A Covenant I DO Support

Tomorrow morning, we will be celebrating the delayed All Saint's Sunday (last Sunday being All Hallow's Eve and all). Besides remembering and celebrating the lives of those who have passed on, and baptizing and welcoming new members of the family into the body of Christ, we will all be recalling our own adoption and commitment to one another in the words of the Baptismal Covenant.
The way in which it begins is something all members of the Anglican Communion ought to be familiar.

The priest, or bishop, states a question: Do you believe in God the Father?
Answer: I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

We continue in this call and response way of renewing our core beliefs in God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, giving our answers in the first-person singular, a way of affirming that "Yes, I am an apostle of Christ." As good as it is to make the declarative statement of our faith and understanding of God, the Three in One, I think the next part of this covenant is one of the more moving passages in our American Book of Common Prayer.

Celebrant: Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and
fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the
prayers?
People: I will, with God’s help.

With God's help, I will understand that God's message imparted to the apostles was to make contact even with those who we think are "others" and break bread, share a meal, and kneel in prayer... regardless of our personal politics. When we are gathered in God, we put our differences aside. We still remain different, but our individual distinctions are of less consequence than our common bond of baptism in Christ.

Celebrant: Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever
you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?
People I will, with God’s help.

With God's help, I will recognize the times that I have put my trust in those things that will fail me (i.e. money), and remember that those things are just that: "things". Things can be fun. Things can bring me some temporary happiness. But things fade away. Like politicians who make a bunch of promises that they don't keep, things can leave me empty and disappointed. Evil... which I interpret as doing things contrary to upholding the standard commandments of "Love God, and love your neighbor"... can be hard to resist at times. If I love God, then how can I treat a fellow human being with contempt? It isn't easy. But with God's help, I will try. And when I fail, I will recognize that failure, and return to God.

Celebrant: Will you proclaim by word and example the Good
News of God in Christ?
People: I will, with God’s help.

With God's help, I will remember that to "proclaim by word and example" means that in my interactions with others... including the earth... my way of being needs to reflect that sense of having received the gift of eternal life and being freed from a prison of fear and doubt. Even when treading a line of uncertainty in this life, I have to tap into the certitude that the promise made to Noah, to Abraham, and up through the resurrected Christ is the truth: "I will be with you to end of the age."

Celebrant: Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving
your neighbor as yourself?
People: I will, with God’s help.

With God's help, I will remember that this is a promise to seek and serve Christ in ALL persons, not just my friends. With God's help, I will remember that to be able to love my neighbor begins with being able to love myself and to see me as God sees me: a beloved, worthy of being called into this covenant with Christ through baptism.

Celebrant: Will you strive for justice and peace among all
people, and respect the dignity of every human
being?
People: I will, with God’s help.

With God's help, I will commit to be one who builds up the body and not seeing those elements of the body that I don't like as some kind of diseased appendix or inflamed tonsil that has to be removed. With God's help, I will be kind enough to recognize that when a relationship has come to a place of irreconcilable differences, I will simply say, "Farewell." That, to me, is kinder than trying to force a person who will not change to change... or else.

With these statements and questions, I think the Baptismal Covenant is an eloquent, simple and truly Anglican approach to relationship. When you stand inside the sanctuary and hear this resounding of sound of "I will, with God's help," it is powerful. Even more powerful when you are standing in a place that has known the pain of schism as has St. John's. If we in the Communion could be bound together by these principles, accepting that we can only achieve them with God's help, and recognizing that our "bonds of affection" are made at our own baptism, then we could scratch the Anglican Covenant... and accept this and sign onto this statement. Really, I don't think we need to reinvent the basics of our baptismal vows. Do we?