The Baptism of Jesus Year C January 10, 2016
Luther Memorial Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie Guengerich Hutson
Isaiah 43: 1-7 + Psalm 29 + Acts 8: 14-17 + Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22
O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
When Angela was four years old her family moved from their apartment in the city to a home out in the suburbs. There were many new experiences for Angela and her parents wih this move; one of those was that just down the block was a neighborhood pool. When the weather turned warm and summer days lengthened the children would flock to the pool. Their parents or care givers would join them and it soon became a place where Angela and her parents formed many new friendships.
For the first two summers, Angela felt fairly safe trading time between the wading pool designed for toddlers and the shallow end of the “big pool.” As long as she stuck fairly close to the steps and the handrails it wasn’t really noticeable that she couldn’t swim AND that, in fact, she had a bit of fear and trepidation around the idea of moving into the depths where her feet could not touch the bottom.
After a couple of summers, though, her friends started leaving her there on the steps as they swam out into the dreaded deep end, playing games like “Marco Polo” and doing cannonballs off of the diving board. Angela’s mother noticed this, too, and before long Angela found herself at the pool after the open swim session ended, with children younger than herself, a reluctant student in swimming lessons.
Angela never figured out whether it was because she was older than the other students or whether it was just the methods the teacher used, but after some basic practice taking a deep breath, then blowing out bubbles before resurfacing, Angela’s teacher lifted her up and before she knew it she was tossed through the air right into the deep end of the pool. Time seemed to revert to slow motion as she flew through the air. Around her she could see the faces of the other students and the parents and the lifeguards. The blue of the water came up to meet her and with absolutely no form whatsoever she hit the water with a splash and found herself in a situation where not only did her feet not touch the bottom, she wasn’t sure where the bottom actually was.
Angela’s story reminds us of life in some days and seasons. Very often it feels much more comfortable, sometimes downright comforting, to sit on the steps in the shallow end and splash around where our feet can touch the bottom and the hand rails are close by.
To walk in the world as the people of God, as the baptized children of God, though, requires that we are willing to venture out into the deep….into the places where we may feel that we are in over our heads. It may be that we determine that God is requiring something from us that we had not anticipated. That’s how God most often works, at least in my experience. God often calls us to new ventures that are beyond our imagining and seem fraught with unknown perils. This is such a common experience of God, in fact, that there is a beloved prayer written around it. It is the prayer I used to begin this sermon today and if you are searching for it, it’s in our red hymnals, in the liturgies for Morning and Evening Prayer. O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Ventures of which we cannot see the ending…
Perils unknown…
Imagine the person called into a new vocation…..maybe a new job or a job that wasn’t what they had anticipated….a venture of which they cannot see the ending…
Or imagine the person with a new diagnosis….complete with all of the unknown perils of treatment and recovery…
Or imagine new parents who have that stunning realization that often happens the moment they arrive at home with the new bundle of joy that life will never be the same….ventures of which we cannot see the ending…
Or imagine the depth of courage it takes for a person to say to their family and loved ones….I am gay; I am queer; I am trans….perils unknown as they hold their breath to see if the love really is unconditional.
Of course, we do not have to imagine. We live in these places and spaces. Life is comprised of exactly these things….ventures of which we cannot see the ending and perils unknown.
This may seem a daunting truth, a stark reminder, especially on a day when we remember the baptism of Jesus and when we will gather at this font to baptize Kaiya Irene. Yet, the reality is that baptism is God’s answer to those unknown perils and unexpected ventures. It is in the waters of baptism that God reaches out to us and calls us God’s Beloveds.
The gift is that our belovedness is not bound up in anything about us. Whether we are young or old; whether we struggle through this life or whether we manage the challenges with ease; whether we are male or female; black or white; gay or straight; conservative or liberal; rich or poor; educated or simple. We are beloved because God has named us beloved. No one and nothing can take that from us.
Consider the plight of the Israelites in our first reading today….they were slaves in Babylon…they were described just a few chapters later in Isaiah as deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, and a slave of the rulers. And yet, God’s promises to them are deep and true: “But now, thus says the LORD, the One who created you, O Jacob, the One who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you, I give people in return for you, nations in exchange for your life.”[1]
The Israelites, time after time, found themselves opposed to God’s will. Time after time they did what God had commanded them NOT to do. Time after time they took the easy way, where the ventures were not unknown and the paths were not untrodden and there seemed safety rather than peril.
And God loved them. God proclaimed over and over again God’s faithfulness to God’s beloved people.
This is also true for us. That no matter how we may wander…no matter how we may choose our own way over God’s way….no matter how we may prefer to sit on the steps in the shallow end where our feet can be firmly planted in what we imagine to be safe….God beckons us…God calls us and sends us and promises never to leave us.
Baptism is the outward sign of God’s presence with us. It is a holy bath. It’s hard to ignore water. Just ask Angela….who we last heard of soaring toward the water in the deep end….do you remember what she saw in that slow motion sail toward the splash? She saw the faces of her fellow students and their parents and her parents. She saw her community. Who would certainly be there for her if needed, if the waters threatened to overwhelm her.
This is why we baptize in community. So that Kaiya and her parents and Godparents can look out at our faces and know that we are watching with her as the waters that cleanse and claim her pour out upon her…that we are hearing with her God’s promise that she is God’s beloved and we are remembering that we too are God’s beloved .And we are hearing God promise to always be with her and we are remembering that God promises to be with us always.
Because we are precious in God’s sight, honored, and beloved.
This is the good news for this and every day.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
[1] Isaiah 43: 1-4