Feast of the Baptism C 2022
Jesus Christ, Lamb of God, Have Mercy on Us, Your Beloved.
Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the
River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy
Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant
they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior.
Jesus prayed after he was baptized by John. Today we pray to
keep our baptismal covenant, and to become confessors of his name. Names,
really. Throughout the New Testament Jesus accrues so many names. No doubt
because whoever really meets Jesus has one’s own experience of what that is
like. And of course, there were those who had ideas about him before he really
comes onto the scene down by the River Jordan. As did John.
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." Luke
3:15-17
People were looking for a Messiah, a Christos, whatever they
might think that means: a judge, a warrior, a king, all of whom would restore
Israel and free them from being an occupied backwater colony of the Roman
Empire. Or, perhaps a prophetic figure like John who reminds them of earlier prophets
in their history, like Elijah and Elisha. John, on the other hand, suggests a
powerful almost Satanic figure – a winnowing fork in hand, separating us out
and burning the “chaff” with unquenchable fire. Instead, he gets a gardener and
a shepherd who tends to the lost, the lonely, the blind and the lame – a new kind
of Messiah who teaches us to love everyone, even our enemies. How will we get
Rome off our backs by loving them, they must be thinking?
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."
Luke 3: 21-22
The first thing one might notice is that for such a
momentous moment in the overall narrative, the description is rather brief. But
be not deceived. For instance, notice that this is one of the few occasions
when all three main characters are on stage at once: Father, Son and Holy
Spirit. Whatever the people and John might have been expecting, surely it was
not this! YHWH, the God of creation, whose spirit-breath blew across the
chaotic waters of creation speaks, sends the spirit-breath again, and declares this
country boy from Nazareth to be God’s Beloved Son. This would have been an
awful lot to take in. Let alone have any idea just what that means.
Rather than someone who might cast Romans and any other bad
actors into unquenchable fire, we hear about nothing but Love, with a capital
“L”. It’s embedded in the Father’s very name for his Son: Be-loved. You are my
Beloved. I am well pleased with you.
This is where our baptism and the covenant we pray to keep
comes in. As our Prayer Book states, “Holy Baptism is full initiation by
water and the Holy Spirit into Christ’s Body, the Church. The bond which God
establishes in Baptism is indissoluable.”
(BCP 298)
Like the story of Christ’s baptism, Father, Son and Holy
Spirit are all present as we are incorporated into Christ’s Body.
I have long imagined that seraphim and cherubim are also
present, singing in our ears, “You are God’s Beloved! God is well pleased with
you!” over and over again. It is the first thing we hear as the Holy Spirit and
water incorporate us into the Body of Christ – that is, we hear what Christ
heard that day in the River Jordan.
As we grow up, as we navigate good times and bad times,
joyful moments and challenging moments, it is easy for us to forget what God said
to us: You are my Beloved; I am well pleased with you! We are the Body of
Christ as we emerge from the waters of Baptism. We are all God’s Sons and
Daughters. We are Sisters and Brothers in Christ. We are God’s Beloved.
Whatever else Luke, Matthew, Mark and John might mean as
they narrate the story of Christ’s baptism by John, we need only remember this:
I am God’s Beloved; God is well pleased with me! Say it when you wake up in the
morning. Say it when you go to bed.
We must do whatever it takes to remember and accept our
Belovedness. It is who we are. It is who we are meant to be, created in the
image of a Loving and Compassionate God.
Oh yes, down by the river, whenever he saw Jesus walking by,
John would turn to anyone who would listen and describe Jesus in these words,
“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
Which is why I usually begin every day with the words,
Jesus Christ, Lamb of God, Have Mercy on Us, Your Beloved.
For we are God’s Beloved. God is well pleased with us.
Amen.
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