We Are God’s Beloved – Luke 3:15-16,21-22, Sunday, January 12, 2025

Apart from Christmas and Easter, one of the most illustrated events in Jesus’ life is his baptism. We can see in our mind’s eye the portrait of Jesus standing in the Jordan River with John the Baptist standing nearby with a seashell in his right hand pouring water over Jesus’ head, or immersing him in the water. Jesus also has a halo, and a dove is descending from heaven over him in a ray of light.

Many people were baptized by John, but the person we can visualize in this picture is no ordinary person. You can almost hear God’s voice saying, "You are my beloved Son. With you, I am well pleased."

If we’ve been baptized into Christ, what the Father spoke to Jesus that day, he speaks to us. Each of us is his beloved sons and daughters.

The term ‘son’ or ‘daughter’ give us an identity. Think of when you were younger and introduced to someone by one of your parents. “This is my son. This is my daughter” – usually said with a smile on their face. Maybe at some time when you have introduced your grandchildren or a nephew or niece, you have said, "This is so and so’s son or daughter". This helps the person figure out where your grandchild or nephew or niece fit into the family. It leaves little doubt who they are.

When Jesus walked out of the water of the Jordan, the dove and the voice from heaven left no doubt who Jesus was. This ordinary looking fella from Nazareth is not just the son of Mary and Joseph, but he is God – God's own Son, sent to this earth with a very special mission.

At our baptism, we were given a new identity as sons and daughters of God. As such, God will always support us when life’s problems are too much to bear. He will lift us up when we are down, and give us his never-ending love even when we least deserve it.

Baptism is a Sacrament of Initiation. Unlike other initiations (to join a club or fraternity or a sporting team), God graciously accepts us without merit – no tests to take, no fee to be paid, no fear of being cut.

With his baptism, Jesus was given a special ministry. In Isiah, God says, "Here is my servant, the one I have chosen." Note the use of the word "servant". That seems a bit of a contradiction – on the one hand to call him a son and then on the other a servant.

That’s what God does though. He calls him son to describe who he is and a servant to describe what he will do, the special work into which he had been baptized. Already in the waters of the Jordan, Jesus takes on a humble, self-effacing attitude as he comes to John to be baptized.

At the same time as we were made sons and daughters, we were also made servants. In times past, servants were often branded on their foreheads – it told others who their owner was. In the sacrament of baptism, we were branded with the cross on our foreheads and bodies. We are enlisted as God’s servants called to carry out his will.

St Paul says in Ephesians, "Since you are God's dear children, you must try to be like him. Your life must be controlled by love, just as Christ loved us and gave his life for us". What could be clearer – God has chosen us to be his sons and daughters in our world. He has given us a responsibility to be his servants and to be servants of others.

There is a story that has been told of a 10 year-old boy named Cameron, who walked into the pastor’s office one day. Fresh from soccer practice, and still wearing his soccer gear, he had a request. He said, "I'd like to be baptized.” "While we were learning about Jesus' baptism in CCD today, I found out that I’m the only one in my class that hasn’t been baptized. And I want to be baptized too."

"Cameron” the pastor asked, “Do you want to be baptized just because everyone else is?" The boy kinda wrinkled up his freckled nose and replied, "No. I want to be baptized because it means I belong to God."

The pastor raised his eyebrows and was touched by his understanding. "Well, then," he said, "How about I talk to your parents and we start the process for us to make that happen? And someday, we’ll be able to have a ceremony over at church with you, your mom and dad, your godparents, and anyone else that your parents want to invite."

The boy’s smile turned to concern, and he asked, "Do I have to be baptized in front of all those people in the church? Can't I just have a friend baptize me in private? After all, Jesus was baptized by his cousin?"

"You have a point," the pastor responded. "But, if a friend baptized you, and no one else knew about it, how would people know you were baptized?" The pastor at that point thought that he was capitalizing on a teachable moment, but the young boy’s response taught him a little something too. The boy said, “I guess people would know I was baptized by my new way of living,"

Cameron's understanding was neither childish nor simple. It was actually pretty profound. He expressed what too many people fail to realize. Baptism gives us a new life as God's children and calls us to a new way of living. St Paul says in Corinthians, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

When we were baptized, a tremendously intimate relationship was established between Christ and us. The implications of this can’t be overstated. We as Catholic Christians sometimes have a tendency to gloss over the importance of our “personal relationship with Christ”. To say that we have “accepted Jesus into our hearts as our Lord and savior” sounds a little too “evangelical” for our tastes (at least for some of us), but it is in fact what baptism calls us to do.

When we enter into a relationship with Jesus, we seek to speak and think and act toward others as Jesus did while on earth, for we are one with him. We are also one with our fellow members of the church who have been connected to Christ with us. We are all one body.

To fail to let our baptism renew the way we live every day is to deny its powerful effect. To not let our baptism rule our lives and love as Christ has loved us, to not forgive as Christ has forgiven us, to not be compassionate and gracious as Christ has been toward us is to deny our membership in God's family, our servanthood, our chosen-ness.

And here’s the especially good news: The love of God in you says this: It's not what you do that makes you important. It's not what you have that makes you important. And it's not what people say about you that makes you important. It's just the simple fact that you are God's beloved child.

He is telling us today, "I love you and I'm well pleased with you. I take pleasure in you. All of my creation is for you, and your brothers, and sisters, all of whom I love and adore."

So, let us pray today for an awakening, that we can go back to the fundamentals of our faith – to know that we have been hand-picked by God. We have been called out by name to be a member of his family. We are loved. In whatever small way we can, let’s make this coming week a week of renewal. We know God calls us Christian. Let’s have others, seeing us in action, saying the same of us. When others see us acting like Christ, let’s hear them say, “Yeah, that guy, that gal, now that’s a Christian”!