Manual work builds up calluses on our hands. Mental work builds up calluses on our souls. Language, e.g., looses its power to communicate with overuse. If I describe how the hero rides off into the sunset with the girl of his dreams, it is greeted with boredom; we've heard that story too many times. The same deterioration happens to Christian language. That's why overuse of the familiar can turn our worship into lip service. It's an occupational hazard for preachers. I have to talk about the faith, but if I lose contact with the reality of God behind my words, I place the congregation and my own sould at risk.

One way of staying in contact with God is to express familiar ideas in unfamiliar ways. So, two weeks ago, I said that the first lesson of holiness has nothing to do with morality. Today, I must bring to your attention the distressing truth that the first lesson of baptism has nothing to do with water. I know I run the risk of not being taken seriously. But I was never more serious, and 1 Corinthians 10:1-2 offers heartening support for treating the wet tradition of Christian baptism with dry humor.

Christian Baptism
For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. That refers to the Exodus, when the Red Sea parted, and the Children of Israel passed safely through to the other side on dry land, while their pursuers, the Egyptians, drowned when they tried to follow.

Now, the practical point of passing through the sea was that the Children of Israel did not get wet. The people who got very wet were the Egyptians. That's why the language of verse two forces us to take a closer look at the meaning of baptism. They (the children of Israel) were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They got baptized, but they did not get wet. I say again: The meaning of baptism would be more vivid, if we forgot about water for a while.

The Church uses water to express the meaning of baptism, but attention to the water and neglect of the meaning is like attention to the Red Sea and neglect of the Exodus. The verses we just read present baptism as a uniting act and a separating act. Safe passage through the Red Sea united Israel to Moses and their hopeful future, even as it separated them from Egypt and their dreadful past.

The apsotle Paul reproduced this meaning of baptism in Romans 6:1-4, but with a new application. What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

Once again, baptism, this time Christian baptism, is a uniting act and a separating act. Faith in Jesus Christ and its visible act, baptism, unites the Church to Christ, even as it separates the Church from sin.

Christian baptism teaches us to think of ourselves as people for whom life without Christ is over and for whom a new life with Christ and each other has begun. At our baptism we renounce everything that would take us away from Christ, as surely as Israel renounced Egypt; and we embrace anything that will bring us close to Christ, as surely as Israel marched toward the Promised Land. Baptism seals that transition.

Baptism and the Worthy Life
The vocation of the Church is to be the global community that is gathered around Jesus Christ and serves as the dwelling place where God the Creator and Redeemer lives with the human family - a kind of beachhead from which He has begun the liberation of the nations of the world from the disorders of sin. That's what it means to be holy.

It is a privilege to be this community that is available for the purposes of God in the world. What responses on our part might be appropriate for this privileged position in which we find ourselves? Four New Testament statements summarize our appropriate response.

I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received - Ephesians 4:1.

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ - Philippians 1:27.

We pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in ever way - Colossians 1:10.

We urge you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory -  1 Thessalonians 2:11-12.

Living such a life may seem impossible at first, but the admonition to live that way comes precisely and only to flawed people, who feel the strain of what they are being asked to do. A life worthy of God is to be lived within the boundaries of our flawed humanity. There is no alternative. The four passages we just read went originally to ordinary people.

Baptism is the form way in which the Church accepts this admonition to lead a life worthy of the Lord. At our baptsim we renounce everything that would take us away from Christ; and we embrace anything that will bring us close to Christ. As with every Christian act, we can lose sight of this meaning.

Last Spring, I read a book review about the life of Danish philospher, Søren Kierkegaard. The reviewer, in passing, pointed out how empty the meaning of baptism has become in present-day Denmark. He said, "Today, almost all Danes are baptized, but less than five percent of them regularly attend church ... half of all Danes say that God doesn't matter in their life at all," (Gregory Beabout, "Kierkegaard's Voices," First Things, June/July 2005, 47).

That is a degradation of what Scripture and the Church have understood and practiced down through the ages. John Calvin wrote: "We are admonished by baptism, in like manner as Christ died, to die to our lusts, and as he rose, to rise to righteousness," (Institutes, II, 515). The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that "baptism is birth into the new life in Christ," (357).

An empty experience of baptism "reduces Christianity to a purely social phenomenon" and "weakens the central link between baptism and Christian discipleship," (Alister McGrath, Christian Theology, 515). Let it be our desire to strengthen that link and to embody Christianity in a way that is worthy of God, who calls us into his kingdom and glory.

Within the Realities of Fallen Humanity
How do we explain the tendencies of the Church to allow baptism to become an empty experience and thus weaken the central link between baptism and Christian discipleship? The answer goes back to an earlier statement that I repeated from last week. A life worthy of God is to be lived within the boundaries of our flawed humanity. There is no alternative. The call to a life worthy of God comes to ordinary people, who can easily be tempted to slide back into a life unworthy of God.

We don't have to pretend we are anything other than what we actually are, but we have to be realistic about how easily we can slide back into a life unworthy of God. Just how realistic we need to be comes home with special power from the biblical heritage we share with Jews in the Torah. I will read quickly. If you want to follow, turn with me to Exodus 14.

The children of Israel said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!" - Exodus 14:11-12.

On another occasion the Israelites said to Moses and Aaron, "If only we had died by the LORD's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death." - Exodus 16:3

Later, the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, "Why did you bring us out of Egypt to make us an dour children and livestock die of thirst?" - Exodus 17:3.

"We remember the fist we ate in Egypt at no cost - also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But no we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna." - Numbers 11:5-6.

All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, "If only we had died in Egypt! ... Wouldn't it be better to go back to Egypt? - Numbers 14:2-3.

You want to go back to Egypt? Are you crazy? Have you forgotten the ruthless, Egyptian oppression? Have you forgotten your groaning and crying out to God for help? Have you forgotten the death angel and the Red Sea and the Exodus? They forgot. They were crazy. They wanted to go back. You can take the slave out of chains, but it takes a long time to remove chains from the soul of the slave.

We are no different, when it comes to living a life worthy of God. "You are dead to sin. Life without Christ is over. Baptism unites you with Christ and separates you from sin. Live in newness of life." The preacher can say it till he is blue in the face, and we grow irritable with hearing it. And then, if I may put it this way, we turn around and walk right back into Egypt.

Learning to live a life worthy of God will always be marked by fits and starts. It takes time, maybe decades, to replace old habits with new habits that are worthy of the Lord. How well we are learning will not always be apparent to others or to ourselves. Some of the most crucial work takes place in our minds, out of sight of prying eyes. The messiness of renovating our souls means that living a life worthy of the Lord is nothing ever to boast about. But none of this means it is impossible. Thinking that is a temptation to avoide at all costs.

The Pastoral Center of Gravity
If we're going to strengthen the central link between baptism and Christian discipleship, we need to do two things. First, if you have never done so, you need to be baptized. Jesus said, "Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" -  Matthew 28:19 From the days of the New Testament until now, the Church has recognized baptism as the act by which Christians declare their faith in Jesus Christ openly.

Today, I have tried to show you how baptism is filled with meaning and to strengthen the central link between baptism and Christian discipleship. Are you prepared to take this important step and be baptized? We'll be having our next baptismal service in November, and the Baptism Class will take place on Sunday, October 23. I'll say more about this later.

Second, we need to shed the old habits of Egypt. One of them is a habit of thinking, an idea about God that has made deep inroads among religious and irreligious people. I want us to be more aware of it, so that we can effectively combat it. Here's how Michael Cromartie of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington has expressed this deficient idea of God like this: "God is something ilke a combination Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist," ("What American Teenages Believe," Books & Culter, January/February 2005, 10).

Here's what he means. "God exists. God created the world. God set up some kind of moral structure. God wants me to be nice. He wants me to be pleasant, wants me to get along with people... . The purpose of life is to be happy and feel good, and good people go to heave. And nearly everyone's good.

(This faith is) "specifically designed ... to help people who are very different to get along with each other. You don't have to get too personally involved with this God. But when there is a problem - when you need him - he will solve it as soon as you snap your fingers or ring the bell. Many teens explain their faith in these terms: 'you know, there is a god out there, and when I get in trouble I think about that.' The rest of the time God's irrelevant," (ibid).

Some variation of that is the working faith of many people, some of them in evangelical churches. They say that it helps them; but it is the religious equivalent of believing the earth is flat. It is unworthy of God. It is unworthy of the meaning of Christian baptism. It is unworthy of millions of Christians, whose sacrificies have given substance to the meaning of baptism.

We must not buy into this impovershied idea of God. God is not a divine butler at our disposal. If there is any butlering to be done, we are to do it, because we are at His disposal. At stake is what kind of community the Church of Jesus Christ isgoing to be.

The vocation of the Church is to be the global community that is gathered around Jesus Christ and serves as the place where God the Creator and Redeemer lives with the human family - a kind of beachhead from which He has begun the liberation of the kingdoms of this world. This is what it means to be holy. At our baptism we committed ourselves to a life worthy of that vocation.

On behalf of Jesus Christ I am calling you, the congregation to commit or to recommit yourselves to lives worthy of God, worthy of the Church's vocation, and to do it by New Year's Eve. Such a commitment belongs naturally to the meaning of Christian baptism.

If you commit or recommit yourself to live a life worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory, it will give your action more bite, if you deliberately reject this idea of God as the divine butler or cosmic therapist. That idea is improper for God's holy people (Ephesians 5:3).

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