Christ is baptized!  In the Jordan!

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

In the opening verses of this chapter of Ephesians we heard read this morning, St. Paul urges and exhorts all believers in Jesus Christ to “walk worthy of the calling [vocation] with which you were called, . . . .” (Ep. 4:1), and we are to do so, he says, with all possible humility and longsuffering, “bearing with one another in love” (Ep. 4:2).  In other words, beloved, we are to show ourselves worthy of the grace of God bestowed upon us at our Baptism into His Son, Jesus Christ.  We are to match our conduct and behavior to that which we have received without any merit on our own.  God’s grace, God’s mercy, God’s salvation is freely given to all who confess themselves to be truly unworthy of any such thing because of our brokenness and who are continually repentant.  In fact, we might even say that such piety is itself a manifestation of the high and holy calling of God upon us, a demonstration of “walking worthy” of our calling in the Mystery of Holy Baptism.  We honor God with our humble mindset and congruent lifestyle as His called ones (1 Th. 2:12). 

You and I have been called by God, beloved.  Now, generally, we associate that word call or calling with such vocations as the ordained ministry.  It is true that to be ordained is to receive God’s calling.  In this case, there are two callings.  One is the internal call by the Holy Spirit to serve God in an ecclesiastical way.  The second is the external call by God confirmed and issued through His Church to do so.  This is a very particular calling.  However, there is a general sense of calling upon all Christians – the called-out ones, the ecclesia, as we are called – who have been set free from the slavery of sin and made sons of God for special purposes.  Speaking to the baptized, the Apostle St. Peter says,

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, . . . . (1 Pe. 2:9-10)

God calls us out of the darkness of Naphtali and Zebulon (Mt. 4:12-17), out of the darkness of sin and death and the entanglements of this old decaying world, for the express purpose of serving Him and His Church, just as surely as He called Israel out of their bondage in Egypt to serve Him in the wilderness.  This is what the salvation of God entails.  And for this purpose – this ministry of service – St. Paul assures us that “to each one of us grace” – God’s grace – “has been given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”  Now grace here understood is not the unmerited favor of God we normally associate with this word, but rather it is the actual grace of God the Holy Spirit – the energy or power of the Holy Spirit of God “which always heals that which is infirm, and supplies that which is lacking” (Mystery of Holy Ordination).  It is grace to be and to do, “according to the measure of Christ’s gift,” and it is bestowed by the Lord Jesus for the sake of the Church, which is to say, the building up of His one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Body (Ep. 4:4-6, 14-16; Nicene Creed). 

This is what the Apostle means when he sees the source of this grace in the condescension of Jesus in the taking on of our flesh and blood, His Death and Burial, His descent into Hades, and in His exaltation to the right hand of the Father when He brought up with Him the captives of Hades, so “that He might fill all things,” that is, He gave gifts [graces] to men.  These gifts, these graces, then, convey His grace to His Church to empower us – to energize us – to “walk worthy of the calling with which [we] were called.”  Thus, Jesus gave to His Church some who are apostles, some who are prophets, some who are evangelists, and some who are pastor-teachers.  These offices or ministries of service exist for the Church and not for the fulfillment of the individual souls called to embody them.

But notice, beloved, these offices or ministries are not the sole proprietors of ministry.  Rather, these offices prepare the rest of the Church for service or, to use St. Paul’s words, “for the equipping of the saints [all the baptized] for the work of ministry, for the edifying [building up] of the Body of Christ” in love (Ep. 4:16).  This is consonant with our Lord’s call in His Great Commission to “make disciples” (Mt. 28:16-20).  Disciples are not spectators.  Disciples are not consumers of God’s grace.  Disciples are not solely recipients of God’s grace nor are they simply beneficiaries of it, but rather they are themselves channels of God’s grace and become benefactors of it to others, handing on the grace of God to others.  Disciples don’t simply “come to Church” so they can “get something out of it,” but rather they are the Church so that having received God’s grace they can freely give, as our Lord has said.  “’Freely ye have received; freely give’” (Mt. 10:8).  Disciples are not armchair quarterbacks, but rather they are players, with some being player-coaches.  Again, to use the Apostle’s words, disciples are the saints – the baptized – who are being equipped by those called to do so – Bishops, Priests, Deacons, Sub-deacons, Readers, catechists, and others – “for the work of ministry, for the edifying [building up] of the [one] Body of Christ” (Ep. 4:4).

And what is the goal of all this edification of the Body of Christ?  Quite simply: to become like Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who is the “perfect Man,” to come “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”  He is not only the Source of this grace, He is our measure which we are to fill out and grow up into (Ep. 4:15-16) as we faithfully serve one another in love, helping each other to “come to the unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.”  When we are about the business of edifying one another and building up the Body of Christ we are helping each other to grow up in the Faith so that we are no longer at the mercy of every fleeting fad of doctrine that’s out there (Ep. 4:14), and we help one another to know God more intimately and more fully.

St. Silouan the Athonite captures St. Paul’s point wonderfully, so it seems to me, when he says, “Whoever carries the Holy Spirit within themselves pours Him out upon others, . . . .” 

“[T]he whole Body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies,” says St. Paul, “according to the effective working by which every part [gift] does its [appointed] share, causes growth of the Body for the edifying of itself in love” (Ep. 4:16).  It is for this very reason, the Apostle goes on to say, that we are called by God, Who has called us out of darkness into His light, to abandon the old ways of walking and to

walk worthy of the calling with which [we] were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ep. 4:1-3, 17-24).

          At the risk of sounding corny (which I’m willing to take at my age), borrowing from the BLM slogan of not-too-distant memory and filling it with new meaning, St. Paul might very well say, “Baptized Lives Matter” or to say it slightly differently, “baptized living matters.”                      

Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.

          Christ is baptized!  In the Jordan!

PROPERS:

Ep.  4:7-13

Mt. 4:12-17