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About a decade ago, I was waiting around in the discernment process for ministry, trying to figure out what to do in the meantime as my Diocese determined whether to affirm my call to ordained ministry. I knew I wanted to do some good in the world during this time, so I applied to as many community service organizations and AmeriCorps groups as I could.
One of these was City Year, a group that puts young people in struggling schools as tutors and mentors. I was hesitant about City Year at first. To be honest, I wasn’t sure I wanted to do anything in education. Plus with their bright red coats with City Year plastered on the back, an AmeriCorps patch on one side, and an American flag on the other, it was a little intimidating. That intimidation grew when I started training and learned that there were a lot of rules we were expected to adhere to while in uniform ranging from no jay-walking to not wearing headphones. We were also expected to perform P.T. exercises throughout D.C. at various times during our service, and, if our schools allowed it, we were asked to pep kids up in the morning by standing in line, clapping our hands, and saying “Hey. It’s you. You’re here. That’s great!”
But for all my intimidation and uncertainty, when we finally had our jacket ceremony and got to officially wear our City Year uniforms as full fledged members of the City Year corps, something changed. I really did feel part of a larger whole. I was proud of the work I was now doing, and I maintain pride in that work to this day. I learned and gained so much that has helped me as a person and has made me a better minister as a result.
The Ephesian Christians went through something similar in the early church, as we read in the Pauline epistle written to them today. They too were joining a new group. They too may have been intimidated or scared. Yet they knew joining this family, the household of God and the Body of Christ, would make them whole and give them peace. It would mean changing their lives. It would also mean having something they had never had before: the presence of God with them always.
I’d like you to take a moment to think back to your own initiation into the household of God, the church, whether you remember your Baptism or just making those baptismal vows your own with your public affirmation during Confirmation. What was it like for you? Were you nervous at first? Did you feel God’s presence? Was there a change in you that has lasted to this day?
I hope you did feel God’s presence in becoming a member of His household. I hope you still feel a change in your heart from that moment lasting to this day. I hope there is something beyond words that occurred in you and continues to this day because that is a sign of Christ Jesus working inside you to give you peace and make you whole.
The Ephesians were told they were no longer aliens, but united to God as fellow members of God’s house. The same is true for us as well. As we get ready in our next service to celebrate a baptism, I hope you will remember your own and feel renewed and restored by our Lord Jesus Christ. Continue to walk not only in our Lord’s ways but as His own, for we are the sheep of this Great Shepherd of our souls. Keep moving forward as Christ Jesus’ people, and Christ Jesus’ people alone.