by Demi Prentiss

For me, the crown jewel contained in the Episcopal Church’s 1979 Book of Common Prayer is the Baptismal Covenant.  Born in 1949, a “cradle Episcopalian” as they used to call us, I was formed by the majestic cadences of the venerable 1928 BCP.   I was 30 by the time the “new” prayer book was officially adopted. And I quickly discovered that the Baptismal Covenant filled a hole in my heart that I had hardly recognized was there – an outline of my faith and a guide for living it out.  It has shaped my life ever since, and led to my partnership with Fletcher Lowe in writing Radical Sending as a primer for celebrating ministry in daily life as an every-day practice for all baptized Christians.

Living our daily lives can be hard, given all the interference we encounter along the way.  A recent daily meditation from the Center for Action and Contemplation, titled “A Place for God to Move In,” included a quote from Richard Rohr: “You are a child of God, and always will be, even when you don’t believe it. And so is everyone else! God created us all. We are all God’s children.” ^[1]

Once we can claim that identity – and recognize that all those “others” around us have similar claiming rights – it’s a bit easier to allow God to move in, to take up space in our lives. Just as we hear in John’s Gospel:  “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood” (Jn 1:14 The Message). Greek scholars remind us that what is often translated “became flesh” is the Greek verb skēnoō, “to tabernacle” (or “live in a tent”) among us.

In that same meditation, Episcopal priest Elizabeth Edman reminds us that living our true identity means claiming fully our identity in God:

Christianity is all about being who you are. That’s what Jesus was trying to tell us: Orient your whole being to the sacred, he insisted. Not because I’m telling you to, not because it’s what Scripture demands; do it because it’s who you are. It’s who God created you to be. God made us to be complex creatures, every one of us, for a reason. So if you want to honor God, here’s the first step: Know who you are. Be who you are. Be the person God created you to be. Amen. ^[2]

But do we really, truly “belong”?  Br. Jamie Nelson, SSJE, urges us to pay attention to those Jesus says “belong” in the kingdom of heaven: “Let the children come to me and do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs” (Mt 19:14).  Nelson calls us to remember the “such as these”:

One of the riches of the Episcopal Church’s Book of Common Prayer is the Baptismal Covenant, which includes five invitations for how Christians are called to live out our faith. The liturgy includes these lines:
•   Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
•   Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
To which we respond, “yes, with God’s help.”
With God’s help, as you live out your baptismal vocation today, say yes to the vision of the kingdom of heaven Jesus proclaims here.

Say “yes,” and welcome your neighbor into the kin-dom of God. “Yes,” and allow God room to “pitch tent” in your heart, as well – right here, right now.

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^[1] Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope for, and Believe(Convergent Books, 2021), 36–37

^[2] Elizabeth M. Edman, video companion to the book Queer Virtue: What LGBTQ People Know About Life and Love and How It Can Revitalize Christianity (Beacon Press, 2016).