Re-brand Us!

Proper 25B; Jer. 31:7-9; Mark 10:46-52; St. Paul’s, Smithfield, NC 10/25/15 – Jim Melnyk: “Re-brand Us”

Today is a special day in the life of the Church because this day [at the 11:00 service] we bring to the waters of Holy Baptism Mary Abigail Slusher.  It is also a day when we all renew our own baptismal vows.  In a prayer/poem titled “Re-brand Us,” Dr. Walter Brueggemann writes:

You mark us with your water,

You scar us with your name,

You brand us with your vision,

            And we ponder our baptism, your water,

                                                                        Your name,

                                                                        Your vision,

While we ponder, we are otherwise branded.

            Our imagination is consumed by other brands,

                                    - winning with Nike,

                                    - pausing with Coca-Cola,

                                    Knowing and controlling with Microsoft.

Re-brand us,

            Transform our minds, 

                                                Renew our imagination.

            That we may be more fully who we are marked

                        And hoped to be,

            We pray with candor and courage.  Amen.

(Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth, Fortress Press, 2003. P. 88)

You, God, mark us with your water – with your name – with your vision – and we become wholly (with a “W”), and holy (with an “H”), yours.  Our poet/pray-er writes about being scarred with God’s name.  Through our baptism we share in Christ’s death and Christ’s resurrection – and so perhaps we share the scars of Christ when we take upon ourselves his name.  As Abby is sealed later this morning with the Holy Spirit in baptism she is marked – scarred – as Christ’s own forever – as are each of us.

           

But the poet/prophet Isaiah tells us there is more to our being marked as God’s own in the world.  Through the prophet God says to each of us, “I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” (Isaiah 49:16).  As we bring Abby to the waters of Holy Baptism we note that not only is Abby changed in this mysterious encounter with the Holy, but we are changed as well – renewing our own baptismal covenants.  And God – the Holy One – is changed as well – engraving us on God’s own hands.  What an incredible image – what an incredible promise.

           

We might say that on this most special day, as we welcome Abby into the household of God, that she, we, and even God, become in some way re-branded – in some way we are all made new – in some way, from this point forward, none of us – including God – are ever exactly the same again!  Isn’t that breath-taking?

           

Throughout the scriptures we read and hear faith stories of those who encounter the Holy One – who encounter God – and are changed – transformed – re-branded forever.  From folks like Abraham and Jacob in the most ancient of our stories, to folks like Peter and Saul in the earliest of our Christian witnesses.  One cannot simply encounter the Holy and come away unchanged. 

The prophet Jeremiah, whom we meet in today’s lesson from the Old Testament, understood the reality of life-changing encounters with God.  Reluctantly he is pressed into service to offer a word of challenge to Judah in the midst of her brokenness – and offer a word of promise for those who turn and re-embrace the covenant.  And for a while it works!  Under the reign of King Josiah a copy of what we believe to be Deuteronomy is discovered – or written down for the first time – and a revival of faith takes place.  People’s hearts are transformed in that encounter with the Divine.  Exile is put on hold – for a time.

But people fall back into old habits and the covenant is quickly forgotten again.  Judah is sent into exile, and there in Babylon they weep for the fallen city of Jerusalem.  They weep for the Temple which was destroyed by Babylon’s armies.  And they cry out to God for deliverance.

Today’s lesson is just a portion of the promise God declares through Jeremiah – the promise that Judah will be restored – that Judah will once again be re-branded and renamed as God’s own beloved:

“See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north,

and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth,

among them the blind and the lame, those with child and

those in labor, together;

a great company, they shall return here.

With weeping they shall come,

and with consolations I will lead them back,

I will let them walk by brooks of water,

in a straight path in which they shall not stumble;

for I have become a father to Israel,

and Ephraim is my firstborn” (Jer. 31:8-9).

In our gospel today we experience another form of re-branding taking place outside the gates of Jericho.  Marginalized, minimized, and pushed to the side – having to beg at the gate of the city to survive – Bartimaeus has been branded by the world as worthless.  He has heard about Jesus and can’t believe his good fortune to realize this man of God is on the verge of passing by the little bit of space Bartimaeus has occupied day after day in order to eke out a living. Crying out to Jesus to have mercy on him, he is branded by the crowd around him as unworthy of attention – as someone who should not be seen or heard by someone as important as Jesus.

But Jesus has an agenda that goes beyond the brandings of this world.  Jesus calls Bartimaeus forward – and, as one commentator puts it, “Bartimaeus does in a flash what the ‘rich young ruler’ refused to do, verses before in the same chapter of Mark. Unlike the man with ‘many possessions,’ Bartimaeus flings his ‘security blanket’ to the wind and comes to Jesus” (H. King Oehmig).  He casts off his cloak – possibly his only possession in the whole world – and being given his sight Bartimaeus leaves his old life behind and follows Jesus. 

Bartimaeus goes from someone not worthy to be heard, to one who ends up in a dialogue with the Son of God; from being blind to becoming one who sees;

from living as, and being branded as, a beggar, to one who has not only heard about Jesus, but one who becomes a disciple of the living Christ. 

We are a people who have been branded by this world – and we are a people who brand one another as well.  Dr. Brueggemann writes about being consumed with brands – Nike, Coca-Cola, and Microsoft – and perhaps we are.  But we brand one another as well: left-wing/right-wing, feminist/misogynist, old/young, smart/dumb, rich/poor, black/white – so many categories – so many names – so many brands.  We forget the one brand we carry from the moment we are created – Image and Likeness of God.  We forget the brand we carry the moment we leave the waters of Holy Baptism – fellow human beings sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever. 

How different would this world be if instead of the world’s brandings we saw the image of God – the seal of the Holy Spirit – within each person we met?

My prayer is that Abby, whom we baptize this day, will remember and know that however the world – however the people she meets in this world – that however this world tries its best to brand her, that she remembers how she has been branded by God this day.  Abby, you are re-branded today.  Not with a Nike Swoosh, or with an Apple or a set of golden arches – not with names or titles devised by human beings to separate, categorize, or minimize – but with the cross of Christ – with a renewed vision of what it means to be created in the image and likeness of God – as are each of us as we renew our own baptismal covenant with God.  Re-branded – transformed – and renewed – that she – that we – may be more fully who we are marked and hoped in the heart of God to be.