This is my Child, the Beloved - 1/8/23

Sermon 20230108 "This Is My Child, the Beloved" (Matt 3:13-17)

I think that my favorite hour of the week is Wednesday 11:30-12:30, Bible study here at First. I particularly liked one activity that we did this past Wednesday. At the beginning of the session, I said that I wanted for each person to introduce to the group the person to their left in the following way: "This is God's beloved [blank] Pam or Pat or Jim or Don or whomever.” Quite frankly, I think that was my favorite moment of being here. People spoke their beloved-ness to one another. And I want to speak God's beloved-ness to each of you. You are beloved of God--just the way you are. You are beloved--just the way that you are.

This “beloved” voice is what that Jesus heard at his baptism. In this passage that we read just a few minutes ago, the adult Jesus makes his first appearance in the Gospel of Matthew. Earlier in the Gospel, the baby Jesus has been born. The wise men have come to see him. The evil King Herod attempts to kill him. His parents take him to Egypt, while children are massacred. And then when Herod is dead, Jesus and his parents settle in Nazareth. Years, even decades later, John the Baptist comes baptizing. He says, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (3:2). He also says, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming . . . He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (3:11).

So, then the one more powerful than John comes, Jesus. He comes from Galilee to John to be baptized. All the first three Gospels—the synoptic Gospels—have this scene of Jesus being baptized. Only Matthew, though, has the conversation between John and Jesus (3:14-15). John hesitates to baptize Jesus, but Jesus says that his baptism fulfills all righteousness, then John does it.

So, Jesus is baptized, and as he is coming up out of the water, three things happen: first, the heavens are opened to him, second, the Spirit of God descends on him like a dove, and third, a voice comes from heaven, which says: "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." It's interesting that the New Revised Standard Version, which is the pew Bible, capitalizes both "Son" and "Beloved." They are not capitalized in our oldest manuscripts of Mark. It would be better to say: in our oldest manuscripts, everything is capitalized, and there are no spaces!

God pronounces Jesus “Son” and “Beloved.” In Matthew, God says, "THIS is my Son . . ." while in Mark and John, God says, "You are my Son . . ."  (Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22). Who is God talking to? John the Baptist? He is the only one specifically mentioned, though one can assume that other people are around. But is God speaking for the reader's benefit? "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." This guy, Jesus the Messiah, son of David and Son of Abraham. Oh yeah, and son of God too. The one who at his baptism saw the heavens opened and God's spirit descending on him like a dove. This guy. He's God beloved child. God is pleased with him. The language is like that of Isaiah we read just a few moments ago. God delights in God’s servant. The Spirit is on him (Isa 42:1).

And you know what? The Spirit is on you too. And in you and around you. And God pronounces to others about you. "This is my Child, the Beloved, with them I am well pleased." Do you believe that? In your heart of hearts? Do you believe that you are beloved down to your toenails? Or is there part of you that you believe that God doesn't love? Is there something about you that God is ashamed of? Are you afraid that you are not beloved, that God does not love you? Maybe there is something that you’ve done or something that you are that makes you unlovable to God. There is not. There is not. God loves you. God loves you. You are God’s Beloved. God loves you, and God provides for you. What major city is nearby? Providence. Providence. As I said to church members this week, we live in Providence—big P and little p. We live in Providence. God provides. God provides. God loves.  

Often, though, we don’t believe that God provides, and God loves. We do not believe that we are the Beloved. I had two different conversations this week in which folks talked about how anxious and afraid people are. We are afraid. We are afraid that we might die of covid, that our loved ones might die, that our church might die. We are scared. We are anxious. It is normal in an interim for a church to feel anxious. And we as interim ministers talk often about how we are to provide a non-anxious presence, a non-anxious presence.

In one of my conversations this week, a church leader said that the anxiety here is beyond the normal anxiety. I would call it super-anxiety. What is the answer to super-anxiety? Super-love. First John says that perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). Super-anxiety, then, is countered by super-love. Or, to put it another way, Beloved-ness. Beloved-ness. You are God's beloved. Yes, you. No, no. I'm not talking about the person behind you. I'm talking about you. You are God's beloved. God even loves that super-anxiety that you have. God coats that super-anxiety with super-love. Super-love. Can you hear it? Can you feel it? God loves you! Just the way you are. Can you allow yourself to be baptized in that super-love? You are beloved.

One of the outstanding spiritual writers of the last century was a man named Henri Nouwen. He was a Dutch priest, but he spent most of his life in this country, at Harvard and Yale and Toronto, CN. I had the great privilege of attending a retreat with him in Washington, DC, not too long before he died, but he didn't realize that he only had a few years. But maybe he did because during the retreat Nouwen said that he was going to dedicate the rest of his life to reminding people that they are beloved. They are beloved. Nouwen wrote over forty books. One of his last books was entitled The Life of the Beloved (1992). In many ways, in this sermon, I am carrying on his ministry. You are beloved. 

What would it mean if you lived your life out of the knowledge that you are God's Beloved? I ask that question in the bulletin. How would you walk differently, talk differently, act differently? You are God's Beloved Child; God is pleased with you. Not because of anything that you've done. But because of who you are, but because of who God is. You are God's Beloved. That is the foundation of our identity? Who are you? Well, I'm a father, I'm a son, I'm a husband. But primarily, I am God's Beloved. And so are you! God loves each of us as if there were only one of us to love, so said the African theologian, Augustine (https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/saint_augustine_105351).

So you can love yourself. You can forgive yourself. Oh no, you might say, “I can't forgive myself. I did something terrible. If you really got to know me, you would realize that I am a miserable person.” Really? That's not what God told me about you. God said that God loves you, that you are God's Beloved. That's what God said. God said that you are Beloved--capital B. You are Beloved. Just like Jesus. Indeed, because of Jesus. By pronouncing Jesus Beloved, God pronounces all of us Beloved. God loves you. You are God's Beloved. God is pleased--well pleased--with you.

In Matthew, right after folks hear that "Beloved" voice, the Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tested by the devil, who says, "If you are the Son of God . . ." (4:1, 3, 6). Jesus probably thought, “What do you mean, ‘If . . .’? God has just said that I'm God's Son." When we hear the voice of the Beloved, another voice will often counter it. That voice says, “What do you mean Beloved. Are you serious? After what you've done and who you are?” But God said, "This is my Child, the Beloved, in whom I am well pleased." Believe it. Belove it! Be loved.

I have an assignment for you this week. You can take the professor out of the classroom, but you can't take the classroom out of the professor. So, here is your assignment: Each morning when you get up and go to the bathroom, look in the mirror, point to the image and say: "This is the Beloved, God's child, in whom God delights." And it’s true—no matter what you look like in the morning. Your hair may be going all which-a-way. You can laugh at that all you want, but it's true. This is God's beloved. And I don't care if you don't believe it. Fake it until you make it, they say in Alcoholics Anonymous. Fake being God's beloved until you feel like God's beloved.

I am part of two Bible study groups that meet on Wednesday. At noon I have my Baptist Bible study, and in the evening, I have my Quaker Bible study. It's Zoom, and we have people from all over the country. In the lesson for this past Wednesday there was the story of Tom Williams shared by Leigh Tolton. I will read it in full: "Our local NAACP leader, Tom Williams, is a good example of how to live in a way that avoids internalized oppression. Every time there is a problem, Tom focuses on the problem, not on the people making the problem or fueling the drama. Tom is coolheaded and seems to not let anything trigger him into being defensive or to push him to act in ways that are not likely to lead others to a better solution or to Christ. If asked why he approaches life this way, he just says, ‘I am a child of God.’ As believer, Tom knows that he is special, loved, sacred, and equal to others in the eyes of the Lord" (Illuminate: 1, 2 Corinthians, 1, 2 Thessalonians, Winter 2022-2023, p. 27). When I read that, I said I'm going to use that in my Sunday sermon as an illustration of someone who lives out of his Beloved-ness. "This is God's Child, the Beloved, in whom God is well pleased."

And all God’s Beloved people said, “Amen.”