Beloved

Scripture:  Isaiah 43:1-7, Psalm 29, Acts 8:14-17, Luke 3:15-22

I’d like to start today’s sermon with a few questions:  What does it feel like to be loved?  How do we know we’re loved?  Does it make a difference in our lives to know that someone loves us?  What does that difference look like, feel like?

Today’s gospel reading tells of a moment at the very beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry.  John the Baptist is by the Jordan River in the wilderness, doing his thing, haranguing the crowds about their sins and baptizing those who repent.   Among the crowds is Jesus, who comes to be baptized.  We’re told that when Jesus had been baptized and was praying, the heavens opened, and the Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove.  And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”

And Jesus knew.  Knew that God loved him.  Knew that God would be there for him, no matter what.  Knew that he would never be alone, because he was God’s son, the Beloved.  It was this knowledge, this connection, this trust that God would always be there for him, that sustained Jesus – through 40 days of temptation in the wilderness, through choosing the twelve disciples – knowing that one would betray him and that all of them would disappoint him and fail him – sustained Jesus through his travels to Jewish and Gentile towns, sustained Jesus as he taught and healed and fed, sustained Jesus through misunderstandings from the crowds and the disciples and opposition from the religious establishment – sustained Jesus all the way to the cross, and beyond that, to the resurrection.

The words from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased” were words from God the Father that gave Jesus his commission for ministry.   Words of love began Jesus’ ministry, and the love of God shaped Jesus’ ministry.   At the Transfiguration, just before Jesus began his journey to Jerusalem and the cross, these words were again repeated in the presence of Peter, James and John, the closest to Jesus of the disciples – “This is my Son, the Beloved, listen to him.” 

Think how different the ministry of Jesus could have been, had he heard different words from God at his baptism.  Think of the ministry of John the Baptist, for example.  John’s ministry was aimed at bringing people to repentance…..and he did this by pointing out peoples’ failings, by chastising them, even by threatening them.   “You brood of vipers….Who warned you to flee the coming destruction?”, John ranted.  From John the Baptist the crowds learned of God’s impending wrath.  From Jesus they learned of God’s undying love.  

“You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”  These words of God were heard by Jesus, and they shaped his ministry - but can we as followers of the Risen Christ hear them for ourselves?  Granted that we are not Jesus, granted that there is much in our lives that displeases God, but can we hear God’s words of love for ourselves?  Can we see ourselves as God’s beloved?  

The world tells us that our value as human beings has to do with what we’ve achieved – the importance of our job, the size of our home, the balance of our bank account.  But God loves us, just because we are, just because we exist.   No matter where our lives take us, no matter what others have done to us, no matter what mistakes we’ve made, God still loves us.   When we’re discouraged, tempted to think that our lives are meaningless and worthless – regardless what we think of ourselves, God still loves us.  Regardless of any of that, we are God’s beloved.  Remember these words of Isaiah: “But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.  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.”  And hear these words from Paul’s letter to the church at Rome:

“Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

“You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”  These words of God were heard by Jesus, and they shaped his ministry - but can we as followers of the Risen Christ hear them for ourselves, but  not only for ourselves, but for our neighbor?  When we are baptized, we become part of a larger community of those whose sinful nature was drowned in the waters of baptism.  We become members of the community of those whom God calls beloved, what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and others called “the beloved community” – a community called and formed and shaped by the sense of being loved by God, the community that reaches out with God’s love toward those around us.  If we know that we are beloved of God, and if we know our neighbor is beloved of God, that changes how we interact with our neighbor.  If our neighbor is going hungry, or living without heat in their home…or, worse yet, living on the street, we can’t just turn our back…because, like us, they are human beings created in God’s image, beloved of God.  And in the same way, when we’re going through difficult times, as baptized Christians, as members of the beloved community, we don’t have to go through them alone.  

As baptized Christians we are beloved of God, and members of the great community of all those around the world whom God has called beloved, now and through ages past.    No matter where our lives take us, may we always remember our baptismal identity - that we are children of God, disciples of  Christ, and members of Christ’s church.  No matter where our lives take us, may we always remember that we are God’s beloved. Amen.