November 11, 2022
In last Sunday’s epistle lesson we read these three verses.
“In (Christ) you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.… And (God) has put all things under (Christ’s) feet and has made (Christ) the head over all things for the church, which is (Christ’s) body, the fullness of God who fills all in all.” Ephesians 1:13, 22-23
When I reread these verses, I am struck by how it bridges last Sunday’s service and this coming Sunday. The first verse in this passage refers to baptism, but may do so in unfamiliar terms. Christian baptism is described in the New Testament as baptism in water and Spirit. Christian initiation is consistently described in the book of Acts as washing with water and laying on of hands, with the laying on of hands bestowing the Holy Spirit. (See Acts 8:14-17; 19:5-7) The reference to being “marked with a seal” found here and later in Ephesians 4:30 refers to the reception of the Spirit. We know that these verses were used to explain the use of oil in the laying on of hands after baptism in the early second century. This followed the Old Testament pattern of kings and prophets who were anointed with oil to receive God’s Spirit. It is not clear if these two verses described an anointing after baptism that the church in Ephesus was familiar with, or if these two verses inspired that practice.
What is clear, however, is that the practice of concluding a baptism with an anointing of oil is a very ancient practice, and is the origin of what we now call “confirmation.” Which is why I am making a big deal of this. Because this weekend we will be celebrating a baptism as well as taking our young people who are preparing to be confirmed this coming May on retreat.
This Sunday, Jo and Corbin will be bringing their daughter Evelyn to the church for the sacrament of baptism. In so doing they will be initiating Evelyn into the Christian faith though our church community. As part of that rite, we will make promises about supporting Jo and Corbin in teaching and modeling the Christian faith to Evelyn. Promises we are keeping by offering an extended period of formation for our seven young confirmands. As part of that formation we are taking them to the high school retreat at Cascades Camp this weekend. Please pray for our ministry to all the young people in our church, that we might teach them all by word and example, about the life-changing love of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit.
But the love of our triune God is not given to us individually, but to us as a community. The gifts of the Spirit we each have been given are to work interdependently with others, magnifying their impact on the church and in the world by working together in concert. (See 1 Corinthians 12-14) A fine example of this is the “prayer quilt” Sandy Nelson helped us create. Each one of those pieces of felt is a delight on its own, but when they are organized in such a way that they enhance each other, and the light shines through them, the whole becomes much greater than the sum of its parts.
And so it is with us as the church. We each, with our gifts and abilities, when stitched together to our sisters and brothers by the Holy Spirit and illumined by the light of Christ in our lives, contribute to the fullness of God’s love in the world in ways we cannot accomplish on our own. Our connections to one another in our church may be social or even familial, but in the end, they are primarily spiritual. As a community we have been sealed by God’s promise and pledge through baptism in water and Spirit, allowing us to participate in the very life of God together. We nurture our relationships to encourage each other in our life of faith in Christ. This past week we restarted a monthly gathering of our pastoral staff with our residents at the Shores. Just one example of how we continue to seek to nurture and encourage our common life in Christ.
Reflecting on last Sunday’s epistle lesson about our baptismal life and its hope in Christ, we see the magnifying effect of our Christian community on the presence of the Spirit in our individual lives. In reflecting on the ministries of our church, we can see evidence of how we are living out our hope in the promises of Christ. May we all be encouraged by our faithfulness to the gospel in our community’s life, that we might reveal, “the fullness of God who fills all in all.”
Pastor Todd