Your Life has Purpose
God has a purpose for each of us, a mission, and in our baptism the Spirit gives us everything we need to live out the mission God has given us....
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[00:00:00] This was a tricky weekend. This was a really tricky weekend because yesterday was Epiphany. And Epiphany is one of those major feast days we are meant to observe. Always! And it fell on a weekend, which was a great opportunity. But guess what today is? The Baptism of Our Lord, which is a major feast day, which we are meant to observe.
It always falls on a weekend. Always falls on this Sunday. Um, and so we've got a bit of a hybrid weekend. Last night we celebrated the Epiphany. We celebrated it at Dorothy Roll's funeral yesterday too, quite a bit. Um, and today we celebrate Baptism of Our Lord. Um, and the, the, the thread that ties them both together, I think, is the gift of hearing .[00:01:00]
"This is meant for you."
The Feast of the Epiphany celebrates how those of us who are not Jewish are part of God's plan and how the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus will include us in the work of bringing God's dream on earth. In addition to that of our brothers and sisters who are Jewish. All of us together, invited in to celebrate the good news of what God is doing in the world.
And this morning, we heard this beautiful gospel, Mark's version of this gospel story, of Jesus' baptism. And, and Mark rarely offers many details. This is the shortest of gospels. You get the sense that Mark is telling it as quickly as he [00:02:00] can, like he's about to run out of time. And so when he gives us details, it's good to pay attention. Really good to pay attention.
And one of the details I find fascinating is that in this story, it is the one time in the story of what God is up to when all members of the Trinity appear. It is the one story, the only story, where we have the Creator, we have the Spirit, and we have the Christ, the Son. Now, do I think that those, those other aspects of the Trinity show up, the other persons of the Trinity show up in other parts of the Bible?
Of course I do! But they're not named. They're not overtly declared as being [00:03:00] part of what is happening, and that is the case here. And we also hear that the heavens are torn open. The heaven, the, the whole cosmos is changed by this moment of Jesus' baptism.
And then we hear that amazing voice. "You are my son. The Beloved. With you I am well pleased." Moments after the cosmos is, is rent apart. This voice of love. This voice of love. This personal voice of love.[00:04:00]
I love that in year B we get to start this morning's readings with Genesis. At the very beginning of the beginning. And we hear that in the beginning everything was tovu v'bohu, which is Hebrew for a big mess. It's kind of an onomatopoeia. Everything was chaos. And we hear God bringing order to that chaos.
Meaning and purpose. This same God who Is, um, making the cedar trees writhe and stripping the forest bare while all are crying:
yes! Glory! This mighty, mighty God is the same [00:05:00] God who speaks to Jesus. "You are my child. You are my beloved." And then what happens next? Anyone? You know this one. I know it's early and I know you're cold, but you know this one. What happens next? It's not here, but what happens next? After his baptism in Mark.
Not in John. Hmm?
Yes, yes, exactly. He does. The spirit drives him out into the wilderness. Yeah, for his 40 days. of fasting and praying in the wilderness. He, he hears God proclaim God's love and his identity and immediately [00:06:00] goes out into the world. We'll catch up with this, um, Lent is really, really soon this year. It's the shortest epiphany you can imagine.
Boy, Valentine's Day is Ash Wednesday and we'll be back to this question. Uh, but yes, he, he, he goes from this moment of watching the cosmos ripped apart, hearing the voice of God's love, proclaiming him beloved, identifying him as God's beloved son with whom God is well pleased, and he gets cast out into the wilderness to figure out what that all means, and comes back ready to engage his ministry.
And this is important for us. Because this is not just about Jesus. One of my favorite bishops, I have a lot of favorite bishops, but maybe one of the Internet's favorite bishops, next to Michael Curry, the Internet's favorite bishop might be Stephen Charleston. Does anyone know Stephen Charleston? Mother Susan's nodding her head.
Um, [00:07:00] anyone besides Episcopal, uh, professionals? Stephen Charleston was my first bishop in Alaska. Uh, he was the first Native American bishop. He was ordained when he was a mere 40 years old. Um, at the time that seemed super young, it still does for a bishop. Um, and after his time as Bishop of Alaska, um, he did some other things.
He, he was the Dean and President of Episcopal Divinity School while I was still living in the Boston area, so he and I got to reconnect, which was wonderful. He's one of those folks who is an amazing preacher and loves Jesus so much and he loves us so much that you get it when you're in the presence of Stephen Charleston, you get it that God loves you as well.
And this week, he, he's, he's sort of in retirement of retirement ministry is often every single day he posts something on Facebook. So if you're on Facebook, bother to [00:08:00] follow Stephen Charleston. Because he will give you a snippet every day that will just be transformative. And earlier this week, this is what he had to say.
"You have chosen to be who you are. Not an accident, not as an existence without purpose, but as a self aware soul brought to life by a spirit who knows your name. You have a mission to carry out. A message to send, a blessing to bestow. You are the only one who can live your life. You are entrusted with a corner of the universe. You are a stakeholder in creation. Selected for a task only you can complete."
You, beloved. Each and every [00:09:00] one of you. And that's a big part of what we celebrate when we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord. Every one of us, every one of us, our lives have purpose, our lives have meaning. We are known by God who loves us.
And it's there to give us everything we need to live out this purpose. The same God who brings order out of chaos and purpose to the universe brings purpose to us. That's part of what we, what we do here together, isn't it? Is remind ourselves of that, that our lives have purpose. That our lives are part of [00:10:00] a, a bigger plan of God's dream unfolding in this world.
And each one of us in our baptism is reminded of that and given everything we need by the Holy Spirit to live out our ministries. So beloved, your homework this week is just to be in that space of knowing you are loved by God. Your life has purpose and meaning that belongs uniquely to you. And invite the Holy Spirit to help you see this beautiful, beautiful truth.
