Thankful Memorial, Chattanooga
January 12, 2020
Year A, Epiphany 1

Isaiah 42:1-9
Psalm 29
Acts 10:34-43
Matthew 3:13-17

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

As Matthew’s gospel tells it, Jesus asks John to baptize him at the Jordan River.  With a little convincing, John consents and as Jesus arises, “he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.  And a voice from heaven said ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

It must have felt good to hear those words.  But, let’s be honest, Jesus hasn’t actually done anything yet.  In fact, the little speech by which he convinces John to baptize him are the first words Jesus ever says in Matthew’s gospel.  Until this point in the story, Jesus has been a passive infant receiving the attentions of the magi and being carried by his parents to Egypt and back. 

So, yeah, Jesus hasn’t achieved much thus far.  In fact, his exchange with John makes us wonder if he’s maybe a bit of an underachiever.  Why else would he ask to be baptized by someone who should, by all accounts, be his spiritual inferior?  And so John asks him: “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”  It feels to John as though the teacher has come to the first day of school – and sat at a desk waiting for the student to begin the lesson. 

But Jesus responds, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”  And, this is going to sound crazy, but I can’t help but hear a bit of Julie Andrews in Jesus’ words.  (Go with me on this.)  In The Sound of Music, Andrews’ character Maria teaches the children how to sing.  “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start,” she sings.  “When you read you begin with ABC.  When you sing you begin with Do, Re, Mi.”

And – though it doesn’t scan quite so well – when you follow God’s will for you, you begin with baptism.  Jesus knows that – even though he is sinless, even though he is God’s Son – he is very much incarnate, very much human.  And any human activity for the good of God’s kingdom must always begin with the acknowledgement of our own belovedness. 

For God is the first source of our human activity – our efforts to minister to others, to care for creation, to work for justice and peace, even our love for God – all of it happens only because God loves us first and works in and through us to enable our response to that love.  And the way we mark that primal love of God for each of us is baptism. 

So, you see, it makes sense that Jesus would be baptized to begin his ministry – for that is the “very beginning” for all of us – the “very good” and only place for Christians to start.  Jesus, before he does anything begins, like all of us must, on the solid foundation of his belovedness.

Let me offer you another way to think about it.  Some weeks ago, we took our kids ice skating.  Our son Fred had never skated before and, being 8 years old, refused to use one of those plastic “ice buddies” to learn how.  Instead, he just hung on to the side of the rink, trying his best to move without falling.  At one point, he would get going a little ways and then stumble or slip and cling to the wall.  And, in his eagerness to get going again, he would start off right away and would almost immediately fall once more.  I had to help him by reminding him to pause after a fall and find his balance again.  He had to get his skates back upright, straighten his ankles and make sure his footing was firm if he was to have any hope of making it more than a few inches down the ice.  “Find your feet, Fred” I would tell him.  “Find your feet.”

And that, essentially, is what baptism is all about: finding our feet in this risky and invigorating endeavor we call faith.  Baptism is the Church’s way of reminding us of our ultimate foundation: we are profoundly and intimately loved by God.  And every time we slip and fall – which we are bound to do – we can always come back to this, to the beginning, to the good and only place to start: “This is my Son; [this is my daughter], the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

And because, though Son of God, Jesus is also fully human, he shows us the way.  “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness,” he tells John.  Jesus will not stumble or slip or fall in his journey.  He will be completely faithful, wholly obedient to God’s will for him.  But he hasn’t done any of that yet.  Right now, he’s just beginning where we all begin – in belovedness.

And there’s more good news here in the waters of baptism: because when we realize that all of us – even Jesus – begin at the same beginning, we understand that not only is belovedness the firmest foundation but also the greatest equalizer.  No matter who you are, no matter what you look like or where you’ve come from, no matter how much education you’ve received, how much money you have, how many friends you have on Facebook, no matter what you’ve accomplished in your life, no matter whether you are an underachiever or overachiever, you are beloved.  You are profoundly and intimately beloved of God.  You are equally beloved of God as anyone else. 

“I truly understand that God shows no partiality,” says Peter in the Acts of the Apostles.  Through the incarnation, the passion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, by the power of the Spirit, we have all been adopted into God’s family as beloved sons and daughters.  We are all bound together in our shared belovedness and so we are all bound together in the risky and invigorating endeavor of responding to that divine love. 

And that’s the real gift of grace: when we understand that we are always only responding to God’s love for us, then we know we are never alone as we seek to act on God’s will, whatever direction that action takes us.  When we listen to a friend struggling with grief or desperation, when we volunteer at MetMin, when we serve on boards and committees that bring attention to the needs of others, when we engage in activism for the sake of our best values, when we work for justice and hope for peace even when it seems so distant, we do so because we know we are powered by God’s love and supported by all of our siblings in God’s family.  We have begun in the same river of God’s love and whatever we do, wherever we go, we go bound together as God’s beloved.  Amen.