Baptism Of Our Lord Sunday: “…and was praying!”
Psalm 29, Isaiah 43: 1-7  Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22
January 10, 2010

"You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you."
When was the last time you felt precious?  Honored?  Someone said to you, "I love you."?  God is saying it to you....this morning, right now, every right now.  In the more wondrous moments of being alive, we easily feel it....the feeling of being loved.  But are we likely to feel it in the "chaff" moments of life....when waters overwhelm, fire surrounds, details pile up, self-doubt and pity set in, peer pressure pressures us, materialism judges us, family betrays us, church upsets us?

"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."

In Luke, water and fire represent the power given each one of us to change our lives.....power! God's fire (vs. the world’s fire) is cleansing, full of passion and freedom from what has been binding you, holding you down, holding you in place.  It is not the fire of "trial by fire" in which you get burned.  It is more "being on fire" with the knowledge that you are precious, honored, and God loves you.   You are precious, honored, and loved.

How would your day be different if each morning as you arose, you more than heard these words...you believed them...believed God means them.....God willing to do anything in order to convince you that they are deeply true.....even take on the world for you.....even die to for you to make the point once and for all to you: it doesn't have to be this way!  Say no! to life that burns, corrupts, empties.  Say yes! to life that restores, renews, fills.

The baptism of Jesus is at the beginning of a story of unimaginable love.  God is with us as we immerse ourselves in prayers and there for us as we turn toward God to live our lives.

The psalmist knew.  Life is indeed tough.   And God’s voice shatters all the delusions we create that we have control over our destinies….life happens.  And even in real life, God breaks through.  But do we cry out loud in awe:  Glory!?  We shall pass through times that are like the mountains, the rivers, the cedars, storms.  Listen to the voice of wisdom to pass safely through such times of trouble. 

God’s voice is breaking in.  Will you give it your attention?  What gets your attention?  Listen….do you hear God better in silence or in thunder? 

I know you know I know you know…..You have to enter the waters to emerge from them.   Just like Jesus, through the waters of chaos we descend and, if like him in spirit, we will rise up and be as a servant of God.  Compassionate.  Involved.  Generous in all the ways one can be!  …including how you think about others….and about yourself! 

Beloved.  In whom God delights!  Are these words we dare to speak to ourselves let alone each other?  Are we so afraid of the language of love that we soften the affirmation each of us needs to hear?

I want you to know:  I love you!  I really do!!  Even the ones of you I don’t like all that much…and the ones who don’t like me…especially these ones!  I love you!  Yes, I do because you hold truth for me.  And it takes all the truth I can/we can assemble and piece together to make a life that has more wheat than chaff in it!!  I can learn so much about me from you!  And, I love that about you!  And I do need you to affirm my growth around this…and everything else!  ….as I also affirm your growth.

It is not enough to get near the water, to just step into the river, and let someone else baptize you.  You have to step in, be baptized, and walk away….in prayer…ready to change your ways.  (Wise Ones know you have to leave by a different way.  Remember?)

Can you hear God’s voice calling you away this morning?

Even if the voice of God isn’t George Burns, Morgan Freeman, or Bill Cosby…what does the voice of God say to you, O Beloved, Delightful, Glorious One?

Let your Baptism help you hear God and live God.  Renew your baptism.....for it is not a one time occurrence in life but a continue flow of God's grace into our lives. 

God's spirit anoints you with waters that cleanse and soothe and revive.  God's fire does not consume, but burns away what is "chaff" in your life...if...if...you mark yourself as baptized.....live as if you are continually given new baptismal starts in life through God's grace....if you live out of your baptism. 

It take more than just the ritual of baptism....it takes on going relationship with God....prayer, and relationship with believers to sustain the gift of grace in our lives.  The invitation is there.  The ritual is ours.  The power of possibility is clear.  Will you live your baptism?

Do you live a life of water and spirit and cleansing fire?  Do you name the chaff and let it drop away from you to be burned away?  Or do you cling to it?  After all, its' familiar, easier than changing, a great excuse to stay miserable.

What is the chaff of your life?  What is it you want cleansed?  What is the passion, the fire, you desire?

God longs to free you.  God will burn the chaff away as you are continually baptized.....if you let yourself be....if you live prayerfully....that is aware of God' possibilities for you....if you are willing to be set free.

"You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you."

These are God's words for us....for you.

"You are my child, the Beloved, with you I am delighted."

Whatever else the baptism of Jesus was, it was not an ending, but a beginning.  The words of encouragement and of affirmation are needed to sustain Jesus…. His relationship with God was enough to sustain him through all the waters and fires of His life.  It was enough for Jesus, is it enough for us?  For you?  God says all things are possible...please Beloved Ones, let them be.