Saturday, January 7, 2023

You Are My Beloved Epiphany1A Feast of our Lord's Baptism

 You Are My Beloved

We know this story. Perhaps we know it all too well and miss what’s really happening.  Since the Troubles surrounding his birth, beginning with the visit of the three magi from the East. They had stopped to see Herod, the King of the Jews to ascertain where the child had been born. Herod’s own wisemen had said it must be in Bethlehem home of David, King of the Jews, and so it was. Yet, the visitors could tell Herod was not at all excited to hear the news of the child’s birth, so instead of returning to Herod to confirm the location, they went home by “another way.”

 

Meanwhile, in a dream Joseph was warned to take the child and his mother to Egypt. Of all places! That’s where the story began, but by fleeing out of Egypt to get the people of God out of bondage to Pharaoh. But to Egypt they fled, and a good thing too. For Herod sent his most savage forces to Bethlehem and the surrounding region to kill all children under the age of two – and any and all parents, aunts, uncles and so forth who dared to get in the way. Much innocent blood had been shed. The child born to be king would grow up with no cousins, and few other family members.

 

A messenger again appeared in a dream to give Joseph the all clear signal: it was safe to take the child back to Bethlehem. But when they got there and saw what had happened, and that another more fierce descendent of the House of Herod was now in charge, Joseph took the child and his mother to Nazareth in the northern region of Galilee. This is where the child grew up. His name was Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived.

 

When he was around 30-years old, Jesus had heard of a man named John, down south, on the banks of the River Jordan, outside Jerusalem, leading a revival meeting that attracted all sorts of people from the region of Judea. John was hearing their confessions and baptizing them in the river, turning people back to live in the Way of the Lord. Some Pharisees and Sadducees, who thought of themselves as holier than the Lord God, came to watch. John chased them off, calling after them, “You brood of vipers! What makes you think you can escape the wrath to come!” Even John did not know that the “wrath to come” would be a kind of forgiveness and love the world had never seen. That the wrath of God is God’s relentless compassion and love, pursuing us even when we are at our worst. [i]

 

Soon after the arrogant ones had left, Jesus came walking down from Galilee to join with the people who were confessing and being baptized and starting their lives anew. John recognized something authentic and true in the young man before him. John said, “No!” John said, “It is you who should be baptizing me!” No, said the young man, I have been sent by my Father to live among God’s people. I want to bathe in the waters of repentance just like everyone else. John saw there was nothing to do but to baptize this Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.

 

That’s when it happened. As Jesus came up out of the water, the Holy Spirit descended and landed upon him like a dove – like the dove after the flood. And if that was not enough, a voice came out of the heavens above, “This is my Son, my Beloved; with whom I am well pleased.” [ii]The crowd around John all stopped. They had seen and heard something. Some, as reported by the evangelist John, thought it was thunder! Others thought it was angels! Jesus said, “No, it was not thunder, nor was it angels. It was my Father, my God and your God. My father and yours. I’ve been sent here to teach you to pray to our Father and live in his Way.”

 

See what happened there? In these few spare sentences of Matthew’s, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are all on stage at the same time. The Holy Family of the Blessed Trinity are all there, down by the river. John surely saw it as plain as day. Everything had just been made new!

 

It was as Isaiah had said all those many years ago: “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations… He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth… Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it… I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols.

See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.” [iii]

 

And that is just what Jesus set out to do – bring forth justice for all peoples and to tell people that the old ways have already passed, and the new news is good news for all people, for God my Father shows no partiality. In every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.[iv] Jesus then gathered come companions (which means those who share bread), beginning with Peter and his brother Andrew, and John and his brother James. They were all fishermen, but Jesus asked them only to follow him and fish for people.

 

Together, as a community of God’s people, they healed people, fed people and taught people the Way of the Lord’s love and forgiveness. And they baptized people in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Although Herod thought he had put an end to this Jesus on a Roman cross, alas, after three days in a borrowed tomb, having no home or tomb of his own, he began to appear to his companions. He handed over his Spirit to them. He breathed on them! And after being in hiding for several days, they set out to tell the story, to proclaim the news to all people everywhere, showing no partiality.

 

For now, Jesus was in them. They were in him. And everyone who joined in sharing the bread of companionship with them and with Jesus came to know a deep and important truth: Like Jesus, they too were God’s Beloved! God was well pleased with them! Right on down to this very day the news continues to spread: You are God’s Beloved. God is well pleased with you! Be still, let loose, and know, says the Lord, that I am God, and you are my beloved children.[v] And I breathe on you my life and my love for you to share with others, all others. Everywhere. All the time.

 

That is what happened down by the River Jordan that day when Jesus walked down from Nazareth of Galilee to join with all the people being baptized by John. New things happened. And new things continue to spring forth, as former things have come to pass! For the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are all here, right now, all the time! All shall be well. All shall be well. All manner of thing shall be well! Amen. Amen. Amen. Alleluia! Alleluia!



[i] Ross, Maggie, The Fire of Your Life (Paulist Press, NYC:1983) p.137

[ii] Matthew 3:13-17

[iii] Isaiah 42:1-9

[iv] Acts 10:34-43

[v] Psalm 46:10

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