Worth and Love and Baptism

Sermon audio for this sermon can be found here: http://s3.amazonaws.com/dfc_attachments/public/documents/3201897/011115_Evening_Euch_1Epiph_Baptism_of_our_Lord_JC.MP3

How do you break bad news to someone? Do you just blurt it out like ripping off a Band-Aid? Is it better to gently let them know something is amiss? What is the best tactic for breaking bad news?

I ask because I have bad news for you this evening. You are not worthy. Just like me and everyone else in the world, you are not worthy. You are not worthy to stoop down and do the most disgusting thing in the world for our Lord Jesus, untying his dirty old sandal. John the Baptist knew this and confessed as much. Yet, most of the time I go around telling myself otherwise, that I am good and smart and talented, I am just like John and so are you.

Maybe this makes you upset. Perhaps this news comes at a bad time. And while, I usually do not relish giving out bad news; this type of bad news might actually not be so bad. I know what you are thinking, “I AM UNWORTHY? AND THIS IS SUPPOSED TO MAKE ME FEEL GOOD?” No, but stick with me because there is more to it than just smelly shoes and feeling less than capable.

Being unworthy is not how God makes us. He makes us good calling all of Creation very good way back at the beginning. Yet, we spend our lives making decisions individually and corporately, purposefully and unconsciously, things done and left undone that expose the separation that exists between us and God.

Way back when John the Baptizer was out in the wilderness crying, people came from all over to turn from those things that separated them from God and each other, so that they might turn back towards a life with God. While John was out in the River Jordan he caught a glimpse of an ultimate truth with which we humans often struggle. The way in which this struggle manifests itself in my life is not something of which I am particularly proud. I am powerless when it comes to letting go of controlling everything in my life. This may come as a surprise because I come off as a laid back individual, but inside my head exists a voice that wants everything to run on my schedule and when it does not I have a hard time not throwing a fit. Growing up when I would throw these tantrums my family referred to this as my “K-Mart Brat” moments. This voice has many names: false self, ego, the devil, Satan, etc. So when John discovers this truth that there is a God and he is not God the Baptizer has a chance to let go of his own sense of controlling all the things around him.

There is a God and none of us are that God. This might be a kinder way of telling you that initial bad news of the evening. Maybe that’s where I should have started. When we come to accept that we are not God something shifts in us. In today’s gospel story John the Baptist’s position changes from being unable to untie a shoe to baptizing the incarnate God. Thomas Keating expresses this Truth in another way, “The movement towards divine love is growth in humility which is the acceptance of the reality about ourselves, our own weakness and limitations.” When we trust in ourselves and believe ourselves to be God we are unworthy, yet something changes when we come to God as humble servants.

“A voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’” John Baptized with water, and the Church does too, but God uses the Holy Spirit. This baptism of the Holy Spirit does something to us. When we come to God seeking to become his children this Holy Spirit changes us from being unworthy to being beloved. The words that God spoke that day he spoke to Jesus, but God also speaks those words to us. In humility we become real, when we recognize we are not God we then have the opportunity to become who God made us to be that is good and faithful servants.

There is a prayer for peace from our Morning Prayer service that begins, “O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom.” I did not understand that prayer for the longest time. How can serving lead to freedom? Yet, John’s witness helps me to understand what Jesus bids us to do. We are not worthy, none of us, but this is actually good news. For in our sin and separation we realize the Truth that we need God to transform us. A life dedicated to God allows us to no longer be consumed with controlling our lives, but instead the perfect freedom of serving God. God transforms us from unworthy to purposeful through a baptism of the Holy Spirit, and we hear God’s voice like Jesus coming up from the baptismal waters, “You are my beloved with you I am well pleased.” Maybe being unworthy is good news after all.