What does the baptized life look like? It looks like your life -- when you are cooperating with the work of God in your life and in the world around you. To be baptized 'in the name of Jesus' (Acts 2:38) and 'in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit' (Matthew 28:19-20) is to be submerged into the reality of Jesus' messianic mission and "to live your life as Jesus would if he were you" (thanks again Dallas).
Okay, now that I put that down I feel like I need to explain what I think Jesus' messianic mission was and how we are submerged into the reality of it. Really, Dallas' little phrase says it plainly, but let me suggest a few specific things. First, I think it means that we will, as apprentices of Jesus, need to change the way we see ourselves as well as the world around us. We will need to see that we live according to a different story than the rest of the world. This will require a shift in our self-conception and communal-conception and world-conception. It will be much like Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 5.
Also, we will represent the character of Jesus. We will live differently--not in the superficially weird way too many church people think of 'different'--because of this alternate story. It will be a more fundamental difference (relationships of kindness, generosity, and forgiveness, rather than isolation, greed, and contempt).
Also, we will participate in the mission of Jesus where we are now and here. We will be about the same thing Jesus was about--namely, the proclamation of the present availability of the ruling and reigning of God (kingdom of God). And we will proclaim it with actions, images, AND words (yes, words are still good things). We will love what Jesus loved and do what he did. In fact, he said that we would do even greater things than he did (yeah, I choke on that one sometimes, too).
Stanley Hauerwas said, "Being Christian is a way of life; it's being part of God's story.... Being Christian doesn't mean following a set of rules of principles; Christianity depends on the character of people's lives. The Gospel has no meaning unless it can be lived out and embodied in people's lives. That's why the lives of the saints are so important. To be Christian means to praise and glorify God. The lives of Christians look different from other people's lives. When Christians try to look the same as everyone else, they find themselves in all sorts of quandries." (from "Christianity: It's Not a Religion: It's an Adventure," published in U.S. Catholic 56, no.6 (June 1991), pp.6-13.)
I hope my life today will look a little different from other people's lives.
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