Calling: A Song for the Baptized - Softcover

Westerhoff, Caroline A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1596280093 ISBN 13: 9781596280090

Publisher: Church Publishing, 2004

Synopsis

The author begins her exploration of the Christian life with the memory of childhood afternoons spent rocking in green wicker chairs on her grandmother's front porch, listening to the stories of women who came to call. The image of calling as baptismal vocation, the sharing of time and conversation, the vision that informs our choices and actions is vividly described through Westerhoff's stories drawn from her life and work. Narratives of what it means to live as a Christian provide the variations on the baptismal themes of ministry, community, and responsibility in this "song for the baptized."

About this title

About the Author

Caroline Westerhoff, formerly Canon for Congregational Life and Ministry and a consultant for the Alban Institute, is a writer and retreat leader. Her other works include Good Fences, Calling, and Transforming the Ordinary. She lives in Georgia.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

CALLING

A Song for the Baptized

By CAROLINE A. WESTERHOFF

Church Publishing, Incorporated

Copyright © 2005 Caroline A. Westerhoff
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-59628-009-0

Contents

Foreword by John H. Westerhoff.............................................
ix
Preface to the Classics Edition............................................
xiii
PRELUDE Calling...........................................................
3
First Movement BAPTISM AND MINISTRY.......................................
Second Movement BAPTISM AND COMMUNITY.....................................
Third Movement BAPTISM AND RESPONSIBILITY.................................
FINALE Home...............................................................
149
A Guide for Study by John H. Westerhoff....................................
155

Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

FIRST MOVEMENT

Baptism and Ministry

We thank you, Father, for the water of Baptism.In it we are buried with Christ in his death.By it we share in his resurrection.Through it we are reborn by the Holy Spirit.Therefore in joyful obedience to your Son,we bring into his fellowshipthose who come to him in faith,baptizing them in the Name of the Father,and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

* * *

HOLY HABITS

Will you continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship,in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?

The children in our midst look around and ask (asthose children always will): "What are we to do if weare followers of Jesus? What habits do we practice?"Another way of phrasing the question might be: "Whatdefines these followers in the first place?"

One source of answers is the prayer book catechism.Here we read that the ministers in the eucharistic communityare those who are to carry out its mission of reconciliationand restoration, of reuniting the fractured peoplesof the earth with each other and with God. Theseministers are the church's laity, bishops, priests, and deacons,and to each is given a particular charge. So we beginwith a presupposition: that each of the four orders of ministershas different functions to perform for the church, thebody of Christ, and each is dependent upon the others tomake up the whole. To say it another way, each order is asymbol for the others of what they are and what they areto be. A body is not in vigorous health when essentialparts are missing.

In considering the ministry of the baptized within theeucharistic community, it is useful to think of a roundtable with four chairs drawn up for a meal or a serious talk.If any seat is missing or empty, the company is diminished,incomplete. Certain acts will not happen; certain wordswill not be said; certain points of view will not be maintainedor defended—at least as they could have been. Weneed to ask: "How is a particular actor distinct from theothers? What will he or she do or say that the others willnot?" These are very different questions from: "Which oneis more important than the others?"

We are not talking about a blurring of the boundariesamong the various designations of minister within thechurch. Rather, we are calling for clarity and crispness.While from one perspective some say that the bishop,priest, and deacon forever remain in the lay order (and thebishop remains a priest and deacon and the priest, a deacon),I think this assertion is confusing to a clear understandingof ministry. I am convinced that it is more usefulto separate the four orders according to their differences.The paradox is that as we work to define specifically theministry of one, the ministries of the other three becomemore apparent in their own right. As those in eachorder—layperson, bishop, priest, and deacon—take uptheir roles within the community with clarity, authority,confidence, and enthusiasm, the others are better able tounderstand and assume their own.

In the catechism the description of each of these rolesbegins by saying that each of us is to "represent Christ andhis Church." This is what we have in common, and thesewords have ramifications for us all—lay and ordained—asbaptized Christians. A minister is one who follows Jesus,who learns from the example of Jesus, and who takes seriouslythe implications of the baptismal vows to say and todo on Jesus' behalf, to speak and behave as Jesus would.

At baptism we are given both the means and the mandate:we are incorporated into Christ's body, infused withthe character of Christ, and given power to representChrist and his body, the church. We hear the words:

John ... Frances ... Sarah ... David, you are sealed bythe Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ's ownfor ever.

Sealed and marked—washed in waters of new life, searedwith fire of the spirit, drowned and burned so that we canemerge fresh and new to be about the work God hasintended since the beginning of time.

Then the people of the community give the welcomeand the charge:

We receive you into the household of God. Confess thefaith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, andshare with us in his eternal priesthood. You are one of usnow. You are to go forth with the liberating word of theOne who came among us to show us how it is to be. Youare now among his own, those ordained as his servantsto the world.

So we become members of the company of Christ. Wecan be with them forever. We can share their tea and cake.We can be shaped by their holy habits. We can hear theirlively stories that help us form our own. This company willcall us to take up various roles on their behalf—to sit invarious chairs on the porch. Then, putting these rolesaside until we return, we are to go forth to other companiesand other porches, carrying with us as God's baptizedpeople the good news of God in Christ.

Much has been written and said in recent years aboutministry, particularly the ministry of all the baptized. Thesubject is an urgent one, and yet we continue to skirtaround it. I suspect one reason we do is that it is so urgent.If we took it seriously we would have to change muchabout how we set priorities and how we live our lives—asa people and as individuals. There is that cross in the way.

I think our other primary difficulty is that of definition.The children in our midst have asked: "What are we to doif we are followers of Jesus? What habits do we practice?"But what if this is a subsequent question and not the initialone? The children in our midst are only following ourlead.

Many of us in the church—volunteer and stipendiary—wouldsay we see our work as ministry. And sadly, westill tend to consider the church as the locus of real ministry—despiteour many words to the contrary.Nevertheless, we could go on to describe other ministries:of the teacher, of the doctor and the nurse, of the parent.But suppose ministry did not have as much to do with roleand function as with who we are and how we are disposedto behave—our "am-ness" as a young woman said to merecently. Suppose the children's question were to become,"Who are we to be if we are followers of Jesus? Who are weto become?"

John the baptizer urges us to prepare for this becoming.The derivation of the word "prepare" is illuminating. Notonly does it point us to the expected Latin parare, to bringorder, to get ready, it also refers us to parere, to bear, tobring forth. Preparation does not just have to do with gettingready for a birth; it has to do with the very act ofbirthing itself, with the bringing forth of something whichhas not been before—something new. As God planted thedivine seed into the womb of Mary the virgin, God hasplanted the divine seed within each of us. Our life's workis to carry that seed, to swell with that seed, to give birthto the fruit of our loving relationship with God: to becomethe selves we are and were intended to be.

If we took seriously that every one of us is born in theimage of the divine and that we bear the mark of theCreator God from before the moment of our birth, themark peculiarly seared upon us who are named Christianat the time of our baptism....

If we took seriously that every Christian carries deepwithin herself or himself the mind and heart of Christ andthat our lifelong work is to practice holy habits that revealand name the Christ in ourselves and others—to uncoverthe image, to scrape away the layers of accumulated grimeand turn ourselves to God's polishing hand....

We then would seek perceptions of ministry thatinclude every man, woman, and baby we graft into thebody with that marking and sealing and drowning andsearing, regardless of gift or grace or circumstance.

We would identify and honor the ministry of the childand of the aged.

We would identify and honor the ministry of the studentas well as that of the teacher, the ministry of thelistener as well as of the speaker, the ministry of thosewith lesser intellectual ability as well as of those wholabor to give them tools for comprehension and expression.

We would name and respect the ministry of the sickand of the dying as well as of those who bring healingand comfort, the ministry of the homeless as well as ofthose who strive to bring them some measure of dignityand relief.

We would accept and welcome the ministry of theloyal dissidents in our midst as well as of those whostrive to address their concerns, the ministry of thosewho ask disturbing and annoying questions, the ministryof those who want to change the rules.

Ministry would be part and parcel of our saying, "I am;I am baptized." In describing ministry, questions relatingto character, identity, and disposition to behave wouldconcern us before those regarding the various roles weassume or functions we perform. Such an approach couldenable us to pass through the strangling sphincters of the"isms"—clericalism, sexism, racism, classism, ageism, andthe rest. It is worth a try—but there is that cross in the way.

* Sunlight

Do you turn to Jesus Christ andaccept him as your Savior?

There was a time in my early twenties when the worldI knew as predictable and orderly fell apart. The sunwent dark for a while, and I was bombarded by doubt. Allthat I had been brought up to believe about good andabout God came into question. But because I had beenbrought up to believe certain things about God—basicthings like, God is—I took my terrifying questions to awise priest of the church, and he introduced me to thewritings of C. S. Lewis. It was a graceful match.

One night as I sat up in bed reading, I came to the followingpassage in the chapter of Mere Christianity entitled"The Shocking Alternative":

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the reallyfoolish thing that people often say about Him:"I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher,but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is theone thing we must not say. A man who was merelya man and said the sort of things Jesus said wouldnot be a great moral teacher. He would either be alunatic—on a level with the man who says he is apoached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell.You must make your choice. Either this man was,and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or somethingworse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you canspit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fallat His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let usnot come with any patronizing nonsense about Hisbeing a great human teacher. He has not left thatopen to us. He did not intend to.

The hair on my arms rose, and my eyes filled with tears.The choice was suddenly obvious to me. I closed the bookand slept soundly for the first time in months. My questionsand doubts were not swept away forever that night,and over the years new ones have arisen. But ever since,such questions and doubts have been stripped of anydemonic and paralytic power they might hold over me.That night was what some might call a conversion—notto be the last for me. I describe it as a watershed: the nightmy lifestream turned to flow in its true direction. It was anight that the sun shone.

Peter's declaration in Caesarea Philippi regarding Jesus'identity is also a watershed event; its accounting is thepivotal passage of Mark's gospel. Jesus' Galilean ministry isessentially over. He and the twelve are on the road toJerusalem and all that lies ahead. In the bright light of themoment Jesus invites the disciples to reflect on their experienceswith him. He invites them to draw meaning fromall that has happened to and around them. "Who do peoplesay that I am?" he asks. "What's out there? What's thelatest word?" And they provide him with a variety ofinteresting responses: He is John the Baptist, some say,and others, Elijah, and still others, one of the prophets.Answers abound as we troop along in the sun.

But "What's out there?" is not the relevant question,and Jesus' next query penetrates to the core of the matter:"But who do you say that I am?" Peter answers correctly forthe twelve: "You are the Messiah." Jesus' response at firstseems strange. He sternly orders them not to tell anyone."Why not?" they must have wondered. "Its time to shoutfrom rooftops. You are the one for whom we have beenwaiting. You are to set everything right again. You are tomake up for everything that has gone wrong for our peoplefor so many years!" Still Jesus invokes deep silence, for thedisciples do not yet understand the implications of Peter 'sconfession. And we too will be wise to sit in quiet expectationuntil we have some grasp of what it means for us.

Then Jesus begins to teach. He describes what lies instore for him—suffering, rejection, and death, and theincomprehensible notion of resurrection. Like a developingeclipse, a shadow begins to move across Peter's sunlitdeclaration. A silhouette falls over the confession made bythe young woman lying on her bed those years ago and theone we make each time we reaffirm our faith with thefamiliar words of the creed:

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,the only Son of God,eternally begotten of the Father,God from God, Light from Light....

For our confessions of belief are not where we end;instead, they mark a beginning. Once we have some glimmerof who Jesus is, we then will be confronted by theimplications of the life of discipleship. "No," Peter cries,"No!" And we join him. Jesus is talking dangerous nonsense.No one willingly walks into that kind of future.Maybe he is a crazy man, and we would be crazier to followhim. Peter desperately tries to stop Jesus from sayingmore. Peter tries to push back the cruciform shadow thatcontinues to move over the sun, but to no avail. It slidesever farther across.

In a sharp rebuke that recalls the wilderness temptation,Jesus retorts to Peter: "Get behind me, Satan! Moveback, you seductive devil! You are to follow me, not tolead. The ways of the world are not the ways of God. God'sdefinition of success may not be yours. God's definition ofpower may not be yours. God's definition of life may notbe yours." We strain to see in the lengthening shade."What's happening to the sun?" we cry.

Jesus continues unrelentingly. He beckons the crowd tomove around him, and he pronounces God's truth. Itcomes in the form of paradox, as truth usually does:

If any want to become my followers, let them denythemselves and take up their cross and follow me.For those who want to save their life will lose it, andthose who lose their life for my sake, and the sake ofthe gospel, will save it.

We are not to talk about the cross; we are to take it up. Buttaking up the cross does not mean bravely, stoically, cheerfullybearing the burdens and tragedies life throws our way.Any human being can do that. Rather, the disciple ofJesus is to deliberately choose what could be avoided—withoutconsidering the cost, without worrying about whogets the credit—in order to serve.

Taking up the cross of Christ is putting ourselves withoutreservation in the service of God and neighbor. It isengaging with the world's suffering because we can donothing less. It is being vulnerable even to those who willturn against us. To deny self—the grasping, self-centeredego—is to liberate the true self, the wondrous one createdin the image of God and baptized into the likeness ofChrist. The shadow passes from the sun's face, and westand in blazing light.

* All the Baptized

I baptize you in the name of the Father,and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

When I am honest with myself, I admit to a recurringdesire to be successful even when I am not surewhat "successful" means. I want to do something someonewill notice, something that will make a difference, somethingthat will merit a headline somewhere. So I am bothrelieved and troubled when I read of Jesus' response to therequest of James and John, made as they travel the road toJerusalem—on the way to the cross. Jesus is striding outahead of the twelve. James and John catch up with him toask a favor: "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand andone at your left, in your glory."

And Jesus replies, "To sit at my right or left is not mineto grant. But you do not know what you are asking. Areyou able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized withthe baptism with which I am baptized? You must be buriedwith me in order to live. You must drown in the deepwaters of my love to be free from all that binds anddestroys you."

"We are able," James and John assure him, all tooquickly—just as we can make and affirm our baptismalvows without thinking about their terrible implications."So be it; it is the only way," Jesus answers. The other tenare indignant at the presumption of James and John, andJesus continues, "The great among you must be servantand slave of all."

(Continues...)

Excerpted from CALLING by CAROLINE A. WESTERHOFF. Copyright © 2005 by Caroline A. Westerhoff. Excerpted by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Church Publishing
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1596280093
• ISBN 13: 9781596280090
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 172