Baptism of the Lord
January 22, 2016
Acts 10:34-43; Matthew 3:13-17
Or watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLcNjvoinwo
Or watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLcNjvoinwo
When I was little, my Grandpa had nicknames for all of us
grandkids. I’m the second oldest grandchild, and so I don’t know that the
tradition continued by the time the 17th grandbaby was born, but it
was there for at least the first ten of us or so. And, as the oldest granddaughter, my nickname was princess. Can
I tell you how special this made me feel? Grandpa called me ‘princess.’ The only other nickname I can remember was for the
next oldest granddaughter, who for a while he called ‘baby.’ Princess is way
better. Yet somewhere around when the number of grandchildren hit the double
digits, it was less and less common to hear our nicknames. You see, my
grandparents didn’t want to play favorites. And what happens when your
relatives play favorites? Your aunt goes to visit your one cousin way more than
she ever visits you. Your grandparents financially help out a different family member
but seem blind to your need. We were at a family reunion last weekend, which is
why I was out, and it wasn’t too bad, other than that my family of four kept a
low profile. It was my stepdad’s mom’s 90th birthday, and if anyone
other than my stepdad had been asked to make the arrangements, we wouldn’t have
been included. But when his mom told him to invite the whole family, my stepdad
included us stepkids as well. We went because it was important to him that we
go, but not everyone was really glad that we were there. Exclusion and
favoritism pit people against each other and that does not inspire us to love
each other.
We have another family reunion of sorts in our Gospel
this morning. Today we’re celebrating Baptism of the Lord and Jesus is baptized
by his cousin, John. John tries to exclude Jesus from baptism, saying no, I
should be baptized by you. But Jesus answers him, “Allow me to be baptized now.
This is necessary to fulfill what God requires.”[1]
And John agrees and baptizes Jesus. We read this passage every January as we go
through Jesus’ life and we take this Sunday as an opportunity to remember our
baptisms, remember when we joined God’s family, whether we actually remember it
or it’s more of an honorary remembering. In a bit, we’ll reaffirm our baptismal
covenant, reminding ourselves and each other what was promised at our baptism.
It’s a beautiful liturgy, remembering the covenant and how we’re all part of
God’s family.
Now, here’s the
thing about God’s family. Sometimes some of the members play favorites, just like
some of our relatives. However, God does
not play favorites. God does not favor one gender or one country or one
people over another. It’s kind of like that hymn we just sang, “This is my song,
O God of all the nations...”[2]
We are all God’s beloved and God loves all of us unconditionally and wants
abundant life for all of us. Originally, a long time ago, yeah, God favored
Israel. And the Old Testament is the story of the covenant between God and
Israel. Then God sent Jesus, because he loves the whole world. And you better
believe that God including people besides Israel was a big deal. That’s what at
least half the book of Acts is about, and here in the middle we have today’s
passage where Peter, the head apostle in the early Church, stands up and says, “I
truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who
fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”[3]
God does not show partiality, to Jew or non-Jew, to male or female, to slave or
free. That’s from Galatians 3:28, actually, and a New Testament professor of
mine who specialized in Paul believed that that summed up Paul’s whole Gospel.
We are all one in Christ Jesus. In today’s categories we might say that God
does not favor man or woman, American or not American, documented or
undocumented. God loves all of us and invites all of us to be part of his
family.
One of the things
I was complimented on in my Board of Ordained Ministry exam this past week was
what they called my “expansive view of God’s kingdom.” It rather surprised me.
United Methodist policy is an open table when we celebrate communion. We don’t
put any restrictions on it like other denominations do. Catholics have to be
Catholic and have recently gone to confession. In the Episcopal Church I grew
up in the Book of Common Prayer says that only “Baptized Christians are
invited.”[4]
Other churches you must be a member of that particular church. But we say that
God’s table is for everyone. Everyone is invited, everyone is welcome. And we
always have enough for all. The other vision I think we are always striving for
is the one from Revelation where John of Patmos says he sees people from every
tribe, language, and nation worshiping God together.[5]
And for me, that’s all of it: figuring out how to be church together. Figuring
out how to worship together the same God who loves us all even though we are
all different from each other.
We are all part of God’s
family. God loves us all, equally. God doesn’t have favorites among us. There
are disadvantages to that, because it’s always nice when you’re the favorite,
right? You get more attention, get more gifts, you feel more special. However,
your feeling special comes at the cost of someone else feeling less special,
someone else getting less attention, someone else feeling left out. And that’s
the advantage to God not playing favorites. God loves us all equally, that
means everyone is offered love. It means everyone is included. It means
everyone is welcome. It means not just that everyone is not just welcome, but
everyone is greeted with open arms and a warm hug. Not everyone accepts the
welcome, not everyone accepts God’s love, and that’s ok. The offer still
stands. It’s not a limited time deal. “In every nation anyone who fears God and
does what is right is acceptable to him.” May we also be found in that number.
Amen.
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