The Baptismal Covenant
Read these insights about The Baptismal Covenant to understand more fully the commitments being made through these promises. As always, please reach out to our Rector John if you have any questions or thoughts about these insights on The Baptismal Covenant.
Story
Celebrant Do you believe in God the Father?
People I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
Celebrant Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?
People I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
Celebrant Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit?
People I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
The author Paula Fox wrote, “To be human is to be in a story.” We are consistently constructing, unearthing, and rediscovering narratives for our lives. Over time we find some of these narratives to be less true than others; these stories make less sense of reality and take us away from the good life, and also over time we find some of these narratives to be truer than others; these stories make more sense of reality and bring us towards the good life.
As Christians, we have an overarching story that we claim guides us into all truth and goodness, this story makes the most sense of reality. It has been revealed to us in the Bible and summarized in the creeds of the Church. The Baptismal Covenant in its first three questions and answers recalls one of these ancient creeds, the Apostles’ Creed. At every baptism, we repeat this summary of the grand story of God so that we might be encouraged and challenged by its truth as well as grow in our understanding both about God and ourselves.
With concern to God, these core beliefs speak about a triune God—Father, Son, and Spirit—who acts. We worship a god who creates, incarnates, forgives, resurrects, communes with, and so much more! These actions inform us about the character of God, what matters to God, and God’s purposes for reality. Without these actions by God, we would not know God; we would be in the dark and lost.
However, God has acted and allows us to know God. Because of this, we can know ourselves and understand our place in reality. We can act and speak to align our lives with God’s purposes and develop character that is consistent with God. We cannot be holy people of God if we do not understand who God is and what God wants. We must know, learn, and habituate the story of God in our lives.
Knowing the story and making it more a part of our lives is crucial to our discipleship, so engage with God’s story by coming to church, reading your Bible, and coming to our various discipleship offerings.
Growth
Will you continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers?
In our baptisms, we celebrate God’s love, forgiveness, and grace toward us. We give thanks that we can now call God Father and be part of God’s family. While this is true, we also recognize that we still have much to learn about being part of God’s family. The Growth question in The Baptismal Covenant reminds us of four principal disciplines that allow us to grow in our knowledge, understanding, and practice of being Christians. These words in this question come from Acts 2:42 that describes the basic activities that the first Christians were doing.
The apostles’ teaching refers to studying the Bible, specifically the New Testament, as well as learning how the Church over the centuries since Jesus has interpreted and read the Bible. Every time we attend a Bible study, listen to a sermon, or read a book about Christian theology, we are continuing in the Apostles’ teaching. This is the basis for our faith and allows us to know the Story of God.
Fellowship refers to being in relationship with other Christians to share the joys and sorrows of life with one another. Our relationships help us to better understand who God is and who we are called to be. Often other people can encourage us when we are being faithful and challenge us when we are coming up short of God’s desires for our lives. Coming to church, participating in small groups, and having others over to your home are some of the ways that you can engage in fellowship.
Breaking bread means sharing meals with other Christians and most importantly partaking in communion. Communion is a sacrament—a Jesus empowered physical thing that connects to an inward and spiritual grace. The physical thing reassures and makes us certain that we have received inward and spiritual grace. In communion, the physical bread and wine helps us to receive God’s grace. Jesus is God coming to meet us in our physical world.
Prayers refer to our times in private and with others of speaking and listening to God. Through this communication with God, we can have constant communion with God. In our prayers we offer to God our needs and concerns while expressing praise and thanks. We also listen for God’s voice to direct our lives and actions. Prayer is the simple foundation for so many of our other spiritual practices.
According to The Baptismal Covenant, every Christian should be engaged in these four practices on a regular basis. Be quick to order your life with these practices so that you can grow in your relationship with God!
Repentance
Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?
Part of being a Christian is recognizing that we sin, we do evil, and we hurt people around us. Through our baptisms in Christ Jesus, we have been cleansed from our sins, but we still struggle with sin in our daily life. The Repentance question from The Baptismal Covenant gives us three specific actions for how we are to respond to sin in our lives.
The first action asks us to “persevere in resisting evil.” Our initial response to sin is to not engage in it. This is the best response to sin; stay away from it. The word persevere reminds us that this is an ongoing effort for us, not a one-time event. We will need to actively work, spending our time and energy day after day going against evil and sin. To be faithful to this question, we cannot think, “Oh, I’ll try to not sin sometimes when I’m in the mood,” but must actively say, “No!” to sin on a regular basis. We must consider which of our environments make us more prone to sin and stay away from such situations. Go instead to the places that lead us into holiness.
The second half of our question talks about the actions we are to do when we have been unable to resist evil. Our question reminds us that our baptisms do not keep us from sinning; we are still capable of great evil and will probably do evil after we have been baptized. The two actions Christians are to do after sinning is repent and return.
To repent means acknowledging to God the wrongness of what we have done or are doing. We do not hide or ignore the sin in hopes that everyone else will also hide or ignore our wrongdoing. We do not make excuses or justify our sin. Instead, as Christians we take responsibility for our words and actions and how they have brought harm and destruction into the world. We say to God, “This is not how you want me to live.” This acknowledgement then leads back to a recommitment to “persevere in resisting evil.”
The last action mentioned in our question is return. Returning to the Lord reminds us that God is always ready to receive us regardless of the sins we have committed. God loves us and wants to be in relationship with us. After sinning, we should not tarry or loiter but run quickly to the Lord who graciously awaits us. We were created to be with the Lord, not apart. Come home.
As you consider your life and fulfilling the promises of this baptismal question, know that you do not have to respond to your sin alone. Christian community can support you. Seek out a trusted follower of Jesus or come see one of your priests. We would always be glad to meet with you and assist you so that you may persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord.
Evangelism
Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?
Jesus and his first followers made a unique claim that was different from other religions of the day. They claimed that God embodied in Jesus alone was for all people across ethnic, geographic, and socioeconomic divisions. People from all backgrounds could follow Jesus and have a relationship with God but not have to change their cultural heritages. This made them both exclusive and universal. They were exclusive in that Jesus was the only way to God, and they were universal in that anyone could come to Jesus.
This exclusive/universal dynamic led early Christians to evangelize and share the good news about Jesus with all kinds of people—the poor, the rich, the powerful, the enslaved, speakers of Aramaic, speakers of Latin, and on and on. We are inheritors of this faith and this claim that Jesus is, in fact, good news for all people. Regardless of who you are or what you have done, you can come to God through Jesus.
In this Evangelism question of The Baptismal Covenant, we commit to make the message of Jesus known in the world in two principal ways: word and example.
“By word” means that we will talk with others about Jesus. We will listen to their needs and concerns, share about how Jesus is good news for them in their lives today, and speak to how Jesus has been good news in our own lives. We do this with all the creativity that language affords us-humor, song, logic, silence, etc.
“By example” means that our actions communicate the story of God as well. We cannot tell people that God loves them and then engage in hateful behavior. At least we cannot do that and expect them to believe our words. If the story about Jesus we are telling is true, then our lives should align with that truth in how we treat others.
In this question, we covenant with God to do both actions. It is not by word or example but “by word and example.” As we do both actions, we make a statement to the world about who God is and invite everyone to join us in following Jesus.
Love
Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
This baptismal covenant question reminds us that our spiritual lives are not only about our individual relationships with God, but how we interact with our neighbors matters to God and affects our relationship with God. This Love question has two major parts.
The first part of the question—seek and serve Christ in all persons—is based upon a teaching by Jesus in Matthew 25:31-46. Here Jesus puts himself in the place of a needy person—hungry, thirsty, estranged, naked, sick, and imprisoned. He blesses everyone with eternal life who served him by meeting the needs of people in these situations, and he condemns everyone who did not serve him by refusing to meet the needs of people. This teaching reminds us that how we treat others is essential to our relationship with Jesus.
This first part of the question also reminds us that we are to be seeking Christ in people. This is not passive but requires action and intention on our parts as we meet another human being. We are to look for and discover Christ—the anointed holy one of God, Jesus, God in the flesh—in them, and we are to do that no matter what they look like, how they smell, who they have sex with, how they pray, who they voted for, what their beliefs are, how sinful they are, or any other characteristic. This means we cannot dismiss another human being from our presence but must serve them if we are going to be faithful to this question.
The second part of the question calls us to love, and we are to judge our love for others by the standard of our love for ourselves. This love for ourselves is rooted in understanding how God loves us. God loves us deeply and tangibly in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. As we come to see how God sees us and loves us, we can have that same love for ourselves that God has for us. This question then asks us to share with others that God-given perspective that we are loved. The most loving action we can do for another person is to put them in touch with the life-giving reality of God so that they too can know how God sees them and loves them. For us to be faithful lovers of others, we must be constantly considering what we might do or say to help this person before us experience God tangibly in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
When we put the two parts of the question together, we see that our loving others involves both finding Jesus in them and being Jesus for them. As we engage in that kind of love centered on Christ, we participate in the divine community of God with one another.
Mission
Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
This last question of The Baptismal Covenant centers around two actions: strive and respect. These two actions guide us to be on mission as followers of Jesus.
The word strive reminds us that we cannot live out our Christian vocations lying by the pool sipping piña coladas. We must get up; we have work to do. Through sweat and struggle, we sacrifice and give of ourselves for a purpose—named here as justice and peace. These twin goals orient our work and direct our actions. We want to live in a world where people are in right relationship with one another and unharmed from conflict.
The verb respect asks us to do more than tolerate another person’s existence. We must actively honor others because we recognize that people have inherent value. Regardless of what people do or what things happen to them, this inherent value—their dignity—cannot be lost. God has given them worth in creating them. Acknowledging the dignity of people is a necessary precondition to work for their justice and peace. Denying people justice and peace often begins by painting a picture of them as less than human which allows us to think, “They do not deserve respect because they are not people.” However, when we acknowledge the humanity of others and their God-given worth, it becomes much harder to be idle while they suffer injustice and chaos in their lives.
This mission question builds off the universal outlook introduced in the Love question. That question challenges us to serve “all persons.” This question continues that challenge as we make a promise for “all people” and “every human being.” No one is to be left out. Every person on Earth is valued and should experience justice and peace.
While there is overlap between loving a person and engaging in God’s mission in the world. There is a key difference. Mission involves thinking beyond personal interactions by addressing the systems, traditions, and organizations that affect communities. For example, your neighbor Bob is hungry. You can love him by giving him something to eat, and you should if you have something to share. Mission comes into play when you realize there are other people like Bob who are hungry, and you start to wonder about root causes of hunger in society. Is it because people don’t have jobs? Do we need to grow more food? Is someone being greedy with what food there is? Then as you discover those answers, you strive to bring change to society so that all people have food to eat.
Consider where you notice injustices because of broken and corrupt systems (There are lots of options!) and join God’s mission in this world so that all may know justice and peace.