We need the community of God’s Easter people

by the Right Reverend Thomas Clark Ely, Bishop of Vermont
Mountain Echo
May 2004

I had the great joy of baptizing my granddaughter Elisabeth at the Great Vigil of Easter this year. There simply is no more powerful liturgy in the Church, and this year it was all the more special for our family—and I hope for all those gathered at the Cathedral. It was also a special night because Ann was reaffirming her Baptism as part of the Cathedral group, including Pamela, Toby and Jim, who were being confirmed and received that night. As we sat around the baptismal font and the large Pascal candle, holding our own candles and listening to the great faith stories from the Bible, I was filled with great anticipation for the moment when I would hold Elisabeth in the water.

Elisabeth was a bit fussy during the readings and likewise during the promises and the Baptismal Covenant. However, after the water was blessed and her mom started to remove her clothing, her eyes brightened and a smile came to her face. The warm water that filled the font awaited her arrival. We sat Elisabeth in the water and her delight was evident to all. With her parents and sponsors joining me in splashing water over her, I spoke the words I have spoken over countless infants, young people and adults: “Elisabeth Arwen Foecking, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” She raised her arms and smiled as her eyes flinched from the water pouring over them.

In the remarkable power of that moment, I found myself wondering and marveling at the prospect of all the many
other persons likewise being baptized around the world. How many other communities of faith in our diocese and throughout the church were gathered that night for the Great Vigil, for Baptism and the Renewal of Baptismal Promises, for the return of “Alleluia” and the first Eucharist of Easter? How much water got poured? How many hearts were touched? How many lives were changed?

My family says my voice cracked as I prayed the words that followed: “…Give her an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works.” I suppose it did, but those words express exactly what I hope and pray will be true for Elisabeth and for every baptized person. And, I know that in order for that to happen, it will mean that I and other Christians will need to take seriously the promise we make, “to do all in our power to support this person in their new life in Christ.”

I made the sign of the cross on her forehead with the Chrism and announced, “Elisabeth Arwen, you are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own for ever.” Then I brought her up out of the water, wrapped her in a large white towel, and the community of faith welcomed her: “We receive you into the household of God. Confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his eternal priesthood.” It was a powerful moment, indeed!

What is now true for Elisabeth is true for each of us who have been baptized. In the words of Paul to the Church in Rome, read at the Eucharist that night, we are “buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). Dead to sin we are alive to God in Christ Jesus. This is the pattern of Baptism and Christian living: We die with Christ, so we may live with Christ and for Christ. This is the meaning of the Pascal Mystery taking shape in our daily lives and living.

This holy pattern of dying and rising is the great gift we bring to the world of our everyday lives. Baptismal ministry is all about living into the reconciling reality of what God in Christ has already accomplished. It is about making it a living reality in all the difficult and challenging circumstances of life and the world in which we live and move and have our being. Just as God’s Easter answer to death was a resounding “NO,” so too can our Easter answer to the violence, pollution, hate, hurt, hunger, poverty and warfare of the world be a resounding “NO.”

Elisabeth can’t do it herself. None of us can. We need the community of one another, the community of God’s Easter people, the community of people of faith everywhere, in order to live and make real to the world the Good News we embrace and proclaim in Baptism. I rejoice that I am part of such a community in this diocese.

Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
+Thomas