Sermon for Baptism of Jesus
You are God’s beloved
By Sam LaDue - Seminarian at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary
Did you notice something about this excerpt, this week? Here, we’re listening to/reading Luke Chapter 3 verses 15-17, and then 21-22. What happened to 18-20?
If there is one thing and one thing I’m getting a grip on in seminary, it’s that finding the agenda of an author, or people doing the text selection, is of great importance. It helps you find the the salvation and the equality and the kingdom of already but not yet in the midst of what is otherwise---well, a lot of stuff put together by lots of folx with their own agendas for their own contexts and times that might not really be what we need here and now.
So, you wanna know what’s in those missing verses, 18 – 20?
This is what’s said:
“8 And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the Good News to them.
19 But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of his marriage to Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done, 20 Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison.”
Wait a minute. Uh, isn’t Jesus the one responsible for the Good News proclaiming? So, Let’s go back in here to Luke Chapter 3 again and get some more details. Do you know what John was telling people about, that was “Good News”? The core of the message is the same as what we heard in Isaiah:
Do not be afraid, I have called YOU by name. YOU are mine. I am with you when it’s hard. I am with you when it’s easy. YOU are precious in my sight. I LOVE YOU.
John says it a little differently, though. John (approximately) says: “YOU BROOD OF VIPERS WHY ARE YOU WASTING YOUR TIME ON THINGS THAT DON’T CUT IT! QUIT BEING JERKS TO EACH OTHER! YOU DON’T NEED ALL THIS EXCESS! JUST STEP AWAY FROM IT AND BE WHO YOU ARE!”
{Side Note: I like to think of this as a prime example of how our Bible recognizes that people are different, people’s psychologies are different, and different people need different words at different times to understand the heart of the matter: God loves you. You only need to be you. There are many ways to say it, aren’t there?}
So here’s John preaching the Good News. As we move forward in the story, we learn that these people think John might be the Messiah. But John interrupts them, and (approximately) says:
“NO! I am just giving you the easy starter pack stuff. Someone else is coming and that someone, they gonna get you with fire.“
Jesus is in this crowd, by the way. He’s right there with everyone else, hearing the rather prophetic Good News coming from John. And, he’s 30 years old.
We don’t know much of anything about who this Jesus guy was before he turned 30, and I’ll tell you that based on what I’m learning in school, it’s worthwhile to be somewhat skeptical and critical about what we’re told via the gospels. Which leaves me feeling perfectly comfortable imagining and narrating who Jesus might have been before this baptismal moment!
So, how about we imagine a 30-year-old guy from down the street. No real social honor-- he’s not married, he has no kids. He’s been around the ancient Israelite block a few times, seen some stuff. He’s there because he’s been wondering to himself: Is this all that life is? Is this all life has to offer? (I’m sure none of us can relate to these feelings, by the way).
Maybe he’s tired of cranking things out for The Roman Man, for what never seems to be enough pay. Maybe, this 30-year-old ancient Israelite named Jesus is fairly successful at cranking things out for The Roman Man but resents that his work doesn’t serve his broader fellow Israelite community, only helps rich people get more rich. Surely, there has to be more to this life.
And, I guarantee you Jesus already knows Isaiah’s words, too. Maybe for Jesus in this moment, life is a big letdown in the sense that supposedly everyone is beloved… yet, he’s not really feeling it, and is definitely not seeing it.
Maybe he sees that second century Israeli and Roman social structures are marketing lifestyle and ways of being that fundamentally convince people that they aren’t enough as they are, and that they need more-- more pretty fabrics, more tasty foods, more sparkly coins, more cushy pillows, more grain in the barns and more fruit on the vines—all to feel complete or fulfilled or successful. (Again, I know – this is really only a second century kind of problem. None of us can relate to this struggle or frustration.)
And maybe, while Jesus’ inner chatter is going away on this tangent, he gets shaken out of frustrated 30-year-old-man monologue with these words (approximately) from his cousin John:
“BY THE WAY LISTEN UP, I am not the messiah. The messiah will come and completely blow you away with spirit and burn you up with fire! All that will be left is the wheat! Chaff is going up in flames, people! Get.Yourselves.Ready.”
I like to imagine that 30 year old man, Jesus, heard those words and thought something like: “Fire? Chaff? This crap social structure? Sounds violent. Maybe productive. Does this have to be violent? Maybe not. Sounds like something I want to try.”
So what happens next? Well, Jesus, along with a big crowd, go and get wet. And, according to Luke, they then pray. And while praying, we are told that the Holy Spirit, in the form of a bird, shows up and the heavens open up, and the message given is:
“YOU are my beloved. With YOU I am well pleased”
What an epiphanic moment, right? Here’s this crowd of people with Jesus among them, on the brink of change in baptismal waters, and the Holy just showed up and told 30-year-old Jesus from down the street that he’s enough. He’s beloved. God is pleased with Jesus. Wow! He hasn’t even DONE anything, yet!
I wonder whether, in that moment, Jesus thought to himself “Woahhhhhh. What is in this water, man?”… ok. Back to the main point:
What do we, 2000 years later, have to take away from this wild epiphanic moment of identity claiming in this 30-year-old-man named Jesus?
Here’s what I see happening in the texts this weekend: I think if we stay focused on Jesus as a Son of God, as is presented to us in the Lectionary this Sunday, we lose the whole jewel given through this combination of texts, and the crowning piece of Luke’s message in this chapter.
The message Jesus got probably wasn’t a new message meant only for Jesus- though it is being portrayed that way in the way this story is presented. The reality is that the message has been there for eons. Isaiah reports it. Psalms say it. We are beloved. God formed us, the flame will not consume us, we aren’t the chaff. We’re the wheat, and we needn’t be afraid. God literally says “I love you” in Isaiah.
So, let’s recap one more time for a moment: Jesus, a human man at the age of 30, hears an epic speech from his cousin John and then, with a bunch of other people who are searching for something, enters water. He, along with everyone else, prays (a fancy word for reflects) and then is reminded of his identity in a personal epiphanic moment that is relayed to us via the author of this text. And, we get the impression that Jesus gets it to his core. “God.Loves.Me. Me! Jesus from down the road! I am a beloved child of God!”
You know what happens next in Luke? Luke goes on this genealogy quest, and he starts listing out patrilineal names of all the generations of people connected to Jesus. And where does Luke stop? Not at David, a royal king-type guy. No. He stops at:
Adam.
Our regular boy, ol’ Joe, Adam. That first human red-clay mud creature of Garden of Eden fame, who God put to sleep so that he could take half of his body and make Eve (the woman whose name means strong helper). So, what’s Luke saying here? Today, I see that in indirect ways, Luke is connecting all of us to Jesus and Jesus’ experience in this story of Baptism. Jesus, descended from Adam and Eve, is human and made in the image of God. Just like us.
And, like Jesus, we are a beloved child of God. God is well-pleased with us. We don’t have to be anything other than exactly who we are, God revels, rejoices, and is glorified when we step into our authentic identity, when we root ourselves in exactly who we are-- just like Jesus realized, and began to do in this epiphanic baptismal moment in the river with a whole mess of fellow humans.
Now, things get a little sticky. You see, remember that missing part of the text I brought up earlier? Verses 19 and 20. The part where John ends up locked up for criticizing the king?
Stepping into your identity dangerous. In fact, it’s playing with prophetic Holy Spirit fire. The world doesn’t want you to do it. If you really step into your identity, Child and Beloved of God, you’re going to be compelled to action. Intentional, fiery, chaff-burning action.
This is the kind of action that breaks up racism, the kind of stuff that tramples ableism, the kind of stuff that obliterates misogyny and breaks with sacred identities in favor of human dignity and care for the earth. This is the kind of action that spurs you to say “NO. I don’t need all this stuff being marketed to me, and I won’t support systems that force people to work without rest, and I don’t need to belittle myself or anyone else, nor do I need to try and live that perfect life that always comes at the expense of creation and fellow humans from around the globe.”
This is the kind of identity-spurred action that, 2000 years ago would get you locked up. That would get you crucified.
Focusing solely on a Jesus as an exclusive son of God, as displayed to a crowd, in an excerpted reading like this text as it’s composed in the lectionary today does, removes us from the equation. And that means it’s up to us to be critical and analytical and catch that the way things like this are built. If left as it is with no further inspection, we are easily removed from the responsibility of remembering who we are as children of God. BUT—there’s a nice remedy in here, too. Water. Common, communal Baptism.
Note that Jesus wasn’t baptized alone, and neither are we. We’re told through implication that Jesus was the only one who had a personal epiphany, but I’d argue that it’s likely everyone there had an epiphany regarding their identities in that baptismal moment. That’s why they were there to be baptized in the first place. These people were already on the brink of realizing something very important about themselves and their identity. Otherwise? They’re just weirdos rolling around in a muddy river with another weirdo who eats insects and wears itchy clothes. As cool as that might seem to us now (Wow! What rebels!) it wasn’t cool to do this. It was creepy and weird and cult-like.
But, together they did it. They entered the waters, and they entered their identity. And, together we can do it. Baptism is preparation for, and a reminder of, that epiphanic moment where we step into and realize our identity.
Every time we encounter water, every time we share that water with anyone else, it’s a reminder for who we are in a world that is constantly lying to us about who we are, what we need, and most importantly—trying to trick us out of our own personal power to bring the already but not yet (that’s fancy bible speak for heaven) into the here and now.
So, my fellow identified baptismal rebels in Christ who are compelled to action because you are reminded of and are regularly stepping into your identity as Beloved Child of God, I invite you to take on this mantra, and use it on yourself, and everyone you know:
YOU are God’s beloved. With YOU God is well-pleased. I love you.
Use it in the morning when you shower. Use it every time you drink some water. Use it every night when you wash up. Own that identity and let it give you the sacred power to take action and bring the already but not yet right into the world, here and now.
Sam LaDue
Seminarian - Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary
Berkeley, California
Sermon for:
January 9th, 2022
