I really miss seeing the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes in the newspaper.  It still go back and read some of the collections of these comics because they are just that good. One of the things I particularly like is the interaction between Calvin and his father.  Occasionally Calvin will be carrying a clipboard as he suggests to his dad that he is not looking too good in the polls right now but an increase in allowance would help his numbers significantly.  I appreciate also the life lessons Calvin’s dad tries to teach him leaving Calvin to wonder “Why is it always the stuff I hate doing that builds character?”

            Now hold that image of a dad in mind as I tell you the following story told by John Vannorsdall in his book “What’s God got to do with Evil?”  “I remember one day watching my daughter trying to change a tire.   Watching from a distance I knew she was turning the nut the wrong way so I decided to walk past her and go to the barn hoping she would ask me for help.   Instead she said nothing.  I waited a while in the barn and when I couldn’t stand it any longer I said ‘You’re turning it the wrong way.’”   She simply exploded “I know why you walked to the barn.  You couldn’t help yourself.  You had to interfere.  I am learning how to change this tire.”  John concludes this story by reflecting “She had the right to be angry.  I had denied her integrity and accountability by not giving her the opportunity to learn by herself. 

            The passage we read a few moments ago from 1 Peter says that Baptism serves us, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience.  Let’s take that notion and Presbyterianize it a little.  Baptism changes us and we benefit from it, not by any magical cleansing; it is not the act itself that changes us but the God who loves us and redeems us that changes us in the waters of Baptism.  Through God’s action our relationship with God is changed in the water’s of baptism as we become participants in the hope of the resurrection of Christ who now sits at God’s right hand.  Baptism therefore changes our relationship with the one Jesus called father.  The question is what difference does it make?  How is our relationship with God changed?  Is our relationship with God changed to be like that of Calvin with his father having to do all of these horrible things we don’t want to do because they build some kind of Christian character or is our relationship with God changed to be like that of John with his daughter where God intercedes for us and wants to help us even when we don’t want God’s help? 

            I think the answer we get from the passage we read this morning is both.  The passage begins with “Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good?”  The inferred answer is no one because the passage goes on to say “But even if you do suffer”.  At the beginning of this passage we have a view of a God who is there to protect us who without our even asking will rush in and keep us safe from would be attackers so that no one may harm us.  But like I have already said the passage doesn’t stop there.  Later we read “Keep you conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame.  For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will…”  Maligned, abuse, suffering as a part of God’s will hey wait a minute I thought God was going to protect me like John helped is daughter now all of a sudden this passage makes God sound a whole lot more like Calvin’s dad because I have to keep my conscience clear for those times when it is God’s will that I suffer.  In our baptism we have a changed relationship with God where at times God chooses to act on our behalf and rush in and save us and at times allows us to make our own choices and mistakes so that we may learn from them. 

            So then the question remains what er difference does our baptism make.  The difference it makes is it gives us hope.  Again baptism isn’t a magical thing that cleanses us on the outside it is for us a visible outward sign of an inward transformation that has taken place in us; that transformation being that we have hope in God, hope in the resurrection of Christ and hope in the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit.  Baptism is about hope and in baptism we have hope that God will intercede on our behalf and even when God chooses not to intercede for us we have hope that God is control and that borne out of God’s love for us God is doing what is best for us.  Notice what the author of this passage says in vs. 15 “be prepared to defend the hope that is in you.”  That is the difference that it makes, in our baptism we have hope, hope of new life in the life that is to come through the resurrection and hope in this life that God is with us always, that God is control, and that with God’s help we can make a difference in the world around us.  So how do we find hope in the midst of the chaos and the hostility of the world in which we live? 

            We can start with an attitude of Love.  This is the greatest commandment Jesus gives us to love God and to love one another.  By loving God we are drawn closer in our relationship with the one who gives us hope and by loving one another that hope is cast about in the world.  This is where we need to begin but that does not mean that maintaining an attitude of love is the easiest thing to do.  In fact very often the church falls short in this calling, we fight with one another within the church over various issues.  It is hard to work on loving your enemies when you can’t even love those who are most like you.  Our baptism however calls us to develop habits of love and grace, seeing others as those who are loved by God so that we may love them too.
            We can then move on to repaying evil with blessing.  We can’t control the actions of others we can only control the way we respond to their actions.  When we have been wronged we can choose to respond out of anger and even become violent in our retaliation or we can choose to respond out of love.  I remember one time a friend of mine was wronged by another but my friend turned around and did something very nice for the one who wronged him.  I made mention of it and was curious as to why he would do such a thing; he said quoting from scripture “It is like heaping burning coals upon their head.”  That thought made my friend very happy.  I think his thoughts kind of missed the mark but at least his actions showed love.  Our words and deeds of love can speak volumes in the midst of others words and deeds of wrong.  In so doing we reveal the hope that is within us. 

            If we are to find hope and be a source of hope in our world we must be bold.  We would like to believe that the world is fair and that we will receive a reward for doing good but we know that reality is really quite different.  The truth is we often pay the price for doing what is right.  It has been my experience that doing the right thing is rarely the same as doing the easy thing.  We need to be bold enough to do the right thing no matter what the right thing is.  We need to be bold enough to defend our hope to others by showing them love when they do not show us the same.  We need to be bold enough to not act out of fear; to not let the thought of what may come our way by the hands of another affect our actions but instead put our trust in God whose hands ultimately hold everything.

            Finally in order to have hope in the midst of the chaos of the world and in the midst of suffering we need only look to the example of Jesus the Christ.  The author of 1^st Peter points this out when he says “For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God.”  There is a lot being said in this one little sentence and there is a lot for us to follow in this example.  First Christ suffered; this is not academic he actually suffered so he knows what he is asking of us.  Second it was for sins that Christ suffered, not his own sins but the sins of another.  It is one thing to suffer because of your own wrong doing but to have to suffer for someone else’s wrong doing is not very appealing.  Yet this is exactly what Jesus did.  So when we are suffering because of someone else we have solidarity with Christ.  Finally Christ suffered not for his own sake but for yours so that you might be brought to God and enjoy those things we celebrate in baptism.  So as we are about this difficult task we have an example to which to look so that we might follow faithfully. 

            Jesus example of love and grace continues to be commuted to us in the waters of baptism.  When we are baptized we are marking the effect that Christ’s suffering for our sake has taken in our lives that we have been cleansed from sin, have new life in Christ, and are restored in our relationship with God.  In other words in baptism we are marked as God’s children with the realized hope that is within us and set apart to proclaim that hope to the entire world.  That is the difference that baptism makes.  Sometimes God rushes in to protect us and help us like John did with his daughter.  Sometimes God lets us go through things that are tough so that we may grow in faith.  Always God is there for us.  Always God is with us.  Always we should have hope in the one who loved us so much as to suffer for our redemption.  Therefore let us follow in his way.  Amen.