Baptism and Ministry

           Some clergy restrict access to the Eucharist.   I have been in Roman Catholic churches for weddings and have been openly instructed by the priest to stay away from receiving communion if I am not of the Roman Catholic faith.  I am always put off by this, even though I expect it when I sit in their pews. 

            The Episcopal church, in its canons, specifies that baptized people ought to receive communion.  I’ve never liked that.  I don’t want to put any barriers up that can possibly keep people away from the most enervating sacrament that we offer.  I think that anyone who is in the church, and even those outside, ought to be able to freely receive the Body and Blood of Jesus with no restrictions at all.  I remember Krister Stendahl, the great Lutheran bishop telling me in a group that when he was acting as a chaplain at Harvard, a Sikh, in his turban, came to the altar during communion, put out his hands to receive communion.  “I gave it to him,” said the bishop. “There was no question in my mind what I had to do.”  I think hearing that was the moment that decided for me that nobody at all ought to be kept from the altar to receive communion.  I remembered this when I did prison chaplaincy.  Sometimes I would smuggle in the consecrated bread and wine and give communion to the members of my group.  I never asked if any or all of them were baptized.  It didn’t seem relevant to me.

            This week is the time when we recognize the baptism of Jesus by John.  There was a lot of conversation between the two of them before the baptism.  John told Jesus, “you should be baptizing me,” but Jesus told him to do it, that it was the right thing to do.  And certainly it was.  If Jesus was going to take on the character of all of us, including our sin, it was essential for him to be baptized.  Luke’s gospel tells us the dramatic moment of the baptism, that when Jesus came up out of the water, the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove and a voice from Heaven called out, “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.” 

  
          I think it important to remember that the baptism of Jesus wasn’t a “Christian” baptism.  It was a Jewish rite.  We have a habit of assuming that being baptized somehow makes us “Christians”.  I don’t think so.  I think we become Christians when we follow the Christ.  Baptism is only a first step.  Receiving the sacrament is another, and I always think that those moments known only to us when the Holy Spirit touches us are the real moment of our consecration as members of the flock of God.  This isn’t something that happens publicly, most often it is in quiet moments when we come to an understanding of who we are and what our lives are intended for.

                   For me, it was my calling to the priesthood.  After the television station where I had been working closed up, and I was without a job, I thought about what I ought to do with my life.  For a long time, I had been attracted to the church, but I put it off and continued in my broadcasting career.  This time was different.  Somehow, I knew the direction that my life needed to take.  It wasn’t much time before I spoke to my rector, and the bishop and was enrolled in seminary.  That was a profound moment of baptism for me.  I know that there are others who plan for ministry all of their lives, take pre-theological courses in colleges and build a whole academic course toward ministry.  For me, it was more sudden, and I have appreciated that with great awe.  I know that God spoke to me, although I couldn’t possibly share the words that were used, only the impetus toward what I eventually did.  I thank God for that moment, for my baptism and for my ministry.