Worth

One of the genre of shows that really took off a number of years ago and has sparked various spin offs are competitive sports game shows. The one that started it is a show from Japan that hosted the fittest people that auditioned for the show to compete in intense and extremely difficult obstacle course style games. The show had people coming on trying to prove they were the best and they usually had something to prove. The United States picked up the show and made an American version of it called American Ninja warrior and both shows had people from around the world coming to prove that they were the best. Of course in true competitive game show fashion there can only be one person who is the ultimate winner, proving they are the best.

One of the copy cat shows is put on by Sylvester Stallone called Ultimate Beastmaster and this show groups up teams of people from different countries and not only is there a competition for who is the best as an individual but also which country they are representing. It really is just like the others all about proving yourself in front of the commentators, other athletes and the audience if you really are as good as you say you are.

Honestly I don’t have to use these competitive sport game shows, we could look a whole host of other areas in our life where people ‘compete’ to prove themselves worthy of the job/title/responsibility. In fact, I recently read a book for leisure and in the book there was a woman named Orinda who was fed up with the rude and inept nature of the employee that she was engaged with that she went to chat with the manager. The told the manager about the woman and instead of just leaving it as a complaint she said that she felt she could do a better job than this other woman, and she was willing to prove it. Her proposal: she would work for a week unpaid to help relieve the overload of work and if she proved to be a better employee than this rude and inept employee that the manager give her the job and fire this woman. A week later the rude employee was out of a job and Orinda had indeed taken her place. She proved her worth and was able to get the job. I think our world focuses heavily on performance and worth before we are willing to give a person a chance.

Thankfully that is not the case when it comes to our faith. Today we celebrate and focus on the baptism of Jesus which really forces us to focus on the idea of what baptism is and what it means for us. One of the first things that we take away from Jesus’ baptism is the very fact that Jesus was just like us, he was baptized just like us. Jesus was both fully human and fully God. It is that fully human part that we obviously connect with and it is that act of Jesus being baptized that we then can connect with. It’s a connecting point. Jesus was baptized…I was baptized. He was baptized just like you and I were baptized. Any time we can look at the life of Jesus and say that we did something Jesus did it connects us to the divine. It also helps us to know that Jesus knows what it like to be, or do, or go through the same things that happen to us.

The words from Luke even give us that close feeling. He says to us that all the people had been baptized and Jesus had also been baptized. Now I don’t want to downplay the importance or significance of Jesus’ baptism, but how incredible is it that Luke puts together our baptism in the same sentence, as if putting us in the same moment of Jesus’ baptism. All the people that were at the Jordan that day including Jesus were all baptized by John. There is this sense in the wording of Luke that they were all connected in this moment.

Then the text moves to this more personal moment where we find Jesus praying. It is in that time of prayer that the heaven was opened, the Holy Spirit descends in bodily form like a dove and a voice from heaven speaks. What is spoken is extremely important. It is important to understand God’s relationship to Jesus and it also speaks to God’s relationship to us. It says “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” I have to admit that the reason I find this so important is because every time I read these words at Jesus baptism I cannot think of anything other than it. To get to its importance I want to set up the background for it. In Luke’s gospel and in any of the other gospels for that matter the baptism of Jesus marks the public ministry of Jesus. Up to this point Jesus hasn’t done anything. We have his birth and we have him learning in the temple at 12 years old, but after that Luke tells us that he was obedient to his parents. Jesus hasn’t healed anyone. He hasn’t in a truly public fashion taught people about the kingdom of God. He hasn’t said a single parable or walked on water, turned water into wine, or fed thousands of people. I think you get it. He hasn’t done anything that we associate Jesus as doing in his life that for lack of a better word proves that he is the Messiah, the Son of God.

It is in this moment, this stage in Jesus life where he hasn’t done anything, yet that the voice from heaven comes out and declares that God is well pleased with Jesus. Well pleased with what? Honestly, as I talked about in the opening of my sermon, what has Jesus done to prove that someone should be pleased with him? Did he win a competition? Did he get selected to be a a prestigious TV show? Did he win a cooking competition to prove he can feed people with limited ingredients? I think we already established that Jesus hasn’t really done anything yet. What then, is the reason for God’s reason for Jesus being his beloved and being so pleased with him?

To be blunt, nothing. Again, I think we have established that clearly. Yet that is exactly the point. God doesn’t need a reason. Jesus doesn’t have to prove himself for God to love him. He is God’s son and God knows what he is going to do for the world. God knows how much Jesus is going to go through. God loves him no matter what happens next. God also knows how much Jesus is going to do for this world. It’s not a matter of proving but a matter of acceptance and love for who he is and whose he is.

The same goes for you and me. We have been claimed and loved in the waters of baptism. It is God who claims us, who loves us, who sets us free from sin and shame when God claims us as God’s own beloved children. It’s not about what we’ve done or will do, but simply that we are and that because we are God loves us. As you continue to walk along in this life and in your journey of faith, live into that claiming of baptism. There is no competition, there is no proving, there is nothing that you can do that will ever make God love you any more than God already does. Simply rest in the enveloping waters of your baptism and know that you have been claimed, redeemed, loved, and forgiven now and always, by our loving and gracious God. Amen.

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