A Sermon of The Rev. Dr. David A. Killian, Rector
All Saints Parish
Brookline, Massachusetts
Feast of the Baptism of Jesus
First Sunday after the Epiphany
January 10, 2010
Isaiah 43:1-7; Acts 8:14-17; Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
I
When I was a young boy growing up in northwestern Wisconsin, I spent many happy days on my grandfather's farm. It was great fun to accompany Grandfather as he went about various chores like picking the eggs, feeding the pigs, or milking the cows. Grandfather made me feel like I was important – like my work was valued. When Grandfather retired, he turned the operations of the farm over to my uncle Roy. Grandfather started attending daily mass at his parish church. Often he invited me to accompany him. We would drive into town up the hill to the stone church. We would walk down the right aisle to his favorite pew. He knelt and said his private prayers before the mass began. When the mass was over, we drove into town to the drug store and sat at the ice cream counter. After our ice creams, we drove back to the farm. These moments with my grandfather made me feel special and beloved.
In today's Gospel passage we hear about Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River. The heavens are opened, the Holy Spirit descends, and Jesus hears a voice, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."
His baptism is a powerful moment that indelibly imprints upon Jesus the awareness that he is the beloved of God. However, I wonder if Jesus had some previous experiences that told him that he was beloved. I wonder if he had a grandfather or a grandmother who told him that he was a precious and special. I assume that his parents Mary and Joseph created a loving home environment in which he developed as a normal child and experienced human love and affection. I don't think that his baptism was the first time that Jesus felt beloved of God. Many times previously, his mother Mary and his father Joseph had showered him with love and made him feel that he was blessed.
However, his baptism was special and definitive. Jesus was now an adult. He had left his parent's home. He was beginning his ministry. It is one thing to be affirmed by one's parents and grandparents. Now he is on his own. He goes to the Jordan where John is baptizing. He presents himself in utter humility and vulnerability, as if saying, "Here I am, God. Do with me as you please." And Jesus hears this unequivocal endorsement, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."
This baptism is a pivotal event in the life of Jesus. He presents himself in total trust – "Into your hands I commend my spirit." He hears back that God has accepted this offering of self and God calls him, "Beloved, Highly Favored."
II
This affirmation of God's love propels Jesus' ministry. He goes forth boldly to share his experience of God's love with sinners, tax collectors, publicans, and people on the margins who do not believe that they are beloved. The lepers who are despised come to him; he tells them that they are loved by God. Zaccheus and the tax collectors wonder if they are shut out of God's mercy; Jesus visits Zaccheus in his home and assures him that he will have a place in God's Kingdom. Jesus confronts a mob about to stone a woman accused of adultery and asks the one without sin to cast the first stone. Where did Jesus get this courage to confront the crowds? Where did Jesus get this determination to stand with the poor and oppressed? It came from deep inside of him. It came from his conviction that he was the beloved of God.
III
The movie "Precious" tells the story of a young woman, Clareece Precious Jones, who does not think that she is the beloved of God or of anyone. She is overweight and undereducated. She is physically and mentally abused by her mother and, although only 16 years old, is about to have her second child, both of whom are the result of the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her father. Because of her pregnancy, she is expelled from Middle School, but her principle thinks enough of her to recommend an alternative school. At her new school, she and other so-called "losers" begin to believe in themselves and develop their abilities under the guidance of a caring teacher. Precious does not have a grandfather or a grandmother or parents who give her a sense that she is beloved. But she has classmates, a nurse in the hospital, and a social worker who befriend her. Somehow this is enough and through these few threads she is able to believe that she is a person of worth and value.
In a few minutes we will baptize Alexandra into the Body of Christ and proclaim that she is a Beloved Daughter of God. She is special. She is precious. In her baptism, we will affirm her dignity and worth, and we will pledge ourselves to assist her parents in creating a loving community where Alexandra can grow and thrive.
We will renew our baptismal covenant and affirm that each of us is special in God's eyes and beloved. As God's beloved, we will seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves, and, as we promise in the baptismal covenant, we will "strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being."
Amen.