This passage has become one of the most important ones for
me.
A couple of summers ago, Rachelle was reading a book by the
Dutch Catholic priest Henri Nouwen.
And one of the things she shared with me from the book was
that Nouwen suggested that the words Jesus hears in his baptism are words
directed not only at Jesus but by extension to everyone of God’s children
That following Christ, we also receive those words
And Nouwen suggests that we listen to them often and
regularly.
I have come to think the same thing and this passage has
come to have new meaning for me.
I am a child of God and quite apart from anything I have
done or have not done,
God remains constant in God’s love.
And so we hear the voice from heaven saying to Jesus in the
Jordan river,
“You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you”
or another version, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I
am well pleased.”
We might make this more general and all encompassing.
“You are my child, my beloved one, I’m so happy you’re
alive.”
in other words, as a new beginning for humanity.
And we read Genesis 1 here because we see in Jesus’s baptism
a new genesis, a new beginning for humankind
And from the outset, center stage in the creation of this new
human community,
we have declaration of God’s love.
This is the reality that we are called into by faith,
This is the foundation of the community of the Spirit.
As Paul wrote in Romans 5, “God’s love has been poured into
our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
And in this blessing of love we realize the new beginning of
our lives.
Life, we come to understand, is made new, reborn,
as we remember the love with which we are sustained by our
everlasting Father.
Jesus comes to the waters of baptism.
There in the Jordan river, for days John had been inviting
people into a changed life.
People who had been burdened by fears or regrets,
living in a place of disconnection from their neighbors and
from God.
Wondering if anything will ever change.
“Come to the waters of grace,” John had called to them, and
there they realized in their hearts the power of a changed life, the power of
letting go of all fears and regrets and receiving the amazing grace of God.
There they joined with John in a new community that looked
for a new and better world.
And along comes Jesus, down to the riverside.
And all who watched saw the turning of a new chapter,
The renewal of the community of faith in the love of God.
Paul wrote about Jesus and called him “the firstborn of the
new creation.”
I think that what happens here at the river is a sign of
that new creation.
Jesus is at the center and we see in him, the love of God
for God’s children.
Some theologians believe that the reason that universe
exists at all
Is not because God was compelled to create,
But because God’s love overflowed into the creating of the
cosmos.
All of this, the stars, the sun, the earth, the waters,
Is all a sign of the abundant love of God which overflows
from God’s own being,
I really like this way of thinking about creation.
And so if humans are to be brought back to the reason they
exist, if they are to inhabit a new creation,
It makes sense that this declaration of God’s love would
stand at the center.
The new creation is in the words, “You are my child, the beloved;
with you I am well pleased.”
No matter who you have been or where you have gone,
You are still loved by God who will never let you go, will
never leave nor forsake you.
You are a beloved child of God.
You are a beloved child of God.
This is the beginning of Jesus’s ministry.
Here he joins with all of the down and outs in the periphery
of society,
All those who had in Bob Dylan’s words, been “bent out of
shape by society’s pliers”
Many who had lived a life that they hated themselves for
almost as much as they felt unable to escape
Many who had lived lives trapped in the prison of hatred for
those that did them wrong,
And here in the river they find a new way forward.
The freedom of being loved by God.
Jesus joins with them in this reality, and we see this
passage as a beginning point for a ministry of love that Jesus will live out in
the following years, creating a new community of trust in God and love for one
another.
These words of love inaugurate a new community formed by
love.
What Martin Luther King Jr. called the “beloved community.”
This is the concept that drove King’s work that inspired
every speech.
King did not primarily fight against racism or violence.
King wanted it to be known that he was not primarily against
something, but rather, that he was primarily for something.
And that was this beloved community.
This is clear in his famous words:
“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia,
the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to
sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”
And later echoing the prophets:
“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted,
and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made
plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the
Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain
of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the
jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With
this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle
together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing
that we will be free one day.”
Together. That was
King’s vision. Leaving behind any
identification or allegiance
that was not to the God who loved every single person.
It’s a mistake to think that what God longs for is only to
save human beings out of this world.
God longs to save human beings in this world, to renew and
heal communities of the earth,
And God’s heart beats the loudest among those who have
suffered most from the injustices of society.
They feel deeply the disconnect between God’s love and
society’s treatment.
And being on the outside, they have the freedom to imagine a
different way,
They imagine and enact in their own way the new humanity.
By loving one another as fellow children of God,
And by imagining with each other a different way of living
in the world
One that acknowledges all people as children of God, equally
valuable in God’s eyes.
And then imagination turns into the opening of warming
shelters and soup kitchens,
Prayer gatherings, 12 step meetings,
Letters to congress and nonviolent demonstrations of love
for those who have been neglected,
organized efforts to change the systems that hurt
So that no one would be left alone, but all would be invited
into the beloved community.
There’s a lot that fought against King’s vision then,
And there’s a lot going against the vision of the beloved
community today.
Perhaps the biggest hindrance has always been fear.
But we don’t need to be afraid. The God who brought light out of darkness
will continue to make new what has been broken
Each morning we can hear again the words of love, the words
of grace,
“You are my child, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
And commit ourselves again to working together to imagine
and create the beloved community.
When King spoke in Detroit at Cobo hall, he wanted to give
some practical advice to a community that was wondering how they could assist
the movement against segregation in the south.
One of the things he said, “you can do to help us down in
Alabama and Mississippi and all over the South is to work with determination to
get rid of any segregation and discrimination in Detroit,
realizing that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere.
And we’ve got to come to see that the problem of racial
injustice is a national problem. No community in this country can boast of
clean hands in the area of brotherhood.”
We can and should become involved in helping to bring peace
and justice through the country and the world.
But the beloved community always begins at home.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
And ultimately the nurturing of a beloved community begins
with you.
Love yourself as God loves you, hear those words to Jesus
and to all God’s children.
And let that love inspire you to imagine, to dream a world
where all might
hear those words and sing together God’s praise.
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