I Am Loved, Therefore I Am

Ego amari, ergo sum

Jesus’ Baptism. This occurs within the context of the occupation of Israel by Rome (Luke 3: 15-22). Israel is unique among its ancient neighbors in often concluding that the bad things that happen to them, like the Babylonian Exile and this occupation, must be their fault. This is why John is down by the river inviting one-and-all to repent of whatever they have done to have lost their way and to be washed clean by baptism. Some there think John is the promised Messiah who will one way or another drive the Romans off. He insists he is not. There is one coming after him who will take an axe to the root of all their problems, their own sins and the Romans. The one who is to come will not baptize them with water like John does, but with Fire and the Holy Spirit. “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. So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.” That some people will end up burning in unquenchable fire just does not sound like such good news. Luke also reports that John has been shut up in prison for rebuking and chastising Herod, the King of the Jews.

This seems to suggest, in Luke’s telling of the tale, that John is probably not there to baptize Jesus. Some of John’s disciples no doubt continue his prophetic ministry of cleansing the people to restore them to the way of God. The effect of this narration is for John to recede from the story as three remarkable things take place. First, while Jesus prays after he is baptized the heavens are torn open. Next, from this opening into the great beyond appears the Holy Spirit “in bodily form like a dove” to land upon Jesus. Followed, finally, by “a voice.” This voice declares, “You are my son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

God the Father, God the Holy Spirit and God the Beloved Son are all on stage in one place, at one time. God announces his love for his Son. Later others will recall that at the beginning of the story, the very beginning all the way back in the wilderness, this same God declares that he has rescued the people from Egypt not because of anything they had done, not because there were so many of them, rather “it was because the Lord loved you.” [Deuteronomy 7:8] And long after Jesus ascended back to where he came from, and from where we all come from, people declared that God is love. Love is God. Jesus is the embodiment of God’s Love for all people, all creatures, and all creation. The Spirit, the Breath, of the Lord is upon him and within him.

From that moment on, Jesus embodies God’s love, not with a winnowing fork nor with fire, but  through feeding, healing, and accepting into his presence all persons of all kinds and all possible afflictions and sinfulness. Being God’s Beloved is to have compassion on all persons, all creatures and all of creation. It means being good stewards of all people, all creatures and all of creation. This is how God’s Spirit of Love is given away to one and all. Given away. Absolutely free! And what Jesus gives away is the good news that we, all of us, are God’s Beloved, and that God is well pleased with us.

A Baptism in Samaria. In Acts chapter 8 this last point is driven home. Philip is visiting the Samaritans and proclaiming the good news. Samaria is where the first temple had been. The Samaritans were traditionalists and did not go to the new-fangled temple in Jerusalem, but rather continued to worship the God of the Exodus in Samaria. Philip is casting out spirits and healing Samaritans left and right. One Simon, called The Great, a magus, a magician, is impressed. This Simon the Great says to the people, “ ‘This man, Philip, is the power of the God that is called Great.’ And they listened eagerly to him because for a long time Simon had amazed them with his magic. But when they saw Philip showing compassion on all who were afflicted, who was proclaiming the good news about the kingdom of God, they were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself was baptized, and he stayed constantly with Philip and was amazed when he saw the signs and great miracles that took place.” [Acts 8:11-13]

The disciples in Jerusalem hear of what’s happening in Samaria and send Peter and John to baptize the Samaritans with the Holy Spirit. The text is rather funny about this saying: “for as yet the Spirit had not come upon them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus!” Only! When Simon the magician sees what happens when Peter and John lay hands on the Samaritans, “he offered them money, saying, “Give me also this power so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” Peter and John have been through this before. Indignant, Peter says, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain God’s gift with money! You have no part or share in this, for your heart is not right before God.” Poor Simon. Simon’s magic attracted attention to himself and earned him money. With therese powers he could earn even more! Whereas the power of the Spirit demonstrated by Philip, Peter and John points only to God and God’s reign over all. The message of the text: God’s Spirit of Love is not for sale. You cannot buy this Belovedness. God’s Spirit and God’s Love are not commodities that can be bought and sold. It is to be given away. Absolutely free.

Our Baptism. It’s easy for us to laugh at Simon the Great Magician. Yet, we live in a time in which the commodification of everything is possible. Just the other day I was just speaking with a woman who works in a Natural Foods Market about our willingness to participate in this commodification of everything, including ourselves, as we allow ourselves to become walking-talking billboards wearing logoed clothing wherever we go! Old Navy, Givenchy, Columbia, Nike, Coach, Prada, you name it, we wear it emblazoned on every part of our bodies! Like Simon the Great, it is near impossible for us to believe that there is anything that cannot be bought and sold; that cannot become a commodity. We belong to those who manufacture our identity through all that we buy. Someone has coined, “Walmart, ergo sum” – “I shop, therefore I am!”

Whereas, our Baptism tells us, and all who know us, that we belong not to those who would like to manufacture our identities, but to the One Who Is To Come – Jesus Christ, God’s Beloved Son. Through water AND the Holy Spirit, we believe we are incorporated into the Body of Christ, his Church. We are Christ’s Body in this world. As such, we too are God’s Beloved. In and through Christ, we become those who proclaim this good news in all that we say and all that we do. Our identity has been forged through the life, death and resurrection of the One Who Is To Come. This identity is sealed upon our foreheads with a cross, traced with oil – not a corporate logo, but the very cross that says we have been forgiven; we are God’s Beloved; our God is well pleased with us. This is meant to make all the difference in the world. We are to be the embodiment of God’s love for all people, all creatures and all of creation itself.

As I ponder this each year as the Feast of our Lord’s Baptism rolls around, along comes, from stage left, an article from The New Yorker magazine, dated January 20, 1975:  Remembering W.H. Auden by Hannah Arendt. In this remembrance, Arendt recalls Auden’s close friend, Stephen Spender, remarking that the main theme of Auden’s poetry is love. Indeed, the most remarkable expression of this theme of love is stated in the opening verses of Auden’s poem, Winds

Deep below our violences,

Quite still, like our First Dad,   [God the Father]

  his watch and many little maids,

But the boneless winds that blow

Round law-court and temple

Recall to Metropolis

That Pliocene Friday when,     [the era in which homo sapiens arrives on the scene]

At His holy insufflation           [ God breathes into the first man on a Friday]

(Had He picked a teleost          [ray-finned fishes]

Or an arthropod to inspire,       [insects, spiders, crustaceans]

Would our death also have come?),

Our bubble-brained creature said—

“I am loved, therefore I am”—  [a refutation of Descartes’ “cogito ergo sum”]

And well by now might the lion

Be lying down with the kid,

Had he stuck to that logic.       [Isaiah 11:6]

Brilliant! “I am loved, therefore I am.” Descartes had missed it altogether. Descartes who believed the one statement that cannot be doubted would be, “Cogito, ergo sum – I think, therefore I am.” Thinking is not our essence. The essence of who we are created to be is not a thought, an idea, a doctrine or a belief. It is our being loved by the One who creates us, in whom we live and move and have our being. If only we would see this. If only we would accept this gift of our belovedness, suggests Auden, then Isaiah’s vision of a world in which the lion lies down with the lamb, The Peaceable Kingdom of God, would be here by now. Oh, says Auden, if God had only given this gift of love to a fish, or an insect, or a spider, or a crab, perhaps then we would be closer to Isaiah’s vision!

But no, God picked us, we the “bubble-brained” ones. We who are to know deep within ourselves that before we ever can conceive of what it means to Love God and Love our Neighbor we need to know that first and foremost that God loves us.

“I am loved, therefore I am.”

This love cannot be bought and sold. It is given. Absolutely free. If only we would accept the gift in the deepest recesses of our souls, in the darkest moments of our imperfect existence, we will once and for all fulfill the deepest desire of humankind, expressed, perhaps best, by one Socarates: Know thyself. Even Socrates, like Descartes, misses it. Love thyself? No. Know thyself to be loved – loved by a love like no other. For it is in this love that we are. You are. I am. Baptism means to be this, means to say this, means to express this in all that we say and all that we do – to know thyself to be God’s Beloved makes all the difference in the world. In the world. The world God loves filled with creatures God loves – even teleosts and arthropods! Great God, it is good! This news is good news for all the people. Sisters and brothers, repeat the refrain: I am loved, therefore I am! I am loved, therefore I am! I am loved, therefore I am! If only we would stick with this logic! If only…