February 18, 2024
Mark 1:4-15
Introduction
The Christian life is a journey. This journey begins with the Word who is with God and who is God—the Word through whom everything comes into being and without whom nothing comes into being; the Word who is life and light for all people. The journey continues as the Word comes to earth in the form of a tiny baby, wrapped in cloth and lying in a rough-hewn trough, surrounded by loving parents, sleepy livestock, terrified shepherds, and a host of angels. Our journey goes on as we watch that baby grow into a boy, who will one day scare the living daylights out of his parents when he decides to ditch them. Three days later, they find him teaching in the Temple. Later, that boy will become a young adult. We aren’t told much about that time in his life, but we know one day he will show up at a river and ask his cousin John to baptize him—an event that turns out to be a key point in our journey.
But let’s back up a bit. Let’s go back to that sweet little baby, whose name is Jesus. Luke tells us that Jesus “grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.” We are all familiar with this text, and admittedly I’ve always just thought its message was just part of the story, until I read a piece from one of my favorite contemporary theologians, Father Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest and author who runs the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. More than once, Rohr has written something that has stunned me into silence and invited me into a deeper sense of God’s presence. In a daily meditation entitled “God’s Self-Revelation,” Rohr explains how God reveals God’s self through Jesus Christ. Referencing Luke 2:40, he writes, “It is important to note that Jesus was not born fully mature… He fully entered into the human journey. Many want to imagine that Jesus lying in the manger knew everything from the beginning, which would make his faith a mere caricature, and he would not be the “pioneer and perfecter of our faith” as stated in Hebrews 12:2.
This made me think that I’m one of the “many” Rohr writes about, always assuming sweet little Jesus knows he is God, knows his ministry plan, and knows how his life on earth will play out. Of course, Jesus knows, right? But what if he doesn’t? What if Jesus, like the rest of us, has to learn he is God’s son? What if like us, Jesus has to become aware of his belovedness?
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Our text for today marks the first time we meet Jesus all grown up. Matthew and Luke describe his birth in great detail, and only Luke recounts any adolescent years, telling of the time when Jesus is twelve and, like many a preteen will do, ditches his parents, who search frantically until they find him in the Temple. Now, suddenly, we have fast-forwarded to Jesus in adulthood.
All four Gospels chronicle the story of Jesus’ baptism, and from them we can glean a variety of insights that can guide us in considering what it means to be God’s beloved, and what it means to discover beloved awareness.
Move 1
By the time of our text, John the Baptist has been baptizing people for a while. When religious leaders confront him, John explains he is baptizing people with water as a way of getting people ready for the Lamb of God, the Messiah, the one foretold by Hebrew prophets. He emphasizes the Messiah will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire and that people should prepare for his coming by repenting and turning their lives toward a closer walk with God. And we know John’s preaching is effective because people, including religious leaders, come out in droves to be baptized.
Then one day Jesus comes to John while “everyone was being baptized”, which means there is a crowd present and Jesus asks John to baptize him. But John protests saying he is unworthy to even untie Jesus’ sandals, much less baptize him. Still, Jesus insists it’s necessary “to fulfill all righteousness.” So John baptizes Jesus in the Jordan River, and as Jesus comes up out of the water, the heavens split, the Holy Spirit descends looking like a dove, and a voice says, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
Can we even begin to imagine what it would have been like to witness this scene? Clearly, it would have been awesome, in the truest sense of the word, but I wonder too would it also have been a little terrifying? Would we have even understood what was happening? And have we ever wondered what it must have been like for Jesus? God claims Jesus as God’s Son and calls him Beloved. How does this make Jesus feel?
We might assume Jesus was just Jesus about it because this was the plan. But when we understand Jesus as fully divine and fully human, this changes the “Jesus just being Jesus” notion. The plan was for Jesus to be fully human because God understood that for God’s fully human beloved, the fully human connection would serve us well. So sure, Jesus knew the plan, but this moment as fully human still likely had a mix of emotions—joy, surprise, bewilderment, confusion probably. But maybe to worry? Doubt? After all, it’s how all of us have responded when we heard we too are God’s beloved, and we too are part of God’s plan.
Move 2
The fully human perspective is crucial to understand—especially as we begin this season of Lent. It shows that Jesus, like us, needed time to process this news he is God’s beloved because our text tells us that as soon as Jesus hears he is the Beloved, “the Spirit forced Jesus out in the wilderness.”
We know this story, but do we know it is right here where Jesus experiences this tremendous, awesome, life changing blessing of “beloved awareness”? It’s right here where everything changes for Jesus, of Nazareth, the carpenter. Everything before, Mary, Joseph, Gabreil, the shepherds, a multitude of angels, Elizabeth, John leaping in her womb, no room in the inn, wise men from the east, Herod, fleeing to Egypt, ditching his parents, reading in the temple—everything brings Jesus to this moment of beloved awareness.
And immediately it sends him out to the desert where for forty days he is alone, fasting, praying, processing. He comes across wild animals. He is hungry and lonely and tired and dirty. And eventually he is confronted and tempted by Satan.
This wilderness experience immediately follows his “beloved awareness” tells us Jesus needed time to figure out what it means to be God’s Beloved. He needed time to question it, fight it, try it on for size, and maybe even dismiss it. He needs to spend time in wonder before he can own it. And after forty days in the wilderness, Jesus finally reaches a place where he can own his identity as God’s Beloved. And we know he does because the very next verses tell us Jesus goes into Galilee “announcing God’s good news … ‘Change your hearts and lives and trust this good news!’”
Jesus processing his beloved awareness is really good news because he shows us it’s a big deal—a proverbial game changer. I know this because I spent a lot of many years not believing I was God’s beloved. When I finally heard—and really understood —that God loves me and that God has a call for me, I needed time to process that message. And even then, the years of struggle, disbelief, anger, and baggage still did not disappear in an instant. I had to share my questions and doubts with God. I had to offer all the reasons I thought I was unloved and unlovable and listen for God’s response.
It took a long time, but gradually I began to believe, and live as someone who is beloved. Sometimes that went well, other days not so much. Little by little, I felt more beloved each day, until one day I knew, believed, and accepted that I am deeply loved by God, that I have a role in God’s plan of salvation—not as Savior because that job is already taken—but as messenger, as an ambassador to help others find their “beloved awareness.”
Move 3
As we begin this season of Lent, we start with becoming aware of our belovedness because we are God’s beloved, and we need to be reminded, again, God is willing to split open the heavens to declare that we are God’s beloved children. God wants us to know we bring God much joy and happiness. God wants us to remember God calls us to live as people who are beloved and share the Good News with other that they too are God’s beloved.
And it’s right to start becoming aware of this at the beginning of Lent because a beloved awareness doesn’t come easily. We are surrounded by media, cultural norms, and even religious talking heads who tell us we are not enough, or that we are too much of something. We are told we must earn love by being good or pretty or smart or wealthy; or that we are sinful and unworthy being claimed as children of God. But the season of Lent can help us hear again, and embrace the Good News that no matter who we are or what we have done—no matter what anyone thinks or says—we are beloved by God because God created us in God’s image. Which means, we reflect divine love. God created us for love. And God created us to be love. We are beloved.
As Henri Nouwen writes, “Being the Beloved expresses the core truth of our existence. Love is who we are. It is our truth. And nothing can erase that truth. And when we know this truth, and embody this truth, then we have “beloved awareness.”
Conclusion
Finding and accepting our “beloved awareness” is going to require time to wonder, to ponder, to struggle with before we can own this core truth of our existence. It won’t come quickly or all at once. But that’s okay. Jesus needed time to figure it out too. And the time he took became the model for the season of Lent. Forty days of wilderness wandering. Forty days of prayer, questions, worry, doubt, and even temptations. But who was present with him the entire time? The one who split open the heavens and declared him beloved from the beginning.
And just as God guided Jesus, God will guide us to our own “beloved awareness.” Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, February 18, 2024
Beloved God, in the stillness of these moments, we remember with thanksgiving the times in our lives when your love enabled us to rise to our better selves. We thank you for the gift of your Son, who came so that we might know what perfect love looks like.
And yet we remember, too, when we have acted in anger rather than in love; we recall with remorse when our patience has been less than perfect and our behavior has been childish and surly.
Forgive us for the occasions when we have loved things and used people and when we have failed to make love a priority. Forgive us O God by pouring over us again the blessings of our baptisms, rising us up to hear how we too are your beloved, instilling us with a renewed spirit that has been made ready to go forth and share Good News.
And as we go forth to share, help us to be intentional in the way we interact with one another, so there can be no doubt as to whom we serve.
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God of new life, as we begin the season of Lent, help us focus on what this time is all about, and what it is intended for us to do. Remind us of the wilderness Jesus himself went into, where he was tempted to turn away from you. Remind us how he refused to give in and remained faithful to you alone.
We are far from perfect like Jesus, but the season of Lent implores us to walk in his ways, to face that which seeks to steal us away from you and take back control through our commitment to draw closer to you. We know how to do this. We need only to remember we are your beloved, and you are always there to help us succeed.
So may that be what you help us do—succeed at embracing our belovedness, and then sharing your Good News with all your beloved children.
Hear now the prayers of our hearts as offer them in this time of Holy Silence.
All this we pray in the name of Christ Jesus who taught us to pray, saying, “Our…”