Matthew 3:13-17 "Beloved"

         I have done a fair number of baptisms during my decades in ordained ministry.  I have baptized adults, teenagers, children, toddlers, and infants – mostly in churches but a couple in the neo-natal units of hospitals.  Once many years ago, I baptized our older son.  Paddy was not quite two years old back then. 

         Joe and I held him on our arms in front of the congregation I was serving at the time.  After I had made the sign of the cross with water on his head, had said the age-old words naming him as a child of God, and had blessed him, Paddy gleefully tossed up into the air three pencils, a wadded up piece of paper, and the little pad that paper had been torn from, all items that he had, unbeknownst to his parents, been clutching in his small hands the whole time.  Looking back on it, I like to think of it as a gesture of joy.

         It was a surprise, to be sure, but somewhat gratifying.  After all, he had not sobbed through the whole ceremony, but rather he seemed to have taken great delight in its essence, that is, in knowing once and for all time that he was one of God’s beloved ones.

        I have had parents approach me about having their child “done” and parents wanting their kids baptized privately because they do not go to church and do not intend to either, and people desiring to be re-baptized because they once belonged to one kind of church and now belonged to another and someone told them that their first baptism was not the real thing because the water was sprinkled and not poured or because they were dunked or not dunked. 

         However, though baptism certainly involves water, it does not matter whether drops or gallons are used.  And, when you come right down to it, except in extraordinary circumstances, baptism is not a private ritual but has a lot to do with a church community.  And one does not need to be baptized more than once – regardless of when, where, and how it was first accomplished.  And baptism is certainly not, as Presbyterian pastor Philip McLarty reminds us, “an inoculation against sickness and death, accidents or other misfortune, but it is a reassurance that, come what may, God will be with us to give us the grace we need to overcome all adversity.”

        Christian baptism, of course, has its roots in the story of Jesus’ baptism.  It is one of only a handful of narratives that is found in all four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), so one must assume that it is a very important concept indeed.  It stands to reason that it was designated sacrament-status early on.

         However, given our 21^st century vantage point and the fact that baptism has become a somewhat quaint and definitely antiquated church tradition in the eyes of many and that, as proof positive, I would bet that most of us cannot remember being inspired by our children’s baptisms, let alone remember (or been told) a whit about our own, given all that, we may not see what John was doing there in the middle of the muddy Jordan River as all that impressive.  However, in first century Palestine, the common practice in Jesus’s day was for Gentiles who wanted to become Jews to be baptized.  However, those folks born into Judaism saw no need of baptism for themselves. 

         And yet, Jews by the hundreds were queued up on the shoreline, waiting to be dunked by John the Baptizer.  What gives?  As Philip McLarty continues, “Clearly, something was up.  A new day was dawning.  The Kingdom of God was at hand.  Jews of every stripe and from every corner of Judea were coming to be baptized.  But that’s not all.  Matthew says, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.”    

         Baptism marked the start of Jesus’ ministry in the eyes of the Gospel writer of Matthew.  John lowered Jesus into the water, and when Jesus re-emerged, the Gospel writer tells us, low and behold the Holy Spirit descended like a dove, just like the old prophet Isaiah had said would happen:

And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him (just like that bird that came fluttering down),
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
(Isaiah 11:2)

         Then a voice that could only have been that of the Holy One resounded from the clouds above saying, "This is my beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

And when the voice boomed out, from that moment forward, Jesus had no doubt about who he was and whose he was:  “You are my Beloved.” 

         And only then did he begin his ministry, never forgetting that sacred bond God had forged with him.  And so, as Presbyterian pastor Stan Gockel reminds us, Jesus “reached out to the poor, the oppressed, and the downtrodden… healed the sick, raised the dead, and set people free from demonic oppression.  He did it because he remembered his baptism— remembered who he was, (whose he was), and what he was called to do.”

         You know, baptism was very problematic in the early church.  As the theology around Jesus as the Christ solidified and he was seen more and more as one without fault or shortcoming, the inevitable question arose about why in heaven’s name he needed to be baptized in the first place if baptism was all about the forgiveness of sins. 

         However, to look at the meaning of baptism only in those terms is to limit its inherent grace as a sacrament.  Baptism is so much more.  By being baptized, surely Jesus was demonstrating for us, in no uncertain terms, that not only was he part of his everyday, Jewish community, but he was also always to be counted among the greater community of all the people of God – never to be separate from you and me. 

         And now, all these eons later, we can reflect on this powerful story found in all four Gospels and acknowledge that, yes – it is true:  The Word was made flesh, pitched a tent, and moved into the neighborhood – our neighborhood – and so lives among us.  God made a choice – and has never backed away from that choice: God chose us.  God chose us to make God’s dream for the world a reality.  In Jesus, God stands with us.  We are God’s beloved ones too, daughters and sons of the Holy One. 

         As Lutheran scholar David Lose reminds us, “And this is where these stories of Jesus' baptism intersects with the stories of our own. For we, too, can only live into the mission that God has set for us to the degree that we hear and believe the good news that we, too, are beloved children of God.  As with Jesus, we discover in baptism who we are by hearing definitively whose we are. Baptism is nothing less than the promise that we are God's beloved children: That no matter where we go, God will be with us, that no matter what we may do, God is for us and will not abandon us. In baptism we are blessed with the promise of God's (Everlasting) Spirit and given a name” – and that name is Beloved.  Through baptism, we discover and affirm who we are and whose we are.

          There was once a drunk who stumbled upon a baptismal service one Sunday afternoon down by the river. It was down south, back in the day, and this guy walked right down into the water and stood next to the Preacher.

         The minister turned and noticed the old drunk and said, "Mister, Are you ready to find Jesus?" The drunk looked back and said, "Yes, Preacher. I sure am." The minister then dunked the fellow under the water and pulled him right back up.

        "Have you found Jesus?" the preacher asked. "No, I haven't!" said the drunk. The preacher then dunked him under for a bit longer, brought him up and said, "Now, brother, have you found Jesus?" "No, I haven't, Preacher."

         The preacher in disgust held the man under for at least 30 seconds this time, brought him out of the water and said in a harsh tone, "Friend, are you sure you haven't found Jesus yet?"

         The old drunk wiped his eyes, gasping for breath, and said to the preacher,..."Naw preacher, but are you sure this is where he fell in?"

         Baptism is not about being saved.  It is not some sort of magic charm that will keep you or your child from harm.  As one blogger wrote, “Baptism isn't where you find Jesus; it's what you do once you've found him.” 

         In baptism, we are named.  In baptism, we are given a new identity, one that is formed (and informed) by love.  In baptism, we are grafted to a community (that would be the church) whose very foundation is compassion and healing and reconciliation. 

In baptism, we are accepted as beloved, as children of God.  In baptism, (and this is important), in baptism, we are challenged to accept others, to understand others as children of God as well. 

         Now all of that is pretty heady and, I would say, inspirational stuff.  That being said, maybe we should be remembering our own baptism a bit more – because surely, if taken seriously, it determines how we live our lives.  It puts us on the illuminated path that will take us out of the darkness and to our destination.  In baptism, we are accepted as beloved, as children of God.  In baptism, we are challenged to accept others, to understand others as children of God as well – and surely that challenge is big on that illuminated path that takes us to the place where God’s dream for the world will come true.

         Think about that for a moment – the power of acceptance, the power of affirming humanity’s “belovedness”.  How would our lives be different if they were grounded in accepting rather than rejecting others?  How would the politics of our nation change if we dropped the labels “liberal” and “conservative” and all the posturing and finger-pointing that goes along with them, if we engaged in dialogue rather than reading our Twitter feed? 

How would our lives be transformed if we sought first to understand rather than be understood, if we were not content until we had searched and found that which we hold in common rather than that which divides us? 

         Here’s a great little video clip that I think illustrates this point.  It happens to be an ad for Amazon that went viral - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ouu6LGGIWsc

         As Christians, we look to baptism as the grace-filled affirmation of our common identity as children of God.  Baptism tells us once and for all, as human beings, who we are and whose we are – regardless of everything that might divide us - and challenges us, with God’s help, to live our lives as if that sprinkling or pouring or dunking really mattered.