Unity in Distance
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
Pentecost of last year I had the joyful opportunity to baptize a sweet newborn. Milana still had the new baby smell and she was everything you want a newborn child to be. Milana was baptized into new life in Christ through the Holy Spirit.
Then, as is the case with many people in the D.C. area, Milana moved. Well, Milana didn’t move per se, her parents were assigned to a new post. I am still not sure how to navigate the temporary stay some people have in D.C. In our corner of Arlington, the average person only lives here for three years but more often than not, these same people move to a new apartment every 18 months.
When someone is baptized, I try to write the sermon with them in mind, whenever possible. This is a great opportunity to remind the entire congregation of the baptismal commitments they’ve made to one another, to “surround one another with a community of love and forgiveness, that they may grow in their trust of God,
and be found faithful in their service to others.”
Milana was baptized on Pentecost which meant she was sharing the limelight with our confirmation class. Since the confirmands where the stars of the show that particular Sunday, I made sure Milana got her time in the sermon.
Here’s what I told her:
The Good News Milana, and everyone who has nodded off by this point, is that we are not in this alone. We are a community of believers, doubters, and skeptics. But Milana, we are committed, just as your parents are, to doing this with you and with one another as part of Christ’s Universal Church. The Holy Spirit will work within you, and as the Holy Spirit works within us - sustaining us in times of suffering, sealing our adoption, and empowering us in the life-changing ministry Christ has called us to and will call you to.
I have not seen Milana since she moved to the other side of the world. She is the same age as my daughter, Nora, and I am sure Milana is now ruling her house, keeping her parents and her little sister on their toes.
I thought of Milana and her family on Sunday morning as we were preparing to live-stream a worship service from the sanctuary of Mount Olivet. These are certainly new waters we find ourselves in and for some reason, I kept thinking about the water I placed on Milana’s head.
When I say I baptized Milana, or I placed water on her head, I mean to say that I am simply the fool God is working through. The means of grace, the water placed on her head - an outward sign of an inward and invisible grace - sealed her as a beloved child of God. There is nothing she or I can do to undo what God has done.
“for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” - Galatians 3:26-28, NRSV
We are not one in our political divisions.
We are not one in our allegiance to a nation.
We are not one in our preference of Coke over Pepsi.
We are one in Christ.
Full stop.
There is no asterisk.
In Baptism, whether you were sprinkled, dunked, poured, or dipped, we are one.
Regardless of when or where you were Baptized, we are one.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, “For Jesus Christ alone is our unity. ‘He is our peace’. Through him alone do we have access to one another, joy in one another, and fellowship with one another.”
We are held together in the faithfulness of Christ, not by our ability to come together whether in times of joy or distress. Left on our own to establish unity, we have no hope. Time and time again, in times of distress or hardship, we retreat into our established tribes and begin to blame the other, those people who are at fault or culpable for the hardship we are experiencing.
What I love about Pentecost is how the Holy Spirit descended and filled everyone. The author of Acts wrote:
“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.” - Acts 2:1-4, NRSV
The gathered community in Acts did not fill themselves with the Holy Spirit, in the same way, that we today cannot hold ourselves together or give the Spirit to one another. We depend upon the graciousness of God, through the giving of God’s Spirit and Christ’s promise to always be with us (more on this here). So, while we may be physically distancing ourselves from one another for an extended period of time, away from family members and friends who are closer than family, know that we are not apart. We are not separated, rather we are being held together, through the Grace of God.
If you are an empty-nester or you have a home full of family know that we are together, in prayer yes, but even more so through a power and faithfulness greater than we can imagine.
May the Grace and Peace of Christ be with you, now more than ever.