You are My beloved child

We celebrate today the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, the event that starts Jesus’ ministry. In the season ahead we’ll hear more stories from our gospels about Jesus calling his disciples, teaching, and healing. The baby Jesus is all grown up and ready to lead; his baptism is his first entry on the scene after his time of preparation in the wilderness. And hearkening back to the Advent stories, we revisit John the Baptist, out baptizing in the river Jordan. Matthew’s gospel gives us a really interesting side to John – we hear about his preaching, his fiery word of repentance, but we also hear his wondering about Jesus. You might remember from Advent the gospel story where John sends word to ask Jesus whether he’s really the Messiah. Jesus clearly doesn’t look like what John thought he was preparing for. Today’s gospel comes before that, when they first meet at the river Jordan, but here too, Jesus puzzles John. John asks Jesus, I need to be baptized by you – why are you coming to me? Jesus says ‘we must do this to fulfill all righteousness’ – to do what is just, what is right. In the kingdom of God, Jesus is saying, it’s not all about me lording it over you and everyone else. We are equal here: we are all starting from the same place, as God’s beloved child.

And of course Jesus goes on over the next three years to show that unexpected truth, that as God’s Messiah he is a model of humility and self-sacrifice – not of power and dominance over others. Right there at his baptism he sets the tone for what his whole witness will be. It’s a message I think we’re still struggling to understand, this profound example of God’s strength made perfect in weakness. Even the King of kings is not exempt: this is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased…and he will live and die like any other of God’s beloved children. And all of us will be called to follow him.

One way we follow him is marked for us in our own baptism. As baptized people, every one of us is beloved, and every one of us called by God. When I was in seminary my liturgics professor, the late, great Louis Weil, said that he would believe the church finally understood the importance of baptism when we made our baptismal certificates bigger and fancier than our ordination certificates – something to hang on the wall over all the diplomas and other markers of status. His point was that we can forget and overlook how important our baptism is, particularly in a church with a hierarchical ministry – bishops, priests, deacons. We can overemphasize the hierarchy and ignore the baptism that we all share.

I don’t think it’s by accident that we tend to fall into hierarchies. Like the famous line in the book Animal Farm – all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. We seem to be more comfortable with hierarchy, claiming power over other people – for some of us – or for others of us, passively choosing to follow instead of thinking for ourselves. And especially with faith I think it’s partly because it keeps things at a safe distance. If I can put Jesus up on a pedestal above me, then I don’t have to try to live like him. If I can leave salvation and holiness to someone far beyond me, then I can just poke along and try to be nice to people and call it a day.

But listen to what our church teaching says – this is in our catechism:

Who are the ministers of the church? Lay persons, bishops, priests, and deacons. Lay persons are named first, you notice. What is the ministry of the laity? To represent Christ and his Church, to be witness to him wherever they may be; to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world; and to take their place in the life, worship, and governance of the Church. Turns out ministry isn’t something better left to the professionals; or put another way, all of us are professionals. All of us represent Christ, witness to him everywhere and with everyone, and continue his work in the world. Feels a little daunting, doesn’t it?

As I said last week, the word Epiphany, the season we’re in now, means manifestation, God showing God’s self to us. The stories of Jesus in Epiphany are really about showing what God looks like – and also, what we are called to do and be. God draws people to follow, God is in unlikely humble places, God heals, teaches, loves us. And we are meant to do the same.

Because baptism itself is an epiphany, a revelation of what is true about God with us. Baptism means just what that voice from heaven said: we are loved and affirmed as God’s own child. We are beloved, and God is well pleased with us – our whole identity is based simply on that. Which is so different from any kind of love and acceptance we get from the world. This is love not because we’re rich or smart or attractive. This is identity not because we have certain letters after our name or buy a certain product. This is straight-up, unconditional love. I made you, and I love you. That’s all there is to say about it.

And because we are loved, we have status. We are equal with every other person, every one of us beloved children of God. And we have responsibilities. It is our first allegiance to be followers of Christ, loving and serving our neighbor. We have things only we can do. And we can’t sit back and leave them to others.

But we are given the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish these things. We are given community with other followers to support us; we are given that assurance of God’s presence with us always. We are named as Christ’s own forever. And how powerful that voice, that naming, is. When our kids were little, every night when I put them to bed I traced a cross on their foreheads and said the baptism words, you are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever. We had a lot of sleepy conversations about just what that meant, but what I always said was, it means God loves you forever and always. And this is true about each and every one of us: we are God’s beloved. No matter what.

It’s hard to remember sometimes. ‘God loves you’ has a way of just sailing right on by our ears. Because we know all the reasons why that shouldn’t be true. We know the mistakes we’ve made, and the times we disappoint others and ourselves, and the times we still keep screwing up no matter how hard we try. And yet over and over again when we renew our baptismal vows we hear the words repeated: God has given us a new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, and bestowed upon us the forgiveness of sins. And we are God’s beloved.

So, your homework: Say this aloud right now for practice: I am God’s beloved. (echo) Every day of this season I want you to say it to yourself again, when you get up in the morning or when you go to bed at night or sometime during the day when you won’t forget to do it. Write it on a sticky note and post it on your bathroom mirror. Say it and say it and say it. Let that voice from heaven speak in your heart.

This is important not just because it makes us feel better. It’s not about giving ourselves pats on the back. It’s important because being God’s beloved is who we really are. It’s what we are called to as well. It was Jesus’ identity, and it is what led him to live the life he did. And it is our identity, and if we really believe it, it will lead us to live it too – and to live as though it is others’ identity also, all of us beloved and children of God. That is the epiphany of this day, the message we are given. And that is the call we have as Christians. So may we live it.