PEOPLE'S CHURCH OF DOVER

I Peter 1:17-23                                                                                                     New DNA

Sermon April 6, 2008:  People's United Church of Christ, Dover, DE:  the Rev. Dan Griggs

 

            What difference does your baptism make?  You know and I know that there are biblical and theological  teachings about this sacrament, "an outward sign of an inward grace."  I'm not talking about the formal answer:  I'm asking the practical question—What difference does your baptism make?  How does it make a difference to you, in you, about you?  There are good people who have never heard the gospel and never been baptized; and there are baptized Christians who have done some pretty terrible things.  Most of us are somewhere in the middle between these two extremes—we're neither Gandhi nor Mussolini, but we hope we lean a little closer to Gandhi.  So what difference does it make that you have been baptized? 

            This paragraph that I just read from First Peter has some interesting language that modern "political correctness" urges us not to use anymore.

 

If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially….

and:

 

"Invoking as Father" I think probably means praying the Lord's Prayer:  "Our Father who art in heaven."  First Peter is basically a sermon preached at the baptism of some people who had been converted to Christianity.  In their preparation for baptism they would have been taught the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer, so in this sermon the preacher is referring to "Our Father who art in heaven."  This same language shows up in the Gospel of John:  Jesus says something about his heavenly Father and his opponents jump on the word:[1]

 

 

This "father" language in John and in First Peter doesn't have anything to do with the idea that God might be male:  it's about inheriting the character of their parents.  We could use the same language about "mother"—you know, the mitochondrial DNA at the center of every human cell comes only from the mother; so we could talk about inheriting the character of their mother as well as their father.  Jesus told his opponents that he could tell by their behavior who their parent was:  their desire to kill him said it all.  This is the language First Peter is using here, beginning with the opening of the Lord's Prayer, "Our Father who art in heaven." 

            And he says, "You have been born again … of seed that will not perish"—divine seed:  you are a child of God.  The character of God is now imprinted in your DNA, passed along to you by God's word; and that affects your behavior—you act just like your Parent!  Jesus talked about this to Nicodemus, too:[2]  "you must be born anew."  You need new DNA. 

 

            DNA has become very important in biology and medicine in the last twenty years.  One of the big food corporations has genetically modified corn so that this corn will grow and produce, but you can't get the second generation to produce:  the DNA won't let it; so the farmer has to buy new seed from this company every year.  That might work okay for American farmers who have large operations, but it has almost destroyed corn farmers in Mexico who have no money to buy new seed every year:  and maybe that's one reason so many of them cross the border, legally or illegally, to work here.  All because of DNA changes in crops. 

            There are pharmaceutical companies now that are talking about changing the DNA of test animals—making them just enough different to be able to get government patents on their species; and then nobody can stop the companies from using those animals for testing new drugs. 

            Over a period of ten years government-funded researchers have been mapping the human genetic code, and so now they can run tests on your DNA to find out if you are more susceptible than other people to liver cancer, or stroke, or depression.  This capability has made a lot of people worry that insurance companies might require DNA tests before they will issue health insurance policies; and there are people in Congress who are working on legislation to prevent that from happening. 

            This DNA business is a whole new kind of medicine.  In past centuries farmers have been able to change the characteristics of wheat, create hybrid flowers, use selective breeding to get rid of aggression in several breeds of dogs, and use hybrid methods in other ways.  That's how they got mules!  But they never messed with the DNA.  They never changed the heritage of their hybrids.

 

            But what First Peter is talking about to these baptismal candidates is a radical change in who they are all the way down:  new DNA, so to speak.  And their new DNA gives them a new character, like their new "Father in heaven."  And so the preacher talks about behavior:  since they are siblings in faith, they should love one another "from the heart." 

            Harriet and I have two children:  son Bill and daughter Beth, four years apart in age.  From the time Beth was a baby the conflict between them raged.  Bill was physically brutal sometimes and we had to step in and firmly stop his bullying.  For her part, Beth was sly:  at age three she would stand at the top of the stairs and scream bloody murder; and either Harriet or I would run up the stairs and grill Bill about his behavior, when he hadn't done anything to her—she knew how to get him into trouble.  Well this fun continued and grew worse during their teen years,    and then they left home, started making their own choices, paying their own ways in the world; and it was only then that they discovered, "Hey, I've got a sister!  I've got a brother!"  And now they talk on the phone for an hour at a time, and they like to get together.  In fact, they've figured it all out how they're going to take care of Harriet and me in our old age.  They've told us some of their thinking.  (I think maybe I liked it better when they were hitting each other.) 

            That's how baptized Christians should treat each other—"love one another from the heart"—because they share a new DNA, divine DNA.  They've been "born anew" to a new "way of life":  and their new birth was signaled by their baptism.  Ah!  "Baptism!"  That's where I started a few minutes ago:  What difference does your baptism make? 

            The image I have of what's going on in First Peter now comes into focus.  Here is a group of adults who had grown up in their native communities, worshiped the gods their parents worshiped; and now they've been taught the good news of redemption in Jesus Christ.  They have come to love the one true God through what Christ has done for them; so the mission preacher has gathered a class to learn the basics of the Christian faith—the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, some hymns, the meaning of the Bread and Wine in Holy Communion, the life and teachings of Jesus.  So now they are ready to be baptized.  They're all sitting together, along with those who are already Christians, in some wealthy person's home.  It's a worship service, and the sermon is the text of First Peter.  He tells them that as persons baptized into Christ they are "born again" by the "word of God" made effective by the sacrifice of Christ.  And so they now have a new parent, a new family, a new way of life; and they have brothers and sisters whom they can "love from the heart" for the rest of their lives.  This is the difference their baptism makes.

            What difference does YOUR baptism make?  You, too, were "born anew" in the water of baptism and the faith spoken over you, a faith that you yourself claimed as your own when you reached the age of responsibility.  You were changed:  given new DNA—divine DNA; and you have sisters and brothers all around you who love you, and with whom you share a hope that is eternal.  So how does that change you?  Who are you because you are baptized?  What difference does it make in the way you organize your values, treat people, spend money, relate to the church?  You have a white robe on a hanger waiting for you in eternity:  will your ethics show that you're going to wear it?  What difference does your baptism make? 

AMEN