Text: Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7; Psalm 66:1-11; 2 Timothy 2:8-15; Luke 17:11-19

The Baptism Rite in the Book of Alternative Services contains a section which has become one of our church’s most important documents. The Baptismal Covenant is found on pages 158 and 159 of the BAS. It consists of eight questions, with congregational responses. The first three questions deal with belief. The responses are the three articles of the Apostles’ Creed.

The last five questions have a constant promise as a response: “I will, with God’s help.” They sum up what Christian belief should look like in action. The first one relates to the life of the church, quoting the description of early church life in Acts 2:42. The second question deals with resistance to evil, and our commitment to repentance—an ongoing life of conversion. The third has been the subject of many a homily, as we promise to share the Good News—here the “E-word” (Evangelism) raises its head. The fourth question asks us to serve others, out of the love which God commands. Again, much sermon fodder here!

In baptism and confirmation preparation sessions, I usually spend some time talking through the Baptismal Covenant. Most people are able to relate fairly well to all of the foregoing questions. The final question often stops people cold: “How can I do that? It sounds so huge and global?” And indeed it is—at least in terms of the goal it sets for the church!

The big goal is unattainable by any one person: I can not on my own bring justice and peace to all people. However, that’s not what the question asks. Rather, we are asked to promise to strive for that goal—to do what we can towards its attainment. I find it helpful to remember a principle which came into wide currency through the environmental movement: “Think globally. Act locally.”

Here’s one example of how it can work: I was once preparing a group of young people for confirmation, including a boy in Grade IX. When he gave the “I can’t do that” response, I asked him, “Where do you spend most of your time?”

“At school…”

“What’s it like at school? Peaceful?”

“Oh, no! There’s lots of meanness and fighting.”

“Could you do anything about it?”

“Maybe, but it would be scary…”

“Can you promise to try to bring peace to a few people around you?”

“Yeah, I guess so. I could do that.”

“Think of that when you reaffirm the promise at your confirmation.”

In that short conversation, he began to move his faith and his beliefs out of Sunday School and head knowledge, and into his life—right where he lived it. Belief started to show up in action, with a small commitment to building peace where it was needed, and where he could actually do something about it without being overwhelmed by the goal.

Let’s move the story back to the year 597 BC. The first exiles have been taken off to Babylon, where they find themselves cut off from their land, their community, their sources of livelihood, and their God (or so it seems.) They are held by the conqueror King Nebuchadnezzar, and all their peace—their shalom—has departed. Living there in exile, they surely felt overwhelmed by the situation—a problem huge beyond imagining any solution.

They could just give up and admit defeat. Or they could listen to people among them counseling active resistance, which would likely lead to their annihilation. But then they receive a letter from Jeremiah, beginning with “Thus says the Lord of hosts…” The letter counsels something different: “Build lives where you are, for I have sent you there, and seek the shalom of the city.”

In other words, they can not restore the kingdom of Judah on their own or in their time. God will do that in God’s own time. But they can work for shalom where they are, acting locally in the hopes of the more global solution which they desire. They can no longer share in the milk and honey of their lost land, but they can cultivate gardens where they are, and eat the fruit of those gardens, and continue to cultivate within themselves the gratitude due to giver of those harvests. They can find God at work in the most unlikely of places—even Babylon!

Wherever we find ourselves, in whatever life situation, God is there ahead of us. It is not for us to look at a place or a person and declare it void of hope, but rather to strive to see what God is already doing, and then to cooperate with God in God’s mission.

God’s great purpose for this world is captured in that word shalom—usually translated “peace,” given as “welfare” in the NRSV reading today, but meaning much more than either of those English words. The fundamental meaning is related to completeness or wholeness—the fulfillment of God’s ideal for the world and the human race. We find shalom when all is working together as God intended. God’s mission and ours is to strive to bring that into being—where God has placed us, with the resources that God has given us, and in gratitude for all that God has already done.

It’s easy to complain about our communities, about our church, about our country, to say “somebody ought to do something about…” But that accomplishes nothing.

We learn a lesson from Jeremiah, whose message told the exiles to work with God where they were. We learn a lesson from the leper who returned to Jesus, whose life had been changed, but who did not continue on his new course before expressing his gratitude for God’s goodness. We learn a lesson from Paul, who would not let hardship defeat his commitment to the mission entrusted to him.

We proclaim our belief every Sunday, in the Creed, in the prayers of the Eucharist, and as we receive the sacrament. Let our belief show forth in action, as we work for the shalom of God’s people wherever they are, and wherever we can help. Let us not be content with the way things are, but seek to further the reign of God and to build up God’s people—one person at a time.

One way in which we can help God’s people is through the Anglican Appeal. Please read the back cover of today’s bulletin, and please be generous in your gift to brothers and sisters of the church whose needs are supported through this important program.