A
couple of Sundays ago at the Krum Church we did two fun things: 1) we
celebrated Epiphany (when the 3 wise men, kings, or magi – whatever you want to
call them – came to worship the Christ child) and 2) we started our new Sunday
schedule with two worship services (11am and 5pm). I came home Sunday night
intoxicated on a blend of joy, Holy Spirit, and exhaustion. It was magnificent.
Last
week was no less exciting as we launched into our new series – “from Water to
Glory.” As a liturgical, connectional church, we keep the Christian calendar. This
means that last Sunday was the time we were called to remember the Baptism of
the Lord. Jesus, who knew no sin, came to be baptized by his cousin, John, in
the river Jordan. And in that moment, as he came up from the water, the Spirit
appeared like a dove and the voice of God spoke, "You are my son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased" (Mark 1:11).
In the sacrament of
baptism, we are born anew by water and the Spirit (John 3:5). We are
water-washed and Spirit-born, brought into a special covenant as God’s grace is
poured out upon us.
As United Methodists, we
understand God to be the one who acts in baptism. Yes, we show up, we profess
our faith, we present our child, but ultimately baptism is something God does
with, for, and to us. As such, we don’t baptize someone more than once,
although we do take opportunities, like this Sunday, to remember our baptism
and be thankful.
Because I believe that
God speaks over each of us in our baptism and beyond, “You are my child, my
beloved; with you I am well-pleased.” Of course we feel inadequate, we may try
to quibble and say that those words only apply to Jesus. Most of those protests
come from the place of shame, because we don’t feel like we deserve for God to
feel that way about us. After all, unlike Jesus, we’re not perfect!
But hear this good news,
brothers and sisters – God loves you and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Whether or not you are ever baptized, God is just crazy about you, so much so
that God will keep calling you and calling you and calling you, like a suitor
who won’t take a hint. God wants a relationship with you!
Not because you did
anything to deserve it. None of us deserve it. But simply because God made you
for God’s self. You are God’s beloved child and God wants to be in your life
like any good parent does.
As much as I get
frustrated, tired, and otherwise less than good in my parenting relationship,
it’s been a place of unsurpassed divine revelation for me. When I look at my
boys, when I hold them in my arms, when I observe their wit, their curiosity,
their humor – my heart swells with love. And if my little old heart, puny and
human, can feel this depth of love, I can’t even begin to imagine what God feels
for each of us. God’s love is an ocean compared to my water drop.
We
make a covenant in our baptism and when we accept
God’s grace that we will grow by faith toward
perfection in love. Make sure you heard that correctly – perfection in love, not the world’s standards of
perfection which are all warped and tangled up with fame, wealth, success, etc.
God in Jesus Christ doesn’t promise those things. Being a follower of the
crucified and risen One doesn’t come with a lot of guarantees of worldly
comfort.
But
being perfected in love is a different story. It means letting your heart grow,
letting your love swell to encompass not just your family, your friends, your
tribe. If you let God really get ahold of you, you find yourself loving
strangers, enemies, those the world finds unlovely and unlovable. It’s an
uncomfortable spot, because when you love others, really love them despite
everything else about them save that they are God’s own child, you can’t treat
them the same way anymore.
That’s
the ground we’ll cover at the Krum Church these next few weeks. How do we grow
from the waters of baptism to the glory of resurrection? We’ll look to the
pioneer and perfecter of our faith as the trailblazer for our own journeys. May
we have the grace to let God work in us!
