from Helen
In the last two months we have prepared for Jesus’ coming,
we have worshipped Him and thought of His birth, last week we celebrated the
Epiphany, that is we remembered when the wise men from afar reached the Baby
Jesus and so the message of salvation, the birth of Jesus was seen as being for
everyone.
This Sunday we are remembering the Baptism of Jesus (Luke
3:15-17,21-22).
There is a story of a minister in Jamaica baptising a woman in the sea. The minister
said to the women, “do you believe ?,” the woman replied, “yes I believe.” The
minster pushed the woman down into the sea by the head holding tight to her
hair. He then pulled her back up and asked again, “Do you believe ?” the woman
replied, “yes,I believe,” once more the woman was pushed into water pulled back
out and again the woman was asked, “do you believe?” the woman once again
replied that yes she believed. She was pushed down again and pulled up. The
minister asked, “What do you believe?” the woman replied, “I believe you’re
trying to kill me.”
At the baptism of Jesus we heard of love when we heard of
God the Son being baptised, God the Holy Spirit descending on the Son and God
the Father telling the Son that He loved Him. Wow – this is incredible. It is
almost like looking into someone’s family get together when they are all
celebrating and loving one another. God is love and at the baptism of Jesus we
can see that love.
The love that is for all of us as well.
A love that we heard of in the reading from Isaiah (43:1-7)
where we heard the prophet giving the words of God to the people that they were
not to be afraid because He was with them. These are words to us as well we do
not need to be afraid because God is with us. Not just this though but God said
through Isaiah, “I love you”. We do not need to be afraid because God loves us.
We are precious in His sight.
I may have said this before but it is a wonderful thought
that I read once from the writer Philip Yancey who was talking about a time
when he was in a long queue waiting to board a plane. As the wait went on and
on and as he got fed up he noticed a baby. This baby was smiling at everyone
who said hello to him. This baby boy giggled and gurgled and smiled and people became
less cross about waiting. Philip Yancey thought that this was like God. He is
delighted to see us and you can imagine the big smile when we make contact with
Him. When we talk to God He sees us as precious and He loves us.
Being loved by God, means knowing that He is with us always,
it is being reminded that we can keep going back to Him for forgiveness when we
have done wrong. It means knowing that God who became one of us, hears us.
There’s an apparently true story about someone who wanted to
be a writer from an early age, but when he went to college, his mother took him
aside and said, "I know you want to be a writer, but I have a better idea.
Why don't you be a brain surgeon. You'll keep a lot of people from dying, and
you'll make a lot of money." But the son replied, "No mum, I want to
be a writer."
Sometime later his mother spoke to him again and said,
"I know you want to be a writer, but listen to me. Be a brain surgeon,
they keep a lot of people from dying, and you will make a lot of money."
Again the son replied, "I want to be a writer."
And the conversation went on throughout his college years
until, at the end, his mother in desperation again said, "you're wasting
your time. Be a brain surgeon. You'll keep a lot of people from dying, and
you'll make a lot of money."
Finally, the son exploded, "Mum, I don't want to keep
people from dying. I want to be a writer and show them how to live!"
God became one of us, He was baptised like us, He promises
to be with us always and all so that He can show us how to live.
By our baptisms, which you may have heard of as Christenings,
we were claimed for Christ, we were officially made a part of the family of
God. Being part of the family of God is God’s way of saying that he doesn’t
care what we have done or failed to do, He still loves us and wants us, and the
gift of the Holy Spirit takes us on from there, as that is God’s invitation to
see how we can live – fully, abundantly, joyfully and peacefully, surrounded
and protected by His love.
The Spirit descended upon Jesus at baptism and He descends
on us and fills us up with Him daily. When we live with God the Holy Sprit in our
lives so we live lives where we are ready to turn to God daily, filled up with
Him. God gives us the strength to be more like Him.
There is a story of a New Testament professor who visited a
high school youth group. After the professor finished speaking about the
significance of Christ's baptism as a revelation of God's presence in Jesus,
one of the students said without looking up, "That isn’t what it
means."
Glad that the student had been listening enough to disagree,
the professor asked, "What do you think it means?"
The boy answered
"The story says that the heavens were opened, and the Spirit of God
came down, so it means that God is on the loose in the world. And it is
dangerous."
When we are full of the Holy Spirit, when we have turned
ourselves to God, so we become dangerous. A danger that involves us spreading
the good news of God who loves us and sees us as precious, to everyone we meet.
We do this by the way that we live, we do this by asking for more and more of
God in our lives. May we be dangerous for God, and may we offer His love to
everyone. AMEN
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