Baptism of Jesus A January 8, 2017
Luther Memorial Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie G. Hutson
Isaiah 42: 1-9 + Psalm 29 + Acts 10: 34-43 + Matthew 3: 13-17
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
When I was on internship the pastor of my internship site and my supervisor was a huge ice hockey fan. He had played hockey in high school and during college in Pennsylvania, where hockey is a big deal. So, many times he would use a reference to ice hockey as an illustration in his sermon. I found this to be frustrating, even though I do actually enjoy and understand the game. But I needed more Jesus and less ice hockey.
This morning, though, I’m actually going to offer an illustration from a sporting event. Not ice hockey, though. No, I want to offer a moment from the recent Peach Bowl football game between my Crimson Tide and the University of Washington Huskies. Now, bear with me here….this has nothing to do with the game itself.
Before the game began, the chief referee called the captains of both teams to the center of the field for the coin toss. As he gathered them, lined up on either side of him, he asked the player standing closest to him: are you my representative? Are you my representative?
Now as much as I enjoy football, I’m a bigger church nerd and a bigger lover of Jesus. At that moment, instead of being focused on who would win the coin toss, it occurred to me that God asks the same question of us, metaphorically of course. Are you my representative?
There’s always a difference when I wear this collar….as a representative of the Church….out in public and when I don’t. I am treated differently. Some people react with open disdain, their frowns as big as the distance they put between us. Others react with curiosity: am I a Catholic priest? Others, if they regard it at all, see it as just perhaps an unusual fashion choice. But for others, it is a sign that I am a representative….of the Church and of God. As you might imagine, this often invites some interesting responses.
One response is that people tend to pour out all of their hopes and dreams and disappointments in both God and the church, no matter where we might be or what else I might be doing. Not long ago I stood in the dairy section of QFC juggling a gallon of milk and three containers of yogurt, while a woman wept as she told me how her pastor advised her to stay in an abusive marriage. In that same grocery store there is an employee who calls me “her pastor.” Whenever I go in, she says, loudly, “there’s my pastor” and she shares with me the state of her soul….her grief when her mother died a couple of years ago. Her sadness over her brother’s indifference to her. There’s my pastor, she will tell anyone who is listening, but I have never seen her darken the door of this building.
Are you my representative?
This collar, for better or worse, identifies me as God’s representative. I have the advantage of literally being able to “put on Christ.”
What about you? How do people around you know that you are God’s representative?
When Jesus was baptized by John, he was identified as God’s Beloved, as God’s Son. The telling of the story of Jesus’ baptism in Matthew is pretty short and to the point. Jesus comes to the water; John resists baptizing him, saying that he instead should be baptized by Jesus; Jesus explains the situation; John baptizes him; The Spirit descends and it’s done. Or else it is just beginning. Because what happens next in the story is that Jesus is sent to the wilderness to be tempted. Baptism prepares him for the difficulties that lie ahead….the challenges and the struggles that will eventually include being hunted down by the government, betrayed by his closest followers, and crucified.
In our tradition, baptism itself feels fairly pristine….it’s a sweet event, often with babies in white heirloom clothing and beaming parents and grandparents. But baptism is far more radical than that. It’s the most significant thing that will ever happen in our lives. It literally marks us as Christ’s own. We shouldn’t come with dainty garments, that’s too tame a thing for the wild wonder that baptism holds.
We understand baptism as a sacrament….an outward sign of an inward action that God has already accomplished. This is why baptism is not a decision on our parts. God has already claimed us. God has already said “you are my beloved.”
Going back to my football illustration at the beginning of this sermon: In baptism, God does not ask “Are you my representative?” God says “You ARE my representative.” God says “you ARE my Beloved”.
And like the good Lutherans we are, we ask: What does this mean?
What does it mean to be God’s representatives in January of 2017? And what does it mean to be beloved of God?
On New Year’s Eve we were gathered around a table with friends. One of them said to me “I think that I’m just going to have to bury my head in the sand for awhile. I feel hopeless. I can’t do anything. Nothing I stand for matters anymore.” And the startling thing to me in that moment was that I completely understood what he was saying. Why bother standing up for those Jesus called us to stand up for when the empire says we will soon begin working very hard to send them back or keep them out? Why bother saying that ALL people – black, white, gay, straight, trans, women, men, rich and poor – ALL people are created in God’s image and beloved by God when the language of hatred insists in strident tones that exclusion wins the day. Why bother insisting that all people deserve safe shelter and adequate food and potable drinking water when it might be an inconvenience to me? Why bother sharing the story of God in the world when the current narrative says that we can do it all ourselves, on our own?
The theologian and activist Dorothy Day understood this sense of hopelessness. She wrote: “People say, what is the sense of our small effort? They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time. A pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions. Each one of our thoughts, words and deeds is like that. No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There is too much work to do.”
No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless….at least not for very long. There is too much work to do. And in order to do it, we will need to remember, every single day, that we are the baptized children of God. Martin Luther said that we should begin every day remembering that we are baptized.
And maybe we need some practical reminders…..remember it when the shower water pours over your heads, or the water runs over your hands in the sink. I am baptized. I am baptized.
And then, remember what that means….being baptized takes away our right to put our heads in the sand and ignore hatred and injustice. Being baptized compels us into the world…..it is the Word and the Water that washes us and then flings us out, just like the water was flung on us this morning. Don’t cover your heads…don’t shy away from it….receive it with boldness….receive it with gladness.
Living into our baptisms is the boldest, bravest, most urgent task we have to participate in.
Because, dear ones, we are God’s representatives. And the world and our neighbors need to receive the love and the compassion that is the entirety of Jesus’ ministry.
Jesus said only these things matter: Love God. Love yourself. Love your neighbor. It’s that simple. And it’s that hard.
But it’s our task….because we are God’s beloved. And we are God’s representatives.
Thanks be to God. And let the church say…Amen.