Being Beloved and Pleasing to God

1 Epiphany A January 8, 2023
Is.42:1-9 Ps. 89:20-29
Acts 10:34-38 Matt. 3:13-17

Lectionary Link

The baptism of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel sets some important elements about the baptismal life to which followers of Jesus are committed.

The report of a heavenly voice signifies a divine message for all to know and hear.  And what is that divine message?

Jesus is the beloved child of God, and God is well-pleased with him.

This encapsulated what I would call baptismal personal esteem.

You and I are children of men and women and as children we are lucky indeed if we have had parents who loved us and been pleased with us.  Such regard of parent for a child is foundational in the establishment of healthy personal esteem.

Not everyone has the continuous experience of parents who follow them like a helicopter providing words and acts of continuous affirmation.  We are do not alway live in affirming environments as individuals and as groups of people.   We have the world history and personal histories to indicate the situations of inhumanity in this world, in both horrific and petty ways.

But Jesus came to proclaim that inhumanity behavior is not and cannot be the norm.  The norm intended by our creator is the model of being a beloved child of God and being pleasing to a loving God.

God is love and to be God-like is to be loving and beloved.

This is the baptismal model of living provided in the model of Jesus.

We cannot reduce baptism to but a cute baby rite and birth celebration, although it can be both.  Baptism is the declaration that to live is to live beloved by God and pleasing in God's sight.

This is the high standard to which we are called.

Each person needs this esteem situation for good living.  We don't always live in affirming situations.  People who treat us well are not always with us.  This is why we need a sense of esteem supplied from a higher and an omnipresent source that can be carried with us wherever we go.  God is the lover who fills the fullness of all and is the perpetual source of esteem for anyone even when the situation does not seem so affirming.

The inhumanity stories which dominate our news crowd out the normalcy of the baptismal life of being God's children beloved and pleasing ones.  From our own experiences of inhumanity in the habits of cruelty, bias, bigotry, and hurt, we can become to think that inhumanity to each other is the norm.  We can begin to live as though we are constantly preparing for the next blow to our esteem.  We can be tempted to live defensively rather from the positivity of our baptismal esteem.

Each week we return to place of the altar and the font so that we can be reminded of our baptismal identities.  We need these regular and continuous renewal events to counter the tendency to live defensively against occasions of inhumanity and assaults upon human dignity and personal esteem.

Today, we gather to re-affirm our foundation in our baptismal identity, and we can hear the voice of God say to us: You are my beloved sons and daughters.  With you, I am well pleased.

And in hearing this renewing voice, we are also commissioned to go forth to promote the baptismal identity to all people.  In our lives the voice of God is to proclaim:  You are God's beloved children.  With you, God and we are well pleased.   Amen.