Standing on the Corner of 102Nd Ave and King George Blvd

JAN 7, 2018 “You are my Beloved” PR LABC

Last month, I came across a man,

standing on the corner of 102nd Ave and King George Blvd,

proclaiming the message of John the Baptist.

He had pamphlets in his hand,

and was wearing a poster-board over his chest and back,

with the words: “Repent. Jesus is coming!”

And when we crossed paths, I nodded at him and smiled,

showing him the clergy collar I was wearing that day.

And then he smiled back at me, and nodded his head.

At that moment, it seemed that we both understood

that we are interested in doing the same thing:

pointing to Jesus, and proclaiming the worthiness of the One

who has the power to give us our fresh starts in life.

Today is the Sunday in our church year that we celebrate

when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.

But it’s a bit of an odd time to do so.

Just a couple of weeks ago, we celebrated Jesus’ birth.

Last Sunday, Jesus was still a child,

brought by Mary and Joseph to be presented in the temple

and then blessed by the prophets Simeon and Anna.

And this Sunday, we jump to the moment when Jesus is a grown man, and about to begin his ministry.

But before Jesus embarks on his mission,

before he begins his ministry of teaching, healing,

and leading his followers to a fresh start in life,

Jesus is first baptized by his cousin, John the Baptist.

By the eccentric prophet who has been walking around

clothed only with some animal hide and hair,

eating only what the wilderness has provided him.

By the eccentric prophet who has been telling everyone to turn around, to turn to God, and to acknowledge that before God, we all sin.

Jesus, the Son of God, God in the flesh, gets baptized by this guy.

In our day and age, it is easy enough to dismiss

the voice of a wandering prophet like John the Baptist.

I don’t think we are all that keen in being told we are a bunch of sinners. Not exactly my favorite message to hear. Not sure about you.

We often dismiss people if we don’t like hearing the message they bring.

It would have been easy for me to dismiss the man

on the corner of 102Ave and King George Blvd. How often do we really take seriously the prophets we hear on street corners?

And I had to really think about not doing that.

I had to really think about not dehumanizing him,

seeing him as less than he truly is,

and accepting who he is and what he has to offer.

Accepting that we have a whole lot more in common than we don’t.

Accepting that God uses us both to point to Jesus.

The baptism of John the Baptist is not irrelevant for us.

Because it teaches us of our need to turn to God.

It teaches us to be humble.

It teaches us to recognize our common humanity.

That when it comes to sin-we are all the same.

We all are in need of repentance and forgiveness.

And when Jesus is baptized, he is affirming this too.

Jesus gets what God has been doing through John.

Jesus gets that John has been preparing the way for him,

showing people the difference of our own power and the power of God.

But Jesus is not too glorious to be humble. He is not above the baptism that we are all called to experience. But instead Jesus teaches us

the importance of true humility, and of knowing who we are,

of knowing we all need God.

And in the moment when John baptizes Jesus

with the waters of repentance,

the waters that Jesus humbly receives,

proclaiming his life is turned towards God,

the power of God shines through,

and a voice from heaven proclaims that God is turned toward Jesus.

In this moment, we learn who Jesus is:

the Father’s Beloved, and the Father is in love with him.

The Father is pleased with him.

This moment when Jesus is baptized, and God’s voice is heard

to proclaim who Jesus is, has particular meaning for us.

Because in this moment, God also prepares the way for us

to be washed in the waters of Christ Jesus that turn us toward God,

so that we can know that God is also turned towards us.

God prepares the way for usto be baptized

with the waters ofChristJesus,

for our lives to be turned around

by the gracious work of God’s Spirit moving within us.

And in the waters of Christ Jesus,we too hear God’s voice proclaiming:

“You are my Beloved child, with you I am well pleased.”

“You are my beloved.”

Yet these words have the power of grace to change our lives.

They have the power of grace to give us our fresh starts.

For the voice of God has the power to free us to live our lives

as beloved children of God.

The children that God is absolutely in love with.

Did you know that God is absolutely in love with you?

Because our sin does not stop God’s love from coming to us.

The waters of our baptism, without the work of God,

without the work of the Spirit, cannot possibly do much for us.

Oh certainly, they show us how much we want to turn around,

how sinful we are and how much we need God and God’s forgiveness.

But the difference between the baptism of John

and the baptism we receive in Christ Jesus,

is that the work of John is the work of humankind, the work of the will, the work that the will ultimately fail because on our own,

we are just not that powerful,

we are not that able to turn our lives around for the long haul.

Just try it. You’ll see.

We are all in need of God’s grace at work within us, for the long haul,

to be able to follow Jesus. To be turned towards God.

I think that John knew this—

that is why he knew Jesus was greater than him.

That is why he knew the baptism we receive from Jesus would come

with the Spirit’s gracious work in our lives to turn us to God,

over and over again,

because in Christ Jesus, God is turned to us too.

The work of the baptism we receive in Christ Jesus

is the work of God.

It is the work of the Spirit in our lives.

It is the work that we can all come and receive.

For it is the only work that is powerful enough

to truly give us our fresh start in life.

And that is why, in our church, in the Lutheran Church,

we don’t wait for the age

for someone to say that their will is powerful enough

to choose Jesus to be baptized. We don’t wait for the moment

when people think they are ready to give their lives to Jesus,

once and for all.

Because, we all can be found backsliding at one point or another,

even when we do think we are ready to commit our lives completely.

Welcome to being human. Only God is perfect.

Instead, in our church we encourage baptism before our small brains

are fully developed, because the truth of the matter is

that we are never able to fully comprehend

the mystery of God’s gracious work in our lives

even when our brains are fully developed.

And even when we think we have it all figured out, God is quite good

at showing us how much bigger and surprising and extravagant

the grace of Christ Jesus is.

And so in our church, we start with our humility. Of trusting more in God’s gifts of grace than we trust in our ability to earn grace.

We baptize infants. We baptize people of all ages.

We baptize people before they are able to memorize the creeds,

the ten commandments, the Lord’s prayer,

or say any Jesus prayer of repentance.

We baptize so that first and foremost, the words that we hear,

the words that we remember, are not our own words of repentance,

but the sweet words of God’s grace that proclaim to our ears:

“You are my Beloved child, with you I am well pleased.

You are my Beloved.”

Because how can God not be pleased with the work of his hand?

The voice of God that is heard at Jesus’ baptism is not just for Jesus.

It is for us.

Otherwise, there would have been no need for a dove,

no need for an audible voice, no need for something

to mark this moment for others to see and hear and understand.

Jesus already knew this. Him the Father and the Spirit were quite tight.

Jesus’ baptism isn’t just for Jesus. It is for us.

It is so that we know that through Jesus, we receive grace.

The grace of being called, being named, being accepted,

as God’s beloved children.

And the work of God is to tend to us as beloved children,

to guide us to live as beloved children,

and to open our eyes to see that we are surrounded

by God’s beloved children.

Following the way of Jesus, receiving the baptism of Jesus,

is about the right standing we have with God simply because

of the grace that we receive through Jesus Christ that proclaims

that God is pleased with us, even if we are never pleased with ourselves.

The grace that forgives us our sins,

even though we know that tomorrow, we will sin again.

For in Christ Jesus, we have a fresh start each and every day.

And so we can let go of our need to prove ourselves.

We can let go of our need to have others prove themselves.

Together, we can walk humbly with our God,

and trust that whatever God has to prove through us

will come through the gifts of grace at work in us.

I’ve been reading a book by Brene Brown this past week called:

“Braving the Wilderness.”

Brown is a renowned sociologist and spends her life observing people,

trying to understand our common humanity.

In her book, she recites the story, ‘Lousy World’ by Pema Chodron.

It goes like this:

“This lousy world, these lousy people, this lousy government,

this lousy everything…lousy weather…lousy blah, blah, blah.

We’re [all so angry]. It’s too hot in here. It’s too cold. I don’t like the smell.

The person in front is too tall and the person next to me is too fat.

That person is wearing perfume and I’m allergic to it…and just…ugh!

It’s like being barefooted and walking across blazing-hot sand

or across cut glass, or in a field with thorns.

Your feet are bare and you say, “This is just too hard. It’s really hurting, it’s terrible, it’s too sharp, it’s too painful…it’s too hot.”

But you have a great idea! You’re just going to cover everywhere you go with leather. And then it won’t hurt your feet anymore.

Spreading leather everywhere you go so you can cover the pain

is like saying, “I’m going to get rid of her and get rid of him. I’m going to get the temperature right, and I’m going to ban perfume in the world,

and then there will be nothing that bothers me anywhere.

I am going to get rid of everything that bothers me,

anywhere in the world, and then I will be a very happy, content person.”

Hmmmm.

And we can laugh about this, because it’s what we all do.

That is how we approach things. We think, if we could just get rid of everything or cover it with leather, our pain would go away.

Well, sure, because then it wouldn’t be cutting our feet anymore.

It’s just logical, isn’t it? But it doesn’t make any sense, really.

“But if you simply wrap the leather around your feet.”

In other words, if you put on shoes then you could walk across the boiling sand and the cut glass and the thorns, and it wouldn’t bother you.

Now, this story has so much to tell us about ourselves,

about our common sinful humanity, doesn’t it.

About how often we are in need of fresh starts.

About how often we forget that we are God’s beloved child,

and that we live in a world surrounded by God’s beloved children.

And that this entire world belongs to God.

I share this story today, because I think that in many ways,

although an imperfect analogy of baptism,

the baptism we receive in Christ Jesus,

is the work of God that gives us those leather shoes

so that our walk in life is eased by grace.

Because grace has a way of carrying us even when we live through painful, difficult, or even agitating experiences.

And when we are baptized in Christ Jesus,

we die to living our lives in the way we think is best,

and we rise to live our lives in the way that God thinks is best.

The work of God gives us the grace

to let go of our self-centered orientation in this life,

that seeks to get what we need from others,

that seeks to control the people or the world around us.

The baptism of Christ Jesus is the work of God

to receive God’s gracious orientation for our lives,

a way of life that is centered on God’s proclamation of who we all are,

of whose we are, of who we belong to,

and upon the activity of God to provide for all of our needs.

The activity of God to reveal to us what we truly need,

instead of trying to get what we don’t really need from others.

It is the work of God that reminds us to be humble.

To remember that we all sin and are all in need of turning toward God.

To remember that we all have more in common with each other

than not.

It is the continual work of God within us, softening our hearts,

so that we are willing to serve others, even when it is hard,

and to see each other as beloved children of God,

even when that is a challenge.

Teaching us not to dehumanize, not to dismiss,

but to embrace the eccentric, the difficult, the different,

and anyone else we forget that is also beloved by God.

Even if it is just ourselves.

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