On the feast of the Baptism of Christ I reflect on our own Baptism and what that means for us. The text used is Matthew 3. 13-17
In our Gospel reading today we have a beautiful picture of the Trinity, here alone in Scripture do we see the Trinity in this way. The Son rising out of the water as the Spirit descends and the Father speaks. This moment is suffused with God’s presence, we can reach out and touch Jesus, we see the Spirit like a dove and we hear the Father speaking words of love of His Son. It’s one of those ‘wow’ moments of Scripture which I wish I could go back and see and hear for myself, it’s a real spectacle.
It’s not however a spectacle for the sake of spectacle, God doesn’t decide to put on a show because He felt like it. This moment is important. The Spirit descending is to empower Jesus for the temptation which will soon follow and, beyond that, His ministry. But those words of God ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased’, those words aren’t for Jesus. Jesus knows exactly who He is, He doesn’t need a quick self-confidence boost to get Him on His way. No, the voice is for those looking on, and by extension us. Without that declaration of who He is, without knowing the full picture, Jesus becomes just another person doing good, giving good moral guidance and helping those who are poor, outcast and sick. Without that declaration, that this is God’s Son, then Jesus becomes a good person who we should try to be like. Jesus did this or taught this, so it’s probably a good idea to do the same since He’s widely acknowledged to be a good bloke. But the second we know who it is who’s doing good. Who it is who’s doing these things, the whole picture changes. I wonder if you’ve ever seen the program Undercover Boss. I’ve occasionally caught an episode here and there and it’s pretty good. The basic premise is that the head of a large company goes undercover, in disguise, and joins the workforce as a new trainee to see what really happens, to get an inside look at the company from the ground. And then at the end they are revealed to those they have been working with for who they are and these people suddenly realise the true magnitude of what has been happening, you can practically see them skipping back in their mind over everything that has happened with fresh eyes. Occasionally the person working unknowingly with their boss will say unflattering things about the company or management, or reveal they don’t like working there, when the reveal happens those reactions are particularly interesting. But the thing they all have in common is that none of them would have behaved in the same way if they knew it was their boss they were with. God the Son doesn’t come to earth in disguise as Jesus to get a good look at what we are really like, He already knows that. No, He’s upfront about who He is right from the start at this moment. But who He is changes the impact of what He does. As the Son of God, Him healing people, spending time with the poor and oppressed, challenging the religious authorities, that’s no longer a good man doing good things, no, we’re seeing what God is like. How God reacts to the challenges and struggles of human life. God identifies with us, there’s no need for Him to be baptized by John, that baptism is for repentance and the forgiveness of sins, Jesus hasn’t done anything needing repentance. But still He does it, to identify with us, to truly come alongside us, not standing far off but coming close. None of that holds any weight without those words of the Father this morning. But putting those words back into the Gospels changes everything about them. This morning I wonder if you know who you are? Do you know the fundamental core of who you are? For those of us who know and love the Lord Jesus, we are the Sons and Daughters of God. Our lives are hidden with Christ in God. You are a beloved child of God, not because of anything you’ve done, but because of what He did. At our baptism we became the adopted children of God. Since most of us would have been baptized as babies it becomes clear very quickly that there was nothing we did in that, it was all God. That’s who you are through baptism, a child of God, whom God chose to adopt. Now there’s lots of talk about doing in the modern Church. We should do this, we need to do that, this is a good thing to do. I think there can be good motives behind this, we want to do good, we want to help those in need. But there’s also an element of panic involved too. If we don’t do something we will continue to decline, if we don’t do something no-one else is going to join our churches. Doing is perfectly fine, but it’s worth absolutely nothing if we don’t know who we are. If we don’t know who we are, and I mean really know it, right down to the core of our being, then we’ll just be good people doing good. We help the poor because it’s a virtuous thing to do, we recycle because it’s a good idea. But if we’re so busy doing these things that we don’t stop to realise who we are, if we skip over that part then it’s no different from anyone else doing those things. We are meant to stand out from the world, sometimes that will be through what we do, but always it will be because of who we are. Just as Jesus actions are proclaimed throughout time, not because of what He did but because of who He is, so our actions matter because of who we are. Once we recognize who we are, the beloved children of God, adopted brothers and sisters of Jesus, out from that our actions flow, out of that we act. We seek justice for the poor and oppressed because of heavenly Father is a God of justice, we care for the planet because it’s God’s good creation and He entrusted the stewardship of it to us. Then when we go out and do, when people ask us why we are doing it we can respond, because I’m the beloved child of God, and I’m learning from my Father how to live. Our actions matter, but who we are matters more. This week sit with this reality for a while, that you are the beloved child of God, adopted by Baptism into His family. Let it sink down into you and permeate who you are. I pray that it would change you, that when we act, and in whatever you do, it may be suffused with this truth, that the world may know the love and care of God through His children. Amen
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AuthorAn Anglican Curate in my 20's I was raised in an Anglican Church, went to a Youth Club run by an Evangelical Church, attended a Baptist Church while at Uni and was a member of a New Monastic Community after graduating. As such my faith has been influenced by these experiences and traditions into what I hope is a more rounded viewpoint. Archives
September 2022
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