The way the story goes in my family history, it was my grandmother who first noticed. My dad’s mom raised five boys on the southside of Indianapolis, in a two-bedroom home so she got pretty good at paying attention. But it was my grandmother who first noticed that as I graduated from the chaos of a toddler whose movements are wild and uncontrollable, to a precocious four-year-old, that I still tended to run into things, walls, chairs, people. And in her simple and matter-of-fact rural Tennessean way, she said to my mother, “that child needs glasses.” I doubt my mom, a young mother to a blind 4yo and a wild 2yo, could have fully appreciated the wisdom in the moment. But she was right, and I’ve had glasses since I was 5yo. My grandmother could see something that the rest of the family couldn’t see, in part because they were so deep in the weeds with the hecticness of life.
In some ways, this is how I imagine our gospel lesson playing out, the Sadducees are arguing and tussling and in the mix of it all and Jesus comes in with a voice that speaks a bit of wisdom and clarity, “hear oh Israel!” And reminds the people about what is truly important: love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. It provides a sense of grounding in a time of chaos when the details and the practicalities of what it means to be a righteous person gets lost in the arguing about what it means to be a righteous person. And friends, is there not a more salient message to the people of God in the United States of America the Sunday before a presidential election?
We must remember who we are and what we are truly called to be in this world, no matter what other labels we may wear, because we are Christians first and foremost. When Christ was pressed about which commandment and rule should take precedent, he responds that we are required to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and second to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is the summation of the foundation of all the commandments; this is the guiding light of everything.
These two commandments, greater than all the others, are a guiding light because they illumine the path when we stumble and falter. When the world is confusing and noisy and cruel, it is these two commandments to which we ought to turn. The gift of hearing them on this day, however is not just that they remind us who we are in a time of national anxiety, but that that they lay the foundation as we welcome three new souls into the household of God this morning. Poe, Navy, and Nola Tisdale will be baptized in just a bit, and I am so full of gratitude and joy, I can hardly stand it.
When the Tisdale’s contacted me about baptisms, I didn’t think about how we would be days away from a national election, or even about how Tennessee was playing Kentucky in SEC football the night before, but rather that on this day we celebrate All Saints’ Sunday. It’s a day where we remember all paragons of faith who have gone before us who have modeled what it looks like to be a Christian in unprecedented times and through great trials. I’m grateful to celebrate the sacrament of baptism this day, not only because it’s a traditional day for it, but more so, I’m grateful because of the hope and joy present in baptism. There is such a desperation in our world for hope and joy, and I am deeply convicted that the love to which God calls us is inherently hopeful and joyful at its core.
Baptism is full of this hope and joy, and by the grace of God, we get to experience that today with Poe, Navy, and Nola by welcoming them into a baptized life today. After they are each baptized, I’ll lead us in prayer that they will live lives of grace, that they will be sustained by the Holy Spirit, that they will be granted an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love God, and for the gift of joy and wonder.
One of the first and great gifts that we can give to each other as we welcome new Christians into the household of God is that they will be sustained to live into the promises to which we make and reaffirm at their baptism.
Because while Poe will make these affirmations on his own and Navy and Nola will have Godparents making these affirmations on their behalf, it is all of us in the pews who will promise that, with God’s help, we will let our baptism guide who we are in this world more than anything else that may try to take its place. Because when it comes down to it, what really matters is that we love God with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind and that we love our neighbors as ourselves. And my friends, in a world that can feel impossibly callous and dangerously hopeless, there will be times when it is only is through our baptisms that we are empowered to this sort of love.
But it is this love to which we are called, and this hopeful, joyful, life-giving love is the love into which we welcome Poe, Navy, and Nola this day, and I am so grateful that we live this baptized life together. Thanks be to God.
A sermon delivered to the people of Christ Episcopal Church in Bowling Green, KY for All Saints’ Sunday on November 3, 2024 on Mark 12:28-34.
Becca Kello 