Baptism of our Lord Year C – RCL
January 12, 2019
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As the people were filled with
expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether
he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, "I baptize
you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy
to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and
fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to
gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable
fire."
Now when all the people were
baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was
opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And
a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well
pleased."
Today we are remember Jesus’ baptism in the
River Jordon. For theologians having
Jesus baptized by John the Baptizer is somewhat scandalous. It is crazy to think that Jesus needed to be
baptized for the forgiveness of sins – which is what John said he was
doing. Calling people to repent of their
sins and be baptized. We say that Jesus
was without sin so why baptize him? We
could go in circles about why baptize Jesus but it really doesn’t matter for
me. Jesus was baptized by John as an
example. Not for Jesus’ sins to be
forgiven but for us to hear something important.
At Jesus baptism something remarkable
happened. The heavens were torn open and
the Holy Spirit – looking like a dove – one of her more serene manifestation – descends
on Jesus. And the voice from heaven
declares “ ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’” We hear that voice another time in
scripture. When we read about the
transfiguration the voice from heaven told the disciples that Jesus is God’s
son and that we are to listen to him.
Each time the voice was not for Jesus it was for
us. It was a reminder that God calls us
and names us and we are God’s. Baptism
does that. At our baptisms we are named
as Christ own – as God’s own children. Its
not that we were not God’s children before our baptism. It is a reminder that we need to turn to God
and recognizes that we are indeed God’s beloved children.
Our reading from Isaiah today we heard the
prophet proclaim:
Thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed
you, O Israel:
Do not fear, for
I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
I have called you by name, you are mine.
From the beginning of time God has been calling
our names. God calls us not as servants
but as beloved children. And if we will
listen we will hear our names called.
God calls us by name and promises to be with us throughout our whole
lives – and beyond. Even to and beyond
the grave God calls our names. But we are not too good at listening. We are the ones who don’t always hear God
calling. We close out ears to God’s
voice and figure we can go on our own way.
If we are good we probably thank God for our
blessings. When times are good it is
easy to see God in the world. When we
are in love we see God’s beauty in everything.
When we are in our happy places we can see God at work in the world.
It is harder to see God and hear God when things
are not going our way. The prophet
Isaiah however promise us that God is with us in the hard times too:
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm 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….
and the flame shall not consume you….
Because
you are precious in my sight,
and honored, and I love you,
and honored, and I love you,
It is during the hard times that we sometimes
need reminders that God does indeed love us.
We need reminders that our sicknesses are not some test from God to see
how well we do in adversity. When we
lose loved ones it is not a vengeful God who takes them away to punish us. My cancer was not a punishment from God. It was my genetic material going crazy. It was my own DNA that, for whatever reason,
caused some of the cells in my body to reproduce and morph into cells that can
be quite damaging. Thanks be to God that
we have more and more treatments to target cancer and cure it. We humans haven’t figured out who to cure all
kinds of cancer and diseases, but we are learning more and more each day. Our God given intellect and curiosity is
allowing researchers to find new treatments.
I know that God has accompanied me on my
journey. I am sometimes a little hard of
hearing when it comes to hearing the Holy Spirit in my life, but she is always
calling me and walking with me through the good and the hard times. After my cancer surgery – almost a year ago
now – as I was being wheeled into a room the nurse asked me who I knew to get
the only single room in the ward. My
answer was that “I knew God. “ When she
asked again I repeated. No really it is
God who I know.
That may be true that at some level I do know
God. But the better answer would be that
God knows me. At my creation God saw me
and, like we hear in the creation story in Genesis, God saw that is was
good. God sees our creation and sees it
as good.
Unfortunately, we sometimes forget that God
knows our names – knows our inner being.
Or at least we act like it. We
act like we don’t have God walking with us on this journey. We can even act like we are God. We can do hurtful things and turn away from
God. We can separate ourselves from God –
which is the definition of sin. God
never separates from us, but we erect barriers to God.
At our baptisms we are reminded that we are
beloved children of God and are named as Christ’s own forever. Every one of us is God’s beloved child. Loved no matter what. God is not a vengeful God who punishes us for
not listening. God is a patient God who
wants nothing more than for us to see our mistakes and return to God’s love.
As I said Jesus’ baptism was not to remind him
who he was. It was for us to hear who
Jesus is and to hear the Holy Spirit call our name too. David Lose, a preacher I follow said, “Athanasius,
my favorite theologian of the early church, put it this way: Jesus became one
of us – scandalous! – so that we might become like him – even more scandalous
yet!”[1]
In a few moments we will be reminded that we are
God’s children as we renew our own baptismal promises. We need the reminders and it is traditional
on the day that we remember Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordon to remember and
renew our baptismal promises too.
When we renew our baptismal promises the heaven
will open up – just like they did that day over two thousand years ago. The heavens will open up and the Holy Spirit
will descend upon each of us and if we listen – if we open our hearts and our
ears to God, we will hear her call us.
Rik – You are my beloved child with whom I am pleased. Anne, Katie, Christine, Jim you are all my
beloved children with whom I am well pleased.
Now please stand as you are able as we renew our
baptismal promises. I invite you to open
your hearts and you ears to hear God reminding you that you are God’s beloved
child.
[1] http://www.davidlose.net/2019/01/the-baptism-of-our-lord-c-forgiveness-and-so-much-more/ Accessed January 11, 2019
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