty little games, your ridiculous power plays, and I call them out—but not in a way that will get me into trouble.”

And then he says what he really means, and he says it directly to the Pharisee who invited him to that dinner: when you host a banquet, don’t invite people in order to earn favors in return later, but invite those who truly need your care, your food, your hospitality, those who may never be able to pay you back for your generosity.

My teachings aren’t about petty games, quid pro quos, or transactions, Jesus is saying. We are not here to build up a list of good deeds that we may be repaid later. We are here to be a blessing to those who are in need, even as others are a blessing to us when we are in need. That is the work of the Body of Christ, to lift up those who are in a hard place and to allow yourself to be lifted up when you’re in a hard place.

The Body of Christ isn’t about transactions, it’s about being in authentic relationship. It’s about recognizing that we are all weak in some way, we all struggle in some way, and that we can’t do any of this life on our own. We need each other. And when we recognize when others are strong in ways we are weak, and we are strong in ways that others are weak, we start to see that other people’s gifts are absolutely essential to our own thriving, and that our gifts are absolutely essential to others thriving. We can’t do any of this life on our own. We must have grace for other people’s shortcomings—and our own, and we must make space for other people’s strengths—and our own.

This is the Body of Christ that we formally welcome Stevie Rae Smykowski into today when we baptize her.

For so long, baptism has been understood as your get-into-heaven card or, more bleakly, your stay-out-of-hell card. Different ideas of salvation have emerged as other ways of practicing Christianity, of believing have emerged. I was taught as a child that “if you shall confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.” Romans 10:9. Check and check. Hell avoided, eternal bliss to come.

But these are transactional ways of understanding salvation. And Jesus has shown us that he’s not about transactions.

Baptism is not a transaction, baptism is the start of a relationship. Just as Jesus’ death and resurrection was the start of a relationship. I love you so much, he tells us, that though sin led me to my death, my love overcame all of that. I rose from the dead because forgiveness is more powerful than sin. I rose from the dead because grace is what gives us life. I rose from the dead so that you could know that no matter how you go astray my love will always be there.

Jesus’ relationship with us, and our relationship with him and the Body of Christ that he brings us into is what salvation is made of. Belonging—to Jesus and to one another—is what salvation is made of.

The symbol of baptism is going under the water and dying to our old life, our sin, and being born, being resurrected, into a new life, into belonging in God, belonging in the Body of Christ.

Now Stevie is nearly nine months old, and I just don’t think that she’s had any chances to sin yet. I don’t think there’s an old life she needs to die to. But I do think that down the road she will need to be reminded that she already belongs, no matter what; that no matter how she goes astray, Jesus’ love will always be there. She’ll need to be reminded of her baptism.

Which is why, as our Book of Common Prayer says, Holy Baptism is “appropriately administered within the Eucharist as the chief service on a Sunday.” It’s not done in private just amongst family but with the whole gathered St. Luke’s community, this little corner of the Body of Christ that represents the whole Body. We witness this baptism so that we can remind Stevie as she grows that she belongs, no matter what, just as God created her, and that Jesus’ love will always be there, no matter what. That’s our job as the Body of Christ. That’s what we commit to when I ask you later, “Will you who witness these vows do all in your power to support this person in her life in Christ?” and you respond, hopefully with much heart and verve, “We will!”

And I hope it will also be a reminder of your own baptism, your own belonging no matter what. That Jesus’ love is always there for you, no matter what. And if you haven’t been baptized, well, those things are still true for you, but baptism gives you the chance to claim that belonging, to claim that love for yourself and for us to witness it and support you in your life in Christ.

So there’s a lot going on when I pour that water over Stevie’s head. Death, resurrection, belonging, love. Amen.