The angels are wrapped once again in tissue along with the shepherds and their sheep.  The baby and the mother are all carefully put away. Even though we are still, officially, in the season of Epiphany.  . . . the Magi have been returned to storage and except  for those little bits of tinsel here and there in the carpet, Christmas is over.  We are back to work, back to normal, the bills roll in, and last year’s unfinished business begs our attention.

So it seems with our texts this morning.  Gone are the stars and the gentle stories from Luke. Gone is the soft night and angel song.

Abruptly, it seems, the baby taken to the temple last week for his circumcision is now a grown man, wandering out to the wilderness seeking out that rascal John, baptizing, we are told, and “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Folks were coming “from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him.” 

I have often wondered if it wasn’t just to see his wild outfit . . . or learn of his odd diet . . .

Why did they go to John? What was the draw of that strangely dressed man?

Those were hard times in the Jewish world. Occupied and near hopeless . . . it had been a period of drought in terms of prophets . . . they called it a time of exile from God . . . Spirit famine . . . no one seemed to be speaking truth to the people for a long, long time. There was a lack of leadership and the people felt abandoned by God in their hour of great need.

They were looking for hope in what must have seemed like a world gone mad. They were looking for salvation in a very real way. They weren’t interested in whether or not they were going to heaven. They were worried about how they were going to survive economically, politically, as God’s people in an occupied land, under corrupt economic systems.  Many had lost their homes, their land, and their ability to support their family. They probably thought they were being punished because they hadn’t been faithful to God’s teachings. That was, after all, what they had been taught.

In a meritocracy, those with means or those without means are in that situation because they deserve it. That hasn’t changed much, has it?

There were a lot of desperate people who sought out different kinds of solutions to their problems in that day and time. Because there were no clear leaders . . . other voices vied for the role. Nature hates a vacuum . . . especially where leadership and wisdom are concerned. Chaos is fertile ground for all kinds of easy answers and quack solutions. Who was it that said: “in times of uncertainty, the problem is not that people will not believe in anything. . . it is that they will believe in everything.”

 John the Baptist was not the only one on a soapbox offering hope. It’s important to know that. There were lots of voices crying in the wilderness and other places. Lots of cults and movements and messages.  Many, many choices. To whom does one listen? Who might have some truth? Some real hope? 

Jesus sought out John. Maybe because he was a cousin. Or more likely, Jesus heard something from John that resonated with him.

Others came for baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins . . .

I’m not sure we fully understand what they were after. But let’s try: the belief they held was that what was happening to them was because they had sinned, or their parents or grandparents had sinned. Blind? Leper? Crippled? Barren? Poor?  They believed God was punishing them for being unfaithful, for failing to keep the law to the letter. . .  and what can one do about the sins of ones parents? What can one do about any of those things over which we have no control? What, indeed, can one do when one makes a mistake, a wrong choice, sins? Is that it forever? Is that what defines a person? Is there no hope?

Of course they longed to be forgiven, because perhaps then God would lift the curse that had befallen them. It was not simply about feelings of guilt or remorse, as we speak of it today. They were hoping for a change. . . and John was talking about repentance, a turning,  and John was talking about forgiveness of sin. Amnesty. It was a radical concept because even forgiveness was had only at a price for the right offering, through the Temple. More of the corrupt financial system. John was outside the religious system of his day.  John was talking about repentance, a turning, a going a different way. If the way one is headed makes one miserable, there is good news in an opportunity to go a different way.  It’s not that hard to figure out why so many went to John, when we think about it.

But why did Jesus go out to John?   *   *   *

It is my belief that Jesus, being ‘born of woman’ – and fully human – also heard hope in a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

We can’t really know why he came. The early church clearly had some difficulty with it and had ways to explain it. I don’t always find those explanations helpful. I don’t always have the same agenda that the early church had.

But I do wonder if the circumstances of his birth may have marked him as a target in the school yard. Even if you follow the traditional story, he was born out of wedlock, and there had to be some shame around that. If you are willing to be open to other explanations then all kinds of things open up  * * For instance, some scholars believe Mary was raped.

In those days, of course, if a woman was raped, it was assumed that it was because she did something to ignite the flames of passion of a man who simply could not help himself. . . and it was the woman who was stoned. Her family might be the first to throw the stones, so shamed would they be by her sin.

Those same scholars think Joseph was an older man who took pity on the young woman and took her as his wife, sparing both her life and her reputation. Try reading the words of the Magnificat with that in mind:

 “My soul magnifies the Holy One, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for God has looked with favor on the lowliness of this servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is God’s name. God’s mercy is for those who fear God from generation to generation . . .”

At any rate . . . whatever the story was . . . whatever else went on between the presentation in the temple and his standing in the muddy water of the Jordan; I think Jesus had a wounded child within him. Not just from the circumstances surrounding his birth. .  But he lived in a shame-based society. And he was poor. And he was human. How could he not have a wounded child if he were fully human? We all have a wounded child. We all have a toddler inside with a furrowed brow who has been wounded by life and unkind words and misunderstandings and name-calling and at some level, that child has internalized self-hatred from a toxic surrounding. It is that child that allows us to be defined by those around us. To believe what others say about us, and it is that child who so easily has us ask, when things go amiss or slights are imagined: “What did I do wrong?”

I need to believe Jesus may have experienced some of the same things that other poor children experienced.

The reason I cling to that is because something happened in that baptism . . . something happened that he told others about. . Something happened that changed his life and focused his ministry . . . and inspired him.

This is what happened (according to scripture) as he was receiving a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins:

“And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my child, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”

I don’t think those words would have had an impact on Jesus unless he needed to hear that he belonged to God, and was dear to God.

This was Jesus’ epiphany.  This was a truth that changed his life forever, formed and focused his ministry: no matter what anyone else said or did, no matter what he himself may have thought, the truth was that he was a child of God, and he had a purpose in this world, and God was pleased with him. That truth is at the heart of Christianity. Everything else he would teach or preach, all his healings and lessons stemmed from this basic truth: he was a child of God, in whom God delighted and his life mattered. He had a job to do.

John Calvin said, (to the surprise of most of us,) ” If we want to know God, we must know ourselves.” That is just what happened that day on the banks of the Jordan river. Jesus learned that he could not be defined by the judgment of others, or even by his own self-judgment. The only judgment that was real, that was valid, that counted was God’s. God, who is love. Jesus came up out of the water and he sparkled with this inner wisdom about himself. God’s love would, for the rest of his life shine in him and through him. So powerfully, mind you, that not even death could dull that light. Even today, 2,000 years after his death, the love of God continues to shine through his teachings, and through those who embrace his teachings.

    To be a follower of Jesus, is to receive that same truth about ourselves, and to see that same truth in everyone we meet. . . to know that it is true of every human being: Child of God, in whom God delights, and one who has a purpose on earth. It is to allow God’s love shine in and through us.

    I think when the early church spoke of Jesus as being without sin, they were trying to say: he never forgot this truth. He never let anyone or anything else define him. He never forgot that God’s judgment was the only one that mattered.

    It is a transforming truth. I have seen it transform lives . . One life that it transformed was that of Brian George. Brian had attended the church in Texas where I served when he was an early teenager. The aunt and uncle with whom he lived dropped him off for Sunday School and church.  He was a very quiet and rather sullen teenager . . . and no one was able to really reach through the gloom, anger, and depression in which he was wrapped.  After a few years, he quit coming, and after a while, the aunt told us he was heavy into the drug scene and had moved out.  He was, she said, nothing but trouble from the day he was born. 

A couple of years went by. Then I received a phone call from the aunt. Brian had been arrested for murder. Higher than a kite, he and a buddy had killed their drug dealer and then killed a man to steal his truck.

Dreadful, stomach turning crimes. I went to see Brian, and continued to be with him during his incarceration and his trial. I sat behind him as we heard his mother tell the court that Brian was the product of a rape, that she was using drugs and drinking heavily, that she never wanted him, but didn’t have the sobriety to even get an abortion. She was living with a guy that physically and sexually assaulted Brian from the day she brought him home from the hospital. She later dumped him off with her sister because he interfered with her drugging and drinking. She would feel guilty ever so often and go take a small present to him and tell him she loved him. But she couldn’t really bring herself to love him. It made her angry to be around him. Then, she would disappear again. 

    As awful as that story was, it was freeing for Brian to hear it. During his incarceration, Brian had fallen under the care of a prison chaplain who partnered with me and members of the church to minister to Brian. Eventually, we witnessed an amazing transformation in Brian, who came to see forgiveness of his sins as not only forgiveness for what he had done, but what had been done to him. Brian was baptized behind bars. At his sentencing. . . he did not ask for mercy. He told the families of his victims that when he took the lives of their loved ones, he did not think life mattered. Because his life had no value, he did not value any life. Now, now he knew differently. He realized that he had taken something precious from them and he could never do anything to replace what he took and he knew they could never forgive him, and he wouldn’t ask them to, but he wanted them to know that he was sorry beyond words.

    Brian was given two life sentences, to be served one after another. He will never walk out of prison. But he’s okay with that. He is now a motivational speaker in prison. He speaks to young teenage boys and tells them his story. He says that he is a murderer. But that that is not the only truth about him. He believes himself to be a child of God, and he sees others as children of God. He tries to help other young men see their own worth, as well. He knows now, he says, that we are put here to love others. And he can do that in prison. We can do that anywhere, he says. And here I am, lifting up Brian as a man of faith. An example. A beloved child of God, with whom God is well pleased. God’s love shines in him and through him.

    Because on this day, the Baptism of the Savior, what I want you to know what Brian knows, what Jesus knew: the only truth about each of us that holds any water is this: you are a child of God, you are here to serve God and God takes great delight in you. 

    You are meant to shine! You are meant to let God’s love shine in you and through you to the world. You are meant to embrace this truth about yourself and share it with others. No matter what has happened to you, no matter what you have done in the past: you are a beloved child of God, here to serve God, and with whom God is well pleased.

    We share the table this morning because these two sacraments of the church are connected. This one, the engrafting. . . the joining with Christ in life and mission, the claiming our rightful place as children of God,  and this one: the nurturing food for the journey of deep community. In the font, we claim kinship with Christ, we claim this truth for ourselves. At the table, we claim it for the world. We offer ourselves to the world in service in God’s name. At this table, we celebrate a day that is surely coming when everyone will know that they are beloved children of God . . . and whose lives are laid down to spread that truth throughout the world. A day when the whole world will shine with God’s love.

    So, this morning, either before you come to the table, or before you go out into the world, I want you to touch this water in the font, and if, you’re  baptized, remember your baptism. If you are not baptized, touch this water and embrace this message: You are a beloved child of God, here to serve God, and with whom God is well pleased.  The water, like the table, has no fence around it! The truth cannot be so regulated! So touch this water and eat this bread and drink this wine in celebration.

Because God wants us all to go out into the world and shine!!