Year C
Isaiah 43:1-7
Psalm 29
Acts 8:14-17
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you blinked\u2026 you might have missed it\u2026 if you thought about what to have for lunch\u2026 it may not have registered\u2026 in today’s reading from Isaiah\u2026 verse four\u2026 is the only place in the Bible\u2026 the only place\u2026 where God says\u2026 I love you<\/em>\u2026 in its original context\u2026 God is speaking to ancient Israel… whom God restores after the Babylonian Exile\u2026 after the destruction of the first Temple\u2026 the verse ends with God gathering God’s daughters and sons whom God formed and made\u2026 who God created for God’s glory\u2026 but in the Epiphany light of Christ\u2026 this expression of love can be extended to you\u2026 to me\u2026 and to everyone else in the history of the world\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n I converted to Christianity on December 8, 1989\u2026 and was baptized on November 4, 1990\u2026 my conversion was personal\u2026 just between God and me\u2026 but my baptism was a public profession\u2026 in a church\u2026 on a Sunday morning\u2026 and not that I’d want to\u2026 but there’d be no denying it\u2026 there were about fifty people in that Cloud of Witnesses\u2026 and it was recorded in the church register\u2026 that’s the thing about things we do and say in public\u2026 especially these days\u2026 there are videos\u2026 photographs\u2026 eye witness accounts\u2026 and while some people try to take back what they’ve said or done\u2026 or claim to have been misquoted\u2026 sometimes it’s by their own hand that they are found out\u2026 and anyway\u2026 God knows\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n John’s baptism was one of repentance and forgiveness\u2026 and in the ancient world\u2026 one often washed\u2026 to prepare for what came next\u2026 in Judaism\u2026 on the day before Yom Kippur\u2026 many traditional Jews went to a mikveh<\/em>\u2026 a ritual bath\u2026 to symbolize their spiritual rebirth\u2026 the rabbis and commentators emphasize that the purpose of immersion was not to remove any physical uncleanliness\u2026 instead\u2026 the purifying waters were designed to symbolically remove ritual impurity so that the individual could then fully engage in the ceremonial life of their community\u2026 and by doing so\u2026 commit to live in a new way\u2026 public professions of faith\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n And John answered those who questioned whether he might be the Messiah\u2026 by saying\u2026 I baptize you with water\u2026 but one who is more powerful than I is coming\u2026 and he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire\u2026<\/em> John’s baptism was one of repentance and forgiveness\u2026 it was not into the death and resurrection of Jesus\u2026 it was not Christian baptism as we understand it today\u2026 and theologians throughout the centuries have asked why\u2026 if Jesus was without sin\u2026 why did he submit to John’s baptism\u2026 no one has the complete answer\u2026 but there is a hint\u2026 it has to do with community\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ismael Ruiz-Mill\u00e1n of the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church writes\u2026 what John is offering them is a particular community and way of life\u2026 John\u2019s audience is expecting a Messiah… but what they do not know yet is that they are becoming the messianic community\u2026 the body of Christ on earth\u2026 and Jesus\u2019 baptism is accomplishing something specific\u2026 the beginning of that messianic community\u2026 Jesus is the last in line\u2026 remember the last will be first\u2026 and although Jesus does not himself need forgiveness of sins\u2026 his public baptism by John puts him in solidarity with those who do\u2026 with those he has been sent to seek out\u2026 and that’s the point\u2026 Jesus is not above us\u2026 or beyond us\u2026 but in Jesus\u2026 God comes to us\u2026 and this is why God says I love you<\/em> only once\u2026 because God is with us\u2026 as one of us\u2026 and the Holy Spirit which descends on Jesus\u2026 is the same Holy Spirit which descends on us\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n So it brings me back to one of those questions that seem to pop up from time to time\u2026 what happens in baptism… does something happen to us\u2026 something outside of our control\u2026 or is what happens our public profession as members of a new community\u2026 and through that profession\u2026 a decision to resist the spiritual and systemic forces outside of ourselves which draw us away from God’s love\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Gospel of Matthew (3:13-17) it was when the baptized Jesus came up out of the water\u2026 that the heavens were opened to him\u2026 and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove\u2026 and alighting on him\u2026 and a voice from heaven said\u2026 as if to those assembled\u2026 This is my Son\u2026 the Beloved\u2026 with whom I am well pleased<\/em>\u2026 and in Mark and Luke’s Gospel (Mark 1:9-11 and Luke 3:21-22) the voice which came from heaven said\u2026 You are my Son\u2026 the Beloved\u2026 with you I am well pleased<\/em>\u2026 it is like what God said in Isaiah\u2026 I have called you by name and you are mine<\/em>\u2026 in baptism God puts God’s name on us\u2026 God puts Jesus’ name on us\u2026 and God speaks these same words to each and every one of us\u2026 whether someone has committed to raise us up from infancy in the Christian life\u2026 or whether we have made that commitment on our own\u2026 God speaks these same words to those who attend the churches we dislike\u2026 and to those who dislike us\u2026 God speaks these words to those who attend church or synagogue or mosque\u2026 or not\u2026 even to those Samaritans we just heard about in Acts\u2026 who accepted the word of God and on whom the Holy Spirit descended\u2026 because God calls us Beloved when we too are as vulnerable as Christ\u2026 and when we invite the Spirit to help us in our weakness\u2026 for as Romans 8:26 affirms\u2026 we do not know how to pray as we ought… but the Spirit intercedes\u2026 with sighs too deep for words<\/em>…<\/p>\n\n\n\n Richard Rohr writes\u2026 we can\u2019t start a spiritual journey on a negative foundation\u2026 if we just seek God out of fear or guilt or shame (which is often the legacy of original sin)\u2026 we won\u2019t get very far\u2026 we have to begin positive\u2026 by a wonderful experience\u2026 by something that\u2019s larger than life… by something that dips us into the depths of our own being\u2026 and that\u2019s what the word baptism means\u2026 to be dipped into<\/em>\u2026 Rohr continues\u2026 I am convinced that the reason people make great mistakes is because they have never heard what Jesus heard on the day of his baptism\u2026 they never heard another human voice\u2026 much less a voice from heaven say to them\u2026 You are a beloved son\u2026 You are a beloved daughter\u2026 and in you I am well pleased\u2026 if we\u2019ve never had anyone believe in us\u2026 take delight in us\u2026 affirm us\u2026 call us beloved\u2026 we don\u2019t have anywhere to begin… there\u2019s nothing exciting and wonderful to start with\u2026 so we spend our whole lives trying to say those words to ourselves\u2026 I\u2019m okay\u2026 I\u2019m wonderful\u2026 I\u2019m great… but we don\u2019t really believe it\u2026 the word has to come from someone greater than us\u2026 and that\u2019s really a parent\u2019s primary job\u2026 to communicate to their child that they are a beloved\u2026 eternally-existing child of God\u2026 and once we own that\u2026 nothing can stop us\u2026 and no one can take it away from us\u2026 because it is given only\u2026 always\u2026 and everywhere by God\u2026 for those who will accept it freely\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In just a few moments\u2026 we will renew the vows we made when we made a public profession to this community of Christ\u2026 or the vows which were first made on our behalf and which we can now make again for ourselves\u2026 I invite you to say these words not as we recite the Creeds\u2026 as an affirmation of faith\u2026 but as though they were our prayer to God on the very day of our baptism\u2026 listening for that moment when God calls us Beloved\u2026 when God says to each one of us\u2026 as we just heard God say in Isaiah\u2026 I love you<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year C Isaiah 43:1-7 Psalm 29 Acts 8:14-17 Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026 If you blinked\u2026 you might have missed it\u2026 if you thought about what to have for lunch\u2026 it may not have registered\u2026 in today’s reading from Isaiah\u2026 verse four\u2026 is the only place in the Bible\u2026 the only place\u2026 where God says\u2026 I love you\u2026 in its original context\u2026 God is speaking to ancient Israel… whom God restores after the Babylonian Exile\u2026 after the destruction of the first Temple\u2026 the verse ends with God gathering God’s daughters and sons whom God formed and made\u2026 who God created for God’s glory\u2026 but in the Epiphany light of Christ\u2026 this expression of love can be extended to you\u2026 to me\u2026 and to everyone else in the history of the world\u2026 I converted to Christianity on December 8, 1989\u2026 and was baptized on November 4, 1990\u2026 my conversion was personal\u2026 just between God and me\u2026 but my baptism was a public profession\u2026 in a church\u2026 on a Sunday morning\u2026 and not that I’d want to\u2026 but there’d be no denying it\u2026 there were about fifty people in that Cloud of Witnesses\u2026 and it was recorded in the church register\u2026 that’s the thing about things we do and say in public\u2026 especially these days\u2026 there are videos\u2026 photographs\u2026 eye witness accounts\u2026 and while some people try to take back what they’ve said or done\u2026 or claim to have been misquoted\u2026 sometimes it’s by their own hand that they are found out\u2026 and anyway\u2026 God knows\u2026 John’s baptism was one of repentance and forgiveness\u2026 and in the ancient world\u2026 one often washed\u2026 to prepare for what came next\u2026 in Judaism\u2026 on the day before Yom Kippur\u2026 many traditional Jews went to a mikveh\u2026 a ritual bath\u2026 to symbolize their spiritual rebirth\u2026 the rabbis and commentators emphasize that the purpose of immersion was not to remove any physical uncleanliness\u2026 instead\u2026 the purifying waters were designed to symbolically remove ritual impurity so that the individual could then fully engage in the ceremonial life of their community\u2026 and by doing so\u2026 commit to live in a new way\u2026 public professions of faith\u2026 And John answered those who questioned whether he might be the Messiah\u2026 by saying\u2026 I baptize you with water\u2026 but one who is more powerful than I is coming\u2026 and he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire\u2026 John’s baptism was one of repentance and forgiveness\u2026 it was not into the death and resurrection of Jesus\u2026 it was not Christian baptism as we understand it today\u2026 and theologians throughout the centuries have asked why\u2026 if Jesus was without sin\u2026 why did he submit to John’s baptism\u2026 no one has the complete answer\u2026 but there is a hint\u2026 it has to do with community\u2026 Ismael Ruiz-Mill\u00e1n of the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church writes\u2026 what John is offering them is a particular community and way of life\u2026 John\u2019s audience is expecting a Messiah… but what they do not know yet is that they are becoming the messianic community\u2026 the body of Christ on earth\u2026 and Jesus\u2019 baptism is accomplishing something specific\u2026 the beginning of that messianic community\u2026 Jesus is the last in line\u2026 remember the last will be first\u2026 and although Jesus does not himself need forgiveness of sins\u2026 his public baptism by John puts him in solidarity with those who do\u2026 with those he has been sent to seek out\u2026 and that’s the point\u2026 Jesus is not above us\u2026 or beyond us\u2026 but in Jesus\u2026 God comes to us\u2026 and this is why God says I love you only once\u2026 because God is with us\u2026 as one of us\u2026 and the Holy Spirit which descends on Jesus\u2026 is the same Holy Spirit which descends on us\u2026 So it brings me back to one of those questions that seem to pop up from time to time\u2026 what happens in baptism… does something happen to us\u2026 something outside of our control\u2026 or is what happens our public profession as members of a new community\u2026 and through that profession\u2026 a decision to resist the spiritual and systemic forces outside of ourselves which draw us away from God’s love\u2026 In the Gospel of Matthew (3:13-17) it was when the baptized Jesus came up out of the water\u2026 that the heavens were opened to him\u2026 and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove\u2026 and alighting on him\u2026 and a voice from heaven said\u2026 as if to those assembled\u2026 This is my Son\u2026 the Beloved\u2026 with whom I am well pleased\u2026 and in Mark and Luke’s Gospel (Mark 1:9-11 and Luke 3:21-22) the voice which came from heaven said\u2026 You are my Son\u2026 the Beloved\u2026 with you I am well pleased\u2026 it is like what God said in Isaiah\u2026 I have called you by name and you are mine\u2026 in baptism God puts God’s name on us\u2026 God puts Jesus’ name on us\u2026 and God speaks these same words to each and every one of us\u2026 whether someone has committed to raise us up from infancy in the Christian life\u2026 or whether we have made that commitment on our own\u2026 God speaks these same words to those who attend the churches we dislike\u2026 and to those who dislike us\u2026 God speaks these words to those who attend church or synagogue or mosque\u2026 or not\u2026 even to those Samaritans we just heard about in Acts\u2026 who accepted the word of God and on whom the Holy Spirit descended\u2026 because God calls us Beloved when we too are as vulnerable as Christ\u2026 and when we invite the Spirit to help us in our weakness\u2026 for as Romans 8:26 affirms\u2026 we do not know how to pray as we ought… but the Spirit intercedes\u2026 with sighs too deep for words… Richard Rohr writes\u2026 we can\u2019t start a spiritual journey on a negative foundation\u2026 if we just seek God out of fear or guilt or shame (which is often 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