Readings: Isaiah 43:1-7 Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
We pray: May the words of my
mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our
rock and our sustainer. Amen.
Our Gospel reading for today tells us of the baptism of Jesus by John
the Baptist – after all the people were baptised, Jesus came forward to also be
baptised and to pray. And then came the
words, the voice saying: ‘You are my son, and with you I am well pleased’. How must those words have filled the heart of
Jesus at this, the moment when he publicly emerged into ministry, when he knelt
before his God and promised to follow the path set for him, wherever it would
take him. He was praying, completely
immersed in this moment of oneness with God – and the heavens opened and the
Holy Spirit descended on him….It was indeed a ‘wow’ moment!
Imagine those words surrounding us as we too are baptised: ‘You are my
son, you are my daughter, and with you I am well pleased’. A moment of
belonging, of completeness, of welcome into the body of Christ we call the
church. A moment when the words from
Isaiah become real : Do not fear, for I
have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
Our baptism, our committing our way and our life to Christ is a very
special milestone in our faith journey, something that establishes a
relationship that is never broken, much as we sometimes try.
Today, however, I would like to talk about what comes after. About how our baptism invites us into a new
way of living, offers us a pathway for living unlike anything we have walked
before. The difference is that this path
is formed not by gravel and asphalt but by unconditional love, mercy and grace,
and that it is a pathway on which Jesus walks beside us as do the saints that
have gone before and the saints that surround us now. It’s a truly wonderful journey we take when
we become part of the church for we know that no matter what comes after,
however many times our directions get muddled and our promises are set aside,
for each time that we falter, stumble, rebel even, we are still God’s beloved
children. That delight we heard
expressed by God at Jesus baptism is for us as well – and we would do
well to remind ourselves of that. Delight
that we are covenanted with God, delight that we are part of the body of faith
we call the church, delight that no matter the mistakes we make we are forgiven
and restored by the grace of God.
We all know the story of the next three years of Jesus life – walking faithfully
towards Jerusalem, showing us how to express God’s grace and mercy to others,
inviting in the outsider, hearing the pain of the ostracised, being kind to one
another and caring for the least.
This is the story of the church family – us! This is where our baptism leads us – into a
life that expresses deep love for each other and the world that we are part
of. No-one said it would be easy, or
comfortable, or without stumbles.
We can all relate experiences where our church family, our experiences
in this body of faith are unhappy ones, where we have been hurt or we have hurt
others, where our hopes and enthusiasms feel sidelined, where we feel we are
taking the wrong path or wonder if it is all worth it. Yet that baptismal relationship endures, and
more than endures – it holds us close so that we can be upset and uncertain yet
still persevere – because we know the worth and the power of that relationship –
that love which never allows us to be separated from our God no matter what. Our church is fallible – because it is made
up of fallible human beings – yet it is God’s community to which we belong and
in which we believe and so we gather and worship and pray and praise so that we
can go out from here strengthened in purpose and hope to walk that pathway
Jesus invites us to.
We know too that there are times when we slip off the path Jesus asks us
to walk – and sometimes it’s really hard to get back on. I’m doing all right by myself, I can choose
to do what I am comfortable with, none of that uncomfortable prodding into new
ways where I can’t see round the next corner – I like my life planned out. We pretend we are ok on our own, but first of
all we are not on our own – when we walked away God remains with us, waiting, and
when we do return we realise that, for all the vulnerabilities and challenges
of being part of the church family, it is where we need to be and where God
requires us to be. For it is our place of belonging.
We know too that there are times when we overlay that pathway with our
own expectations, forgetting that the body of Christ is an expansive, diverse,
creative gathering of God’s people.
Some of you will know that I get very grumpy with people who define
Christianity as a pathway lined with prejudice, arrogance, prosperity,
exclusion. How can anyone call
themselves Christian when they are inflicting so much hurt and pain on others –
it’s like you are recreating Jesus in your own image. And I sway between being grumpy and feeling
very sad for those who blatantly reject Christ’s teachings yet say they are Christians
– sad because they do not realise the promise of their baptism – have not comprehend
the words of Isaiah when God promises:
When you pass through the waters, I will be
with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk
through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the LORD your God
We don’t need to shore up our lives with walls of self- preservation and
‘me first’ – for God is with us and that is stronger and more deeply assuring than
anything we can do for ourselves if we would only realise that.
For surely this is the core of our relationship with God, the core of
our baptismal promise, the foundation of the path we walk on day by day as the
people of God – God delights in us, calls us beloved, walks with us through all
the turns and twists of our life – to the end and beyond.
When we wonder at our worth, God loves us. When we are not sure we will get through the
tough times, God loves us. When we are
not sure who or whose we are, God loves us.
When we cause grief and hurt to others and ourselves, God loves us and
forgives us. God gives us our value and
our identity and we delight in that.
So we ask ourselves at this epiphany time, at this moment when we
remember Jesus’ baptism and his public commitment to walking the way of
servanthood all the way to the cross, when we hear again those words: ‘You are
my son, you are my daughter and with you I am well pleased’.
Are we a people who are,
often in the most ordinary of ways, living the love and grace and mercy that
God has for us? I believe we are and
that God continues to delight in and through us and that, in Christ, as a body
of faith, we make a difference when we walk in Christ’s way. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Margaret Garland
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