Reflection by Pat Edmonds, January 13, 2019
Readings: Isaiah 43: 1-7 and Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22
Today’s passage from Isaiah is a very powerful one. It speaks to the very core of who we are. “I have called you by your name – you are mine!” Our name is very important to us because it identifies us as an individual and as a member of a family group. It is how we are known , and to a certain extent, it helps to shape us into the person we are. Many children wish, at one time or another, that their parents had given them some other name. I remember wishing I had been called Penelope. It sounded so much more sophisticated and mysterious. I was sure that as Penelope I would have been a different person – more popular perhaps. prettier or even have curly hair! Today I can’t imagine being named differently. I am equally “me” as Patricia or Pat, but I am NOT Patsy or Patty! Those names don’t refer to me!
Our lives are shaped by our sense of identity, by who we think we are. Often people buy unthinkingly into identities thrust upon them by the world. – worker, consumer, sexual object, young person, teen, old person, inferior class, superior class, etc – and their lives are shaped, often negatively by the inherent expectations. But we have an identity that supercedes anything the world might impose upon us, an identity declared in our baptism. We are children of God! God who knows each one of us by name!
Those of us who were baptized as infants are unable to literally “remember our baptism”, so it’s helpful to have a day like Baptism of the Lord”, when we are reminded that we – like Jesus – have been declared a beloved son or daughter with whom God is well pleased. We are those of whom God says, “I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are precious in my sight.”
Baptism affirms our inherent worthiness in God’s eyes, but it also challenges us to live in a way that reflects who we are, so that we go beyond saying “I WAS baptized” ( that is something that was done TO me) to saying “I AM baptized – this is who I am.” Jesus’ baptism was the beginning of his active ministry and our awareness of our baptismal identity is a summons to a life of service to God.
Jesus was baptized by John not because He required baptism –he was already filled with the Spirit of God. But Jesus identifies with us, showing us by example how necessary baptism is in the life of a person who wants to lead a new way of life according to the will of God. So the baptism proceeds as usual until the moment Jesus comes up from the water – then WOW!! The heavens open, the Spirit of God descends like a dove and a voice from heaven says, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased!”
Because we live in the electronic age, we are accustomed to hearing voices of people we cannot see. Communication of this kind is no surprise to us. But Jesus’ baptism took place long before telephones, radios and computers. This was truly an awesome event – hearing a voice from an unseen source somewhere in the sky!
Let us stop for a moment and think about this voice. It was a voice that probably sounded foreign amid the other voices that the people were accustomed to hearing. This voice came from an unseen source. Yet this is the very voice that spoke creation and called our world into being. This is the voice that spoke to Moses and delivered the Israelites from their life of slavery. This is the voice that spoke through the ancient prophets foretelling the arrival of John the Baptist and the One even greater who would come after him. This is the voice the psalmist speaks of in Psalm 29 “The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.” It is the voice of a heavenly parent affirming and revealing to the world the true identity of this holy child. It is the voice of a heavenly parent saying “You are my Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” and saying this before Jesus HAD EVEN BEGUN HIS MINISTRY – before he heals the sick, comforts the lost, gives sight to the blind or teaches the people. Jesus has not yet done any of His good works yet God declares Jesus is beloved and pleases God. Jesus finds favor with his heavenly Father not because of his works but because of unconditional love. This is the kind of love bestowed upon us by God – not because it is earned or deserved.
Baptism is the most beautiful and powerful of the various rites we practice in the Christian church. Baptism is one of the common threads that unite us as the global community of Christ. Whether we pour, we sprinkle, we immerse, or we dunk, doesn’t matter. The details are not important; what is important is that we baptize with water in the name of the Trinity. In baptism we commit ourselves to a life lived in response to this great love. In baptism, God claims us, adopts us, gives us a new name: My daughter! My son! In baptism God singles us out and says, “This one is mine! – and in the case of infant baptism this happens before the human created by God has had an opportunity to EVEN BEGIN MINISTRY! When we practice infant baptism, we affirm that even a young child is one of God’s beloved.
At any baptism, there are lots of voices: the voices of parents and godparents and the minister. If you’re baptized as an adult, maybe there’s your own voice. There is the voice of the congregation and of the liturgy and the scriptures. In the midst of all this, where is God’s voice? What is it that God says?
God says at every baptism exactly what He said at the baptism of Jesus “This is my beloved, in whom I am well pleased.”
God’s voice speaks to us, calls us, blesses us and makes us children of God. God’s word continues to work wonders and create a new thing in each of us every day, as we grow and mature in our faith and practice following Jesus. Few of us, in fact probably none of us, have experienced the opening of the heavens and the descending of the Spirit as Jesus did at his baptism. My experience is that God speaks to us in more quiet moments. God speaks in the stillness of our souls, in conversations with trusted friends, through the scriptures, in times of worship and when we are busy serving those we are called to serve. Sometimes God speaks to us in the shocks and surprises of life. Sometimes God’s voice is like thunder, like a sudden summer storm, shaking us out of our complacency and prejudice. Sometimes God’s voice is soft and gentle, a comforting voice when we feel alone or distressed. Other times God’s voice is nagging, the little voice that plants an idea in our head and keeps on nagging and pushing until we act or walk the path God has chosen for us.
In baptism we are all given a ministry. As we seek to live out our baptism, we find ALL of life to be ministry. With our identity as beloved and the delight of God clearly in mind, we are able to do what God wants. Baptism leads to community and commitment. We baptize into the Christian community because we need each other. Living out our baptism is not easy. We need others to help us through life’s struggles. We need to explore with others what our baptism means to us in the various stages of life. We need the encouragement of one another when we find it difficult to live out our ministry. We need to celebrate with one another the joy of living a life that is full of purpose and meaning as we live in harmony with the purposes of God.
Martin Luther once said, “There is no greater comfort to a Christian than baptism.” Why? Baptism is an ever-present reminder of our salvation, our nearness to God as the result of what God has done. The same God who reached out and claimed us in our baptism continues to hold on to us in life. The source of our hope is in the active, resourceful love of God. Luther, in times of despair and depression, received comfort by touching his forehead where he had been baptized and saying to himself, “ Martin be calm. Baptisimus sum. I am baptized.” When we feel the water on our faces at the beginning of each day, it should be a reminder that we are baptized; we are God’s beloved.
If we will listen, the voice of God sounds throughout our lives. Jesus came to remind us to listen to that voice above all others. God’s voice announces, affirms and commissions. We hear the Master’s voice above the chaos and storms of daily living. We are the body of Christ; we are beloved; and when we function as that body, certainly we must know God is pleased. As we hear God call to us – “Beloved, beloved, beloved” – we see the revealing of God’s power to effect change in us and in our world. Baptism happens just once. The confirmation, the fulfillment happens over and over and over. God’s gift of love is limitless. Thanks be to God.