Following Christ Into Love

Mark 1: 4-11

Roger C. Lynn

January 14, 2018

(click here for the audio for this sermon)

(click here for the video for the whole worship service - the sermon begins at 19:45)

The baptism of Jesus is a fairly familiar story, and when we think about it, we tend to use a theological filter called “Jesus is special.” We use theological filters all the time, and the particular filters we choose make a big difference in how we understand the story. In the case of Jesus’ baptism, using the “Jesus is special” filter will likely lead us to see everything in the story as being uniquely connected to Jesus’ “specialness.” Perhaps even exclusively connected. We start seeing Jesus’ life as not really having anything in common with our lives. And that’s the moment when we run the risk of missing something important. Before we know it, we’ve allowed our filtered thinking to separate us from the very one we claim to be trying to follow.

The movie “Chocolat” is the story of a small French town where everyone is so concerned about being proper that they have lost sight of being alive. They are so religious that they aren’t very faithful. And then, through a series of encounters, confrontations and insights, they experience transformation. On Easter Sunday, the young priest stands in the pulpit and says, “I’m not sure what the theme of my homily today ought to be. Do I want to speak of the miracle . . . of our Lord’s divine transformation? Not really, no. I don’t want to talk about His divinity. I’d rather talk about His humanity. I mean, you know, how he lived his life here on Earth. His kindness. His tolerance. Listen, here’s what I think. I think we can’t go around . . . measuring our goodness by what we don’t do. By what we deny ourselves . . . what we resist and who we exclude. I think we’ve got to measure goodness . . . by what we embrace . . . what we create . . . and who we include.”

What I am struck by in the story of Jesus’ baptism is not his uniqueness (the ways he is not like us), but rather by the ways in which he is like us. He responds to John’s call for repentance, not as a turning away from something but as a turning towards God. He opens his life to the reality of God and in that open vulnerability finds an experience of blessing, of being loved and accepted. In Jesus’ experience I find hope for my own experience. In the echo of God’s blessing for Jesus, I hear God’s blessing for my life as well. I, too, am a blessed, cherished, loved, accepted child of God. It is a blessing for all of us – all seven and a half billion of us who share life on this planet. One of the things it means for me to say I am a follower of Christ is that I am seeking to follow where Christ leads – which is into the eternal and ever-present embrace of God’s love. 

Sometimes I think we try to read everything about Jesus’ story through our “Jesus is special” filters so that we can let ourselves off the hook. We see his life pointing us towards something powerful and challenging, and we say, “Well, sure, but he was Jesus, after all.” Then I don’t really have to follow, because I’m just me. But what if I can follow? What if to be most fully alive and fully myself I need to follow? What if God’s message, “You are my beloved child. With you I am well pleased” is, in fact, a message for each of us? What becomes possible then? Marianne Williamson puts it this way, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we subconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” (from "A Return to Love")

It is after Jesus experiences the blessing of God’s love that he is able to move out into the world with his ministry of sharing love and transformation with the world. Once he knew who he was he finds himself fully equipped to reach out beyond himself literally in God’s name. And so it is with us. God is speaking a blessing of love to you. Listen! Will you hear it? Will you believe it? Will you respond?