Tuesday, January 24, 2017

God Doesn’t Play Favorites

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

            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.




[1] Matthew 3:15
[2] “This Is My Song,” UMH 437
[3] Acts 10:34-35
[4] Or I might be wrong about this. When I went back to BCP to add the footnote before posting to my blog, I couldn’t find it. Can anyone familiar with it help me out?
[5] Revelation 7:9-10

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