Kick the Devil in the Pants

After last Sunday’s wonderful Epiphany worship service, led by the youth of our congregation, I cried. I cried tears of grief and loss, not joy and celebration. My tears signaled to me the very real and ever-present grief we are all carrying these days. And as we know, grief surprises us in various ways and at unexpected times. In that moment, even though I was proud of the youth, and loved all the music and star gazing, I also longed for the pre-COVID-19 times when our Epiphany festival was filled with people; the singing robust, the children parading with stars on a stick and the Magi magically appeared.

All those tears because of what we’ve lost in worship at church, paled in comparison to the tears shed on Wednesday. I experienced grief again, but also shock and anger. While I anxiously waited for the election results from Georgia, I witnessed in real time (as did many of you) the invasion of our U.S. Capitol by American citizens. As Pr. Valerie Bridgeman wrote, “They’ve been called a number of things, including by me: rioters, insurrectionists, seditionists. But they are (also) citizens who believe that the election was “stolen” from them, who believe that the votes of (mostly) black and brown people should be rejected, that there is “proof” that the current president has been wronged.”

She continues, “I have found myself weary from all the hand wringing and “this is not who we are'' posts from (mostly) white people. I have found myself weary from the announcement by media and others that this was unbelievable and shocking. Most of that weariness is because no one I know that is an activist/advocate for racial and social justice found it “unbelievable” or “shocking.” It was predictable...White grievance and rage are baked into the DNA of this nation.”

And that is what I’ve been reminded of several times this week; Black, Indigenous and People of Color have been naming the systemic racism in our country for years. They experience daily the inequities and prejudice against them. They are weary from the tireless work; and call on us who are white to recognize our own privilege in a system that was designed for us and work tirelessly to dismantle it. The attack in DC was a grotesque display of power by white supremacists aimed at maintaining the status quo at any cost. It displayed in living color and real time the privilege white people experience, compared to people of color, when protests, rioting and looting are taking place.

I am disgusted. I am angry. I am saddened. I am complicit. It is not enough to “not be racist” and not actively contribute to the disease of racism. We cannot say to ourselves or each other, “Well, we’re not like those people. We love everyone, no matter the color of their skin.” Any indifference to racism and our place in it inevitably makes us complicit in it. And we must repent!

Repent does not mean to wallow in our sins and grief, crying for show, hanging our head low and saying we’re sorry. Repent, from the Greek word metanoia, means to change one’s mind, turn and be totally reoriented. We, collectively and individually, must acknowledge the ways our complicity has hurt ourselves and our siblings in Christ, and turn around toward new life, freedom and compassion for all.

John the Baptist preached a baptism of repentance. He cried out in the wilderness pleading with the people to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. His baptising was an invitation to the Jewish people to begin again, to rededicate themselves to their mission as God’s people and reorient their lives toward the coming Messiah.

We could use a little preaching by John today and lean into his call to repentance. Repentance is not usually the main focus of baptism in our church, but we do it. Our repentance, saying no to the forces of evil and sin that surrounds us, might easily get lost in the midst of joyfully holding babies, splashing them in the water, anointing their heads with oil and praying for the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But before we do any of that we proclaim together the Great No and Yes, as Lutheran pastor and writer, Dan Erlander, illustrates in his playful books about baptism.

We ask the parents and sponsors to say no to the forces that defy God--the voices which counter the way of Jesus, and offer empty promises, and turn us away from the Holy One. I instruct them during baptism practice to respond boldly; shouting “I renounce them!” and I tell them it is our way of kicking the devil in the pants. Parents, baptismal sponsors and the whole assembly boldly proclaim that we reject the power of sin in our lives. We shout out a strong “NO!” to the forces that keep us from loving our enemies and serving one another. We renounce the forces of evil and repent of the grip they hold in our lives.

Many precious gifts of Christian baptism have their roots in John’s ministry of baptism-cleansing, forgiveness, repentance (or turning) and beginning anew. We shout the big NO, so that we can say yes to Jesus’ way of loving the enemy, serving one another, forgiving the sinner, healing the sick, and ending hierarchy and domination.

Baptism is political and rooted in protest. In the early church to be baptized into the new life in Christ was a political act. Jesus’ ministry in the Roman empire proclaimed the truth of God’s inclusive love to power. Baptism washes us into the life of Jesus, rejects the unjust powers of the empire and grants us citizenship in God’s kin-dom. In baptism we say NO to the self-serving ways of sin and death, and we say YES to the self-giving way of the cross.

In baptism, we hear that our lives and this planet matter tremendously to God. In baptism we hear that we are created in love and given a calling for the sake of the whole creation to be instruments of justice and peace. Martin Luther, church reformer and theologian, said we should remember our baptism daily, dying to sin and our old self and rising again to new life, reorienting ourselves to a life marked by Christ’s compassion and grace.

On this festival day, Baptism of our Lord, we read about Jesus’ baptism and remember our own. Even if we can’t remember the actual event, we remember, with all the saints, the call and the promise. In baptism we are called to boldly renounce the devil and all that defies God. We are called to renounce the powers of the world that rebel against God. We are called to renounce the ways of sin that draw us from God.

Will you live out your baptismal calling and say no to all that defiles God? Say NO to white supremacy and its demonic legacy in our country? Say NO to serving self above all else? Say NO to unjust systems that benefit one group of people at the expense of others? Say NO to abuse of self, others and our planet? Say NO to empty promises and complicity? This day, every day, boldly shout a strong NO to all that destroys and deceives, and turn toward the Holy One’s YES that proclaims, “You are beloved of God.”

Water washed and Spirit born, trusting God’s mercy when we fail, we go forth to love and serve in Jesus name, clinging to the promise that nothing will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.” Amen.