I promise.

I promise to turn from the ways of sin. But what does that promise mean?

It’s easy to promise to turn from those sins that aren’t all that tempting to me.

No one’s putting a gun in my hand and asking me to kill.

I feel no need to either seek or accept romantic affection outside of my marriage.

Most of the time, I am satisfied with my own belongings, and even when there are things that I want, I am not in a position where I would need to steal to feed my family or keep a roof over my head.

But what about the sins that are a little closer to home?

I sometimes like holding on to anger and making judgments about others rather than noticing how I could be at fault in any given situation.

I resist or deny the need for time with God. I make excuses that our culture is obsessed with work-related productivity and I don’t want to appear lazy by taking time for prayer and meditation.

I find myself reluctant to speak the whole truth when I fear that someone won’t like me for telling it.

Turning from these sins takes more effort. It starts to get personal. I can no longer wag my finger at those sinners out there. As the saying goes, I can’t point a finger at someone else without three more pointing back at me.

I promise.

I promise to turn from evil and its power in the world.

I just might be able to get a grip on some of my personal sins. I can promise to listen more, be honest with myself and others, and spend more time in prayer and connection to the divine. But it’s hard to imagine what one person can do about the forces of evil in the world.

I could promise simply not to participate in the evil of this world. I’m not flying around in my corporate jet while my employees lose their jobs. I’m not dealing drugs or abusing my children. I’ve not joined any hate groups. I could imagine that the evil in the world is an outside force and that, with little effort on my part, I could turn away from it completely.

I could make that case, but the truth is: I buy stuff where I can get the best deal without a thought to how that deal came about. I live better than a huge percentage (I mean, a huge percentage) of the world’s population. I ignore pleas from the needy, cries for justice, and those times when, if I truly listened, I might be able to hear someone’s heartfelt plea for help. I participate each and every day, somehow and in some way in the evils of this world. Turning from them seems like trying to move an enormous wheel I can’t even budge a fraction of an inch, let alone to turn the full 180.

I find my own complacency to be the worst temptation of all. My own sins seem so minor compared to the really big sins out there. The big evils of the world seem unstoppable. What good are my piddly promises in a vast and powerful sea of sin and evil? What does it matter for me to make promises that, on a good day, I keep maybe half of the time?

Now I promise.

Now I promise to turn to Jesus Christ – to accept him as my Savior – to trust in his grace and in his love.

Well, at least Jesus knows that my first promise is weak at best. I will fail at keeping it over, and over, and over again. The little turns that I make to take me away from my own sin or to stand against the evil that the world dishes out will be met by temptations that turn me right back into the muck. But hopefully, some of those turnings will lead to spiritual growth or lead to the courage to speak truth to power. Sometimes I will succeed, thanks be to God. Sometimes I will fail, and the grace and love of Jesus Christ will be what sets me back up on my feet again.

For me, turning to Jesus Christ is what makes turning from sin and evil possible. Jesus does not sit in judgment over us. Jesus broke the barriers of sin and death for us. Jesus prays for us. Jesus is both our counselor and our advocate. This isn’t about making some correct proclamation of belief or having the right words float over the water so that our baptisms will take. This is ultimately about us making the divine-human connection. God is with us, Immanuel. Jesus is the Beloved in whom God takes great pleasure. We, like John, may not feel worthy to untie his sandals, and yet he will bend down to wash our dirty feet and cleanse our souls from every fault.

So I promise.

I promise to be be Christ’s faithful disciple, obeying his word and showing his love.

I will. I will serve him when I am full of fear. I will serve him when I am full of joy. I will let his love be known through my growth and triumphs; I will let his love be known through my greatest failures. With a significant amount of help from the Holy Spirit, I will obey God’s living word and become a faithful and devoted student of my master – Jesus Christ.

Making the baptism promises may seem mostly perfunctory. Typically these are the no-brainer questions. Do you turn from sin and evil? Do you turn to Jesus Christ? Will you be his disciple? Supposedly, any Christian could and would say their best “I do’s” and “I wills.” But like with marriage, the “I do’s” of the wedding day translate into something else when the honeymoon ends and real life begins. Baptism is not a ritual ending to celebrate the time in which the Christian has arrived; baptism is the beginning into which Christians find a new birth and a renewed sense of purpose. Answering these questions in the affirmative becomes a life-long journey toward faithfulness. To turn from sin is to take the presence of evil in the world seriously and to intentionally set our hearts and minds against its power. To turn to Jesus Christ is to allow grace and love to transform us. To accept the call to discipleship is to agree to learn and know the living word through Jesus and to make the commitment to love others as he first loved us.

The question really is, “Will we be a people who are guided by the promises of the baptismal covenant?” For many of us, we weren’t even the ones making them; our parents or guardians made them for us before we could even talk. They promised these promises for us and agreed to teach us these guidelines from infancy forward. Turn from evil. Turn to Jesus. Live in his word, and demonstrate his love. When a faith community truly lives out these promises, many more lives are changed than just those whose names appear on the “baptized members” roll.

Today in our worship, we will have the opportunity to renew those promises, or maybe to really try them on for the first time. Do they fit? Do you accept them as your spiritual charge? For those called to serve this church in particular ways, whether that’s as an elder or in some other capacity, remember that our calling to serve is grounded in the promise of God’s grace. The sign and seal of that promise is enacted through the sacrament of baptism. Hear again God’s words to us through the prophet Isaiah, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”

Amen.