PRAYER: God of our baptism, thank you for welcoming us into the family of grace. Remind us once again of the fact that we are your beloved. Place within our memories the fact that with each one of us, you are well-pleased. Inspire us, then, to live that knowledge in how we love others. May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable to you, O God, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.
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There is no doubt in my mind that when I was a teenager, I heard God’s call to ministry in my heart. No doubt, whatsoever. I was very involved in my youth group; I loved everything about that involvement. I had become something of a leader in the group. I loved singing in church and being involved in church. And I knew that I knew that I knew that ministry was the path to which God was calling me.
I still remember sitting down with my priest – remember that I was raised in the Catholic church – and he talked to me about ministry, and he gave me a book to read about answering my call to ministry.
I took the book home and put it on my desk in my room. And that’s where it sat. To this day, I never read it, and I couldn’t even hazard a guess as to whatever happened to it. I remember that it had a yellow cover; that’s about all I remember about it. I graduated high school, I went off to college where I flunked out. Twice. And then I went to work full time. Anna and I got married, we had three amazing kids, and everything was going great. Over the years, I learned to rationalize away that sense of calling that I had heard all those years before. If I remembered it at all, it was just a distant memory that I chalked up to youthful exuberance.
Apparently, God had a different perspective on that memory. In fact, God never forgot – never rationalized away – that calling that I heard. Some 27 years after that conversation with my priest, I was hearing my call to ministry again. And this time, it was pretty clear that God was not making it a suggestion.
But here’s the thing I want you to take away from that story. You heard me say that I did not answer my call immediately, and then flunked out of college twice. This was not like Jonah running away and then ending up in the belly of the whale for three days. I wasn’t running away from anything. When I was in college out of high school, I still believed that I would eventually go on to seminary.
The simple fact is that when I first heard my call to ministry, I was – and this is a very technical psychological term that perhaps you’ve heard of in the past: I was a dumb kid. I did not have the maturity or wisdom to take on the mantle to which God was calling me. I may not have known that at the time, but God sure did.
I HAD to go away from this calling and build a life. I had to have failure at school, and then struggle for a career. I had to be a husband and learn about the hard work that goes into making a relationship successful. I had to raise a family and learn about responsibilities to things other than just myself. Like the Israelites ion the Hebrew scriptures, I had to be in the wilderness for a while. If I had gone into ministry straight from high school to college and then a church, the dumb kid that I was would never have had any real-world experience on which to draw.
The timing had to be right. God has impeccable timing.
Jesus is the Son of God. Over the last six weeks, we have prepared for and celebrated the birth of Jesus. We all know the story of Mary being approached by Gabriel. We know about Joseph, and Elizabeth. We know that Elizabeth’s son Joh leapt in the womb when a very pregnant Mary arrived for a visit. We know about the Shepherds and the Magi. We know about the star and the angels singing, “Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” God’s timing is impeccable.
So the one thing that sticks out as unusual from today’s reading actually comes in the very next verse – it’s actually not included in the reading. Verse 23 says, “Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his work.”
The angels proclaimed his birth. The big star of Bethlehem also proclaimed his birth. Luke has this story about a Jesus hanging out in the temple as a youth debating with the much older folk and all of them being impressed with his wisdom. Jesus was no dumb kid! From the moment of his conception, there was never any doubt about who or what Jesus was. Why then, did it take thirty years for Jesus to get his act together? What was he doing for thirty years? Carpentry? I’m sure there were plenty of other folks who could’ve been carpenters; but there was only ONE Jesus. What was he doing in those thirty years??
John had to do what John had to do. John had to build his ministry, and Jesus had to come after him to be baptized because God’s timing is impeccable.
So, in our reading today, Jesus is baptized – finally at age 30 – by John in the Jordan River. This was all part of God’s impeccable timing. But notice that the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus does not happen during the baptism. According to Luke, it happens afterward.
Now when all the people were baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying… the heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended… Jesus was praying. Jesus, the Son of God, the one whom the Angels foretold, still needed to pray. Praying is the way we establish relationship with God. Praying is how we connect ourselves – not necessarily by delivering our carefully worded phrases to impress God, but more often by listening. By feeling God’s presence in our lives. Jesus was praying, and in the silence of him praying, connecting with God, building his relationship with God, Jesus saw and heard the Holy Spirit descending upon him.
And the voice from Heaven said, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
Jesus prayed. He opened himself up to God’s impeccable timing, and he experienced God’s call, God’s proclamation that with Jesus, God is well pleased.
I say to you today that with you, God is well-pleased. God is well pleased with you. God loves you, and God’s message to you today is that now is the time. You have been drawn into God’s embrace. God has brought you to this place here today. God has plans for you to be part of God’s kingdom here today. God’s impeccable timing has brought you here… today. You have received a calling to be the church of the 21st century, not to simply come on Sunday and then go home, but to BE the church, following the teachings of Jesus, to lift up the sick, to care for the oppressed and marginalized, to resist the power structures that tell us who we’re supposed to hate and be afraid of. Being the church of the 21st century is not a part-time job, it is 24 hours a day and it is the most beautifully rewarding and uplifting callings you can have. And God’s impeccable timing has placed you here for such a time as this, that we all may gather around the baptismal font and rejoice in the calling that we have received here today.
When the people asked John if he was the Messiah, he said that he wasn’t. He pointed out that he baptizes with water, but one more powerful than he is coming, one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.
John then says that this Messiah that they’re looking for has a “winnowing fork in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” A lovely, if not foreboding image. Today, we are called upon to take stock of our journey of faith, and our hearts, and examine those parts of our lives that are wheat for the granary and chaff for the fire.
When we bring Jesus’ teachings into our hearts and souls, Jesus comes into our lives with his winnowing fork, ready to help us do the work of gathering wheat and disposing of chaff. The Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus as he prayed. His prayers connected and re-connected him with God time after time, building relationship, strengthening him for the work that was ahead of him. God’s impeccable timing on display yet again. We are invited to prayerfully invite the Holy Spirit to descend upon us, that we may hear those words, “With you, I am well-pleased.”
We are invited today to remember our own baptisms – a visible sign of God’s invisible grace in which we have been welcomed into the family of God. God’s grace has set us apart for ministry, and God’s impeccable timing brings us here today. We are invited to listen for God’s call in our lives today.
I want to invite you to a new expectation of hope, a new expectation of life where we, as a church, can answer God’s calling in our lives right now together. God’s timing is perfect, and having been welcomed into the family of faith through our baptism, we are now invited to extend God’s loving embrace outward to a world desperate to hear good news. Good news to the outcast that they are never separated from the love of God. Good news to the marginalized that they are vital and loved by God and by us. Good news to the sick that God’s restoration of peace is stronger than any disease.
You are being called to continue to do the work of clearing the threshing floor of your heart of all the chaff, and to join in the work of God’s kingdom here today. I want to share with you a litany written by the late theologian Howard Thurman entitled The Work of Christmas.
The Work of Christmas – Howard Thurman
When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among others,
To make music in the heart.
To God be the glory.