Sermon – Are We There Yet? Rev. Sandy Lacey January 11, 2026
Just like most families with children, when we would go on a trip, our kids would pepper us constantly with the question, “Are we there yet?” Mike and I grew so tired of the question that we developed a rule that they were no longer allowed to ask that question. But children are creative, if nothing else, and so they devised new ways of not asking the question that were equally irritating. One of my professors at Columbia, Roger Nishioka, tells the story of Kyle in his church.[1] Kyle was a youth and he and his family tended to be Christmas/Easter people with little involvement in between. They were too busy, they said. When Confirmation time came around, though, the parents and Kyle really wanted to participate and have him go through the 9th grade Confirmation class. So, they made a commitment to attend worship regularly and support him coming to the class every week it was held. Kyle really seemed to open up and get to know the other kids in the class. He seemed to have fun and did lots of activities with his new friends during that period of time. His parents, likewise, became more active in the church and seemed to enjoy connecting with other adults. Following Kyle’s baptism and the completion of the Confirmation class, however, Kyle and his parents became scarce again. They quit coming to worship, no longer participated in youth group, and people in the church wondered what had happened. Roger called Kyle’s parents to see what had happened, and they expressed surprise at the call. They said they thought that after Kyle’s baptism and Confirmation, that they were “done.” They and he had arrived and that was all that was needed, they thought. They seemed genuinely surprised to learn that it was only the beginning of the faith journey, and not the end. Roger laments that somehow the church had not done a very good job of communicating with them about faith being a life-long journey that requires one’s attention for more than a couple of months. Baptism is one of the Presbyterian church’s two sacraments, the other being communion. And for those of you who do not know what we mean by sacrament, it is an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace that is given by God. So, when someone is baptized, the church affirms that person is God’s child, part of God’s family, marked with the seal of God’s grace, forever and ever. It is the most radical thing we do as a church – to proclaim that person belongs to God, no matter what. It is radical because all through that person’s life there will be competing claims on his/her identity (i.e. you belong to this political party, that career field, that company, that college, etc.) And we as a church get to participate also. We make promises to be their family, come hell or high water. When we baptize small children, we promise to nurture them in the faith, encourage them, love them, until such time that they “confirm” their faith, so that they might accept and continue their faith journey. Somehow, in the story that Roger tells, Kyle and his parents missed that. It is as if Kyle and his parents separated one part of their life from the rest of their life. Contrary to what you may observe and what some might say, life is not broken into different “parts”, parts that are sacred and parts that are secular. All of life is sacred and we are to gradually learn to integrate the two – the sacred and what we think of as secular – until we realize that all that we do and all that we say is all part of our offering to God in gratitude for God’s love and care in our lives. There is no “part” that does not belong to God and consequently, we are to recognize that and do our best during the course of our lives to live in gratitude and service. I don’t know about you, but I have noticed that there are times in which I do this better than other times. I suspect I am not the only one. Friends, remembering our baptismal identity is critical in the time in which we live. We have reached a time in which we have ceded power to a few who have decided to marginalize anyone who does not think, act, or look like them. People who are ashamed to show their faces act with impunity while we sit back and watch and let it happen. We know better. We know that we are not God and that each person born, whether or not we like the things they say and do, are created in the image of God and are deserving of respect, dignity, love, and the benefit of the doubt. It grieves me to say that we have created such an either/or society that we refuse to see the image of God in the other. And that leads us to either literally or figuratively shoot first and ask questions later. That kind of approach only leads to grief for everyone concerned. When will we learn and when will we take our baptism seriously enough that we choose to behave like children of God and expect others to do the same? My former colleague in Dothan, AL, the late Joe Johnson, used to laughingly talk about his disciplinarian Aunt. Anytime he and his cousins visited her when they were growing up, they would invariably get into trouble. He still remembers her stern chastisement: “Joseph Johnson, you know better. Baptized children do not act that way!” She had something right, didn’t she? What if we started acting like we are baptized children of God, expected to live our life in worship and service? What would we need to change? Today’s passage of Jesus’ baptism represents the beginning of his ministry. From here there will be temptations that he must encounter to further solidify what kind of Messiah he will be. His identity will be established, and he will move on to heal people, feed people, anger the establishment and power brokers, and eventually die from the collusion of religious and empire power. As baptized children of God, we struggle to get even beyond the temptations, do we not? If our faith journeys are not, at times, challenging, then I cannot help but wonder if we are following Christ. Today is Baptism of the Lord Sunday in which we are reminded of our baptism and we are invited to reflect on our faith journeys. Are we there yet? Have we arrived and no longer need Jesus’ instruction? Or are we sinners in need of Christ’s forgiveness and in need of courage to be who we are created to be? Today, you are invited to come forward by the center aisle and place your hand in the waters of baptism and be reminded of who you are and to whom you belong. You may take a stone with you to place in your pocket so that a tactile reminder is ever near you, whether you feel you need it or not. The culture is telling us to be afraid and to look with suspicion toward anyone who is different. The culture is trying to claim you and tell you what to do. Don’t believe it for a second. You know who you are and to whom you belong. Friends, we are not there yet. There is work to be done. We are asked to display God’s kingdom right here and right now. God, help us please! AMEN.
[1] Rodger Nishioka, “Pastoral Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year A, Vol. 1. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010.) p. 236, 238.
Just like most families with children, when we would go on a trip, our kids would pepper us constantly with the question, “Are we there yet?” Mike and I grew so tired of the question that we developed a rule that they were no longer allowed to ask that question. But children are creative, if nothing else, and so they devised new ways of not asking the question that were equally irritating. One of my professors at Columbia, Roger Nishioka, tells the story of Kyle in his church.[1] Kyle was a youth and he and his family tended to be Christmas/Easter people with little involvement in between. They were too busy, they said. When Confirmation time came around, though, the parents and Kyle really wanted to participate and have him go through the 9th grade Confirmation class. So, they made a commitment to attend worship regularly and support him coming to the class every week it was held. Kyle really seemed to open up and get to know the other kids in the class. He seemed to have fun and did lots of activities with his new friends during that period of time. His parents, likewise, became more active in the church and seemed to enjoy connecting with other adults. Following Kyle’s baptism and the completion of the Confirmation class, however, Kyle and his parents became scarce again. They quit coming to worship, no longer participated in youth group, and people in the church wondered what had happened. Roger called Kyle’s parents to see what had happened, and they expressed surprise at the call. They said they thought that after Kyle’s baptism and Confirmation, that they were “done.” They and he had arrived and that was all that was needed, they thought. They seemed genuinely surprised to learn that it was only the beginning of the faith journey, and not the end. Roger laments that somehow the church had not done a very good job of communicating with them about faith being a life-long journey that requires one’s attention for more than a couple of months. Baptism is one of the Presbyterian church’s two sacraments, the other being communion. And for those of you who do not know what we mean by sacrament, it is an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace that is given by God. So, when someone is baptized, the church affirms that person is God’s child, part of God’s family, marked with the seal of God’s grace, forever and ever. It is the most radical thing we do as a church – to proclaim that person belongs to God, no matter what. It is radical because all through that person’s life there will be competing claims on his/her identity (i.e. you belong to this political party, that career field, that company, that college, etc.) And we as a church get to participate also. We make promises to be their family, come hell or high water. When we baptize small children, we promise to nurture them in the faith, encourage them, love them, until such time that they “confirm” their faith, so that they might accept and continue their faith journey. Somehow, in the story that Roger tells, Kyle and his parents missed that. It is as if Kyle and his parents separated one part of their life from the rest of their life. Contrary to what you may observe and what some might say, life is not broken into different “parts”, parts that are sacred and parts that are secular. All of life is sacred and we are to gradually learn to integrate the two – the sacred and what we think of as secular – until we realize that all that we do and all that we say is all part of our offering to God in gratitude for God’s love and care in our lives. There is no “part” that does not belong to God and consequently, we are to recognize that and do our best during the course of our lives to live in gratitude and service. I don’t know about you, but I have noticed that there are times in which I do this better than other times. I suspect I am not the only one. Friends, remembering our baptismal identity is critical in the time in which we live. We have reached a time in which we have ceded power to a few who have decided to marginalize anyone who does not think, act, or look like them. People who are ashamed to show their faces act with impunity while we sit back and watch and let it happen. We know better. We know that we are not God and that each person born, whether or not we like the things they say and do, are created in the image of God and are deserving of respect, dignity, love, and the benefit of the doubt. It grieves me to say that we have created such an either/or society that we refuse to see the image of God in the other. And that leads us to either literally or figuratively shoot first and ask questions later. That kind of approach only leads to grief for everyone concerned. When will we learn and when will we take our baptism seriously enough that we choose to behave like children of God and expect others to do the same? My former colleague in Dothan, AL, the late Joe Johnson, used to laughingly talk about his disciplinarian Aunt. Anytime he and his cousins visited her when they were growing up, they would invariably get into trouble. He still remembers her stern chastisement: “Joseph Johnson, you know better. Baptized children do not act that way!” She had something right, didn’t she? What if we started acting like we are baptized children of God, expected to live our life in worship and service? What would we need to change? Today’s passage of Jesus’ baptism represents the beginning of his ministry. From here there will be temptations that he must encounter to further solidify what kind of Messiah he will be. His identity will be established, and he will move on to heal people, feed people, anger the establishment and power brokers, and eventually die from the collusion of religious and empire power. As baptized children of God, we struggle to get even beyond the temptations, do we not? If our faith journeys are not, at times, challenging, then I cannot help but wonder if we are following Christ. Today is Baptism of the Lord Sunday in which we are reminded of our baptism and we are invited to reflect on our faith journeys. Are we there yet? Have we arrived and no longer need Jesus’ instruction? Or are we sinners in need of Christ’s forgiveness and in need of courage to be who we are created to be? Today, you are invited to come forward by the center aisle and place your hand in the waters of baptism and be reminded of who you are and to whom you belong. You may take a stone with you to place in your pocket so that a tactile reminder is ever near you, whether you feel you need it or not. The culture is telling us to be afraid and to look with suspicion toward anyone who is different. The culture is trying to claim you and tell you what to do. Don’t believe it for a second. You know who you are and to whom you belong. Friends, we are not there yet. There is work to be done. We are asked to display God’s kingdom right here and right now. God, help us please! AMEN.
[1] Rodger Nishioka, “Pastoral Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year A, Vol. 1. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010.) p. 236, 238.
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[1] Rodger Nishioka, “Pastoral Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year A, Vol. 1. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010.) p. 236, 238.