Baptisms are fun things to do. Having one deaf ear helps me in this ministry because I always put the babies with their head on my deaf side. There the baby can make all kinds of noises and I can do my job. There is a cross I wear on Sundays that is still packed away in boxes somewhere. One time when I had to hold a baby close to me for some reason I looked at his cheek after I relaxed my grip and I could see the outline of my cross on his cheek. That’s the way baptism should be though – it leaves a mark on us that lasts a lifetime.
The life of faith leaves its mark on us many times in this life. Each time we change bit by bit until we grow into what the prayer book calls “the full stature of Christ.” We grow close to the person God made us to be. Any shortcomings between who we really are and what God wants us to be were made up for us on the cross.
This weekend twenty of us traveled to western Oklahoma to see the places where Episcopal Deacon David Oakerhater lived and served. He is an official saint on the Episcopal Church calendar and his feast day is September 1. At the Whirlwind and Holy Family Episcopal mission last night we were privileged to see some of the honor dances performed in Oakerhater’s honor. The mission also had a baptism, confirmation and Eucharist as well as a dinner before the dances. His unusual name is an English version of a Cheyenne name meaning “Making Medicine.”
The years leading up to 1875 were marked by the white man killing thousands of buffalo that affected the Indians’ ability to sustain themselves. In addition white frontiersmen were stealing significant numbers of Indian horses. These actions eventually led to Indian raids and some were led by Oakerhater. The US Army finally captured some of the warriors including Oakerhater. They were sentenced to prison in Florida where a remarkable Army captain had compassion for them and treated them with dignity and respect.
Within a year Oakerhater learned to speak, read and write English. The warriors who were not accustomed to taking any instructions from women were taught English by white women. Within three years Oakerhater converted to Christianity was baptized and confirmed in the Episcopal Church. Within eight years of his prison sentence he was ordained a Deacon in the church and returned to Oklahoma Territory to minister to his tribes. Although he had an older son, his wife and baby died in childbirth with his second child. His time from sentencing to ordination was not an easy journey.
Upon his return to Oklahoma to begin his ministry, he first encountered some of the same warriors he had led in raids against the white man. He stood before them in trousers, shoes, black shirt and white round clergy collar. This warrior turned deacon must have been a very strange sight to his former comrades in arms. He addressed them in the Cheyenne language. Here is what he said in English:
“Men, you all know me. You remember me when I led you out to war I went first and what I told you was number 1. Now I have been away to the East and I have learned about another captain, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is my leader. He goes first, and all He tells me is number 1. I come back to my people to tell you to go with me now in this new road, a war that makes all for peace, and where we never have only victory.”
Making Medicine ministered to his people in Oklahoma for over forty years. His home in Watonga was modest. His grave is modest. And by the white man’s measure he did not leave a vast church overflowing with people. He left his mark in much deeper ways. He bridged two cultures and his life took the best from each world as an example to others. He changed the church’s attitude about mission work and Native Americans. He gave hope to thousands of people whose hope had been shattered for generations by forced relocation, broken treaties and malice.
Baptism leaves its mark on us. We are “sealed in Baptism by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever.” The question to every one of us is, Now that you have been marked what mark will you leave on the world?