Behold and Become the Beloved

 

Blessed be God who animates our lives and marks us as Christ’s own forever, God’s beloveds and  Kingdom bearers. AMEN

You may have recognized the prelude which Jon played this morning; you may have noticed a tear falling. Hardly a sermon goes by when I don’t think about the words to the Hymn: I love to tell the story of Jesus and His love. We all have such stories, some biblical retellings and some contemporary adaptations. Whatever the story of Jesus and His love, they seem to illuminate the grace even in darkness and despair. One of mine goes as follows: 

Almost exactly 23 years ago to the day, on a dark and stormy winter afternoon at St Christopher’s in Gladwyn PA, I received most difficult news. After a year of interviews and psychoanalysis and being told my ordination made so much sense, suddenly the rug was pulled out and with no explanation I was told no ordination, no second chances. 

That evening was a baptism of sorts for me…there was water everywhere. Teeming rain outside; and heart water gushing inside. As I walked into that dark night, blasted by slanting sharp rain, I received what can only be described as palpable grace in the form of a voice which assured me: Remember you are my beloved.

Needless to say this day, the Baptism of our Lord, and those words spoken by God to his son, ground my priesthood. The other cornerstone for me has been the Eucharist. Looking into people’s eyes when they receive sacred nourishment for the journey is also grace upon grace. 

And so it baptism and eucharist, belovedness and holy nourishment, which provide the context for today’s sermon. I want to place two phrases in front of you this morning and hopefully weave them together in this homily. Serendipitously, these phrases accompany the Baptism of the Lord and the Eucharist, the two primary sacraments of our faith.

Accordingly, I feel that they frame not only our special worship today but cause even everyday experiences to glisten with hope and grace.

The first is “ This is my Son, the Beloved, in whom I am well pleased”, these are the words spoken from the Holiness in the clouds to Jesus upon baptism.  I am suggesting that we too might hear from God: “you are my beloved, in you I am well pleased”…as I did…

This is the blessed assurance which we all receive from the Living Triune God.

The second phrase coined by St Augustine to describe what happens at the Eucharist is “behold who you are, become what you receive”. This is the divine transformation experience of communing with consecrated bread and wine.

These are alternative words of institution at communion which might accompany any sacramental moment in which invisible grace is revealed. It honors the divine transformational experience of receiving grace upon grace.

The reason I offer these two statements together this day is that while both are holy and in many ways define the sacred, they are also intended for us, not just for Jesus. They are not mere descriptors of the Holy One and his experiences on earth.  They are intended to penetrate our souls and for us to ponder as Mary pondered the wonder in her womb.

If you remember nothing else this day, please remember this:  You are the beloved in whom God is well pleased and you are Becoming that which you receive, amazing grace. All of this is made possible by beholding and remembering.

Today we celebrate the Baptism of our Lord.

The vestments are white, symbolizing a most important moment in the church calendar, a holy sacramental rite.

It might be of interest to you that in the early church, this day was considered more important than Christmas, more important than the day of Jesus’ birth.

It is not that the Incarnation was not of utmost significance; it was that the early church celebrated what the Incarnation, the enfleshment of divinity, signified, not just that it occurred. For those of us attempting to honor the birth, death and resurrection of the Christ we might not lose sight of what the time on earth intended for our lives and what we were called to be…to be…in and with this Light come into the world.

Consequently, the primary celebrations of the early church were Epiphany, The Baptism of our Lord and The Wedding at Cana. This makes some sense to me. 

The Epiphany was the calling of all to the Light, the obedience to follow the guiding Star. The Baptism of our Lord was the indication that even our Lord is dipped in holy living waters, his humanness ultimately merged with his Divinity and made known to all in a new forgiveness and humility. And the Wedding at Cana causes us to witness to the possibility, not the certainty, of miracles, our earthly common ordinary expectations turned upside down and inside out, by Saving Grace come on earth.

Taken together,  I believe that we are meant to not simply observe and record these as events in history, we are meant to let the message get into our bones. We are intended to become, to become, the people of the way and the truth and the light. We are intended to imitate and reflect the power and majesty of this Light of Christ. We are sent out into the world having witnessed, to be the hands the feet the eyes the ears the heart of Jesus Christ.

That is God’s mission in action…

It is my hope then that in reaffirming our Baptismal Covenant we not only go deeper into the Mystery of it all, but that we also increase our awareness of the response ability of it all. And accepting that responsibility is what makes us disciples. We do so when we reaffirm our baptismal covenant. This is our identity.

Reaffirming calls us to remember, re member, as does beholding.To be transformed and reassembled as Christ’s own. Memory is a dynamic process; a then coming into a now which affects the future. Memory is a powerful transformational tool.

We remember and are remembered then by the sacred stories. On that dismal evening 23 years ago became someone new, i began to live under the unchangeable immutable blessing of belovedness. 

Our sacred story of baptism and eucharist, belonging and becoming, re-members us into the beloveds, being sanctified in the cosmic dynamic process of divine love.

We live and move and have our being under this infinite blessing; all our brokenness, all our grief, all our sorrow is drenched in love and grace.

perhaps then you might understand why I love to tell the story of unseen things above, of Jesus and his glory, of jesus and his love

I love to tell the story because I know tis true

it satisfies my longings like nothing else will do

I love to tell the story

will be my theme in glory to tell the old old story

of Jesus and his love

We too have a sacred story to tell which will illuminate our futures and inspire our journeys…

As I depart it is not mere serendipity that this final service is one of baptismal reaffirmation. It is nearly where we began together in January of 2019. It defined our time together. I would like to think that we became and are becoming a community of faith who embody the principles we recite.

And then during the pandemics when we could not physically gather around the font we nevertheless found ways to remember our covenant and to embody our call.

We have lived more deeply into our belovedness by worshipping and caring for each other. We have shared communion, funerals and baptisms together. We have been what Church was intended to be. 

As such the meaning of days like today and any sacramental gesture is in not so much what baptism does to us or whether we are “doing” it right; it is in who we are and who we are becoming because of it.

All our memories, personal, communal and scriptural, are collected in this moment not as locations but as inspiration for the future, the journey.

So who are we? 

We are the beloved children of God

We are Kingdom Bearers.

We are respecters of the dignity of all creation

We are strivers for justice

We are prayers and singers and music makers 

We are givers and carers

We are feeders and healers

And…

We are becoming the love and the hope we receive in our beholding of the Kingdom on earth.

We are to live into this eternal blessing.

We are to behold who we are: the beloved children of God

We are to become that which we receive: grace upon grace

I invite you to tell the story

May you love doing so 

And in so doing…

May you know today that you…each and everyone of you…are the beloved.

May you behold who you are and become what you receive.

And may you go out into the world letting others know of their belovedness in the multiple ways Jesus taught us, binding up, welcoming, offering kindness and mercy. 

God loves you and I love you and nothing…no thing will change that.