Baptism of Our Lord, 2004

Isaiah 42:1-7, Acts 10:34-38, Luke 3:15-17, 21-22.

Baptism: Chosen in Love. Chosen for Love.

There is a story about a Chicago bank that once asked for a letter of recommendation on a young Bostonian being considered for employment. The Boston investment house could not say enough about the young man. His father, they wrote, was a Cabot; his mother was a Lowell. Further back was a happy blend of Saltonstalls, Peabodys, and other of Boston's first families. His recommendation was given without hesitation. Several days later, the Chicago bank sent a note saying the information supplied was altogether inadequate. It read: "We are not contemplating using the young man for breeding purposes. Just for work."

In our Epistle lesson we hear Peter making the discovery that “God does not show favouritism.” Now if this is the case, how does this square with all those passages in the Bible that say that God chooses certain people. First, God chose Abraham. Then Israel becomes God’s chosen nation. Then the Messiah, the Christ, becomes God’s “chosen one” (Isaiah 42:1, Luke 3:22). Is God not playing favourites here?

To answer that we need to understand what it means to be God’s chosen ones. For Abraham it meant leaving his family and native land and to trust God to guide and provide. It meant to have that trust tested by God as he had to deal with hostile kings, with famine and with a childless marriage. And when finally he did get a son, God asked him offer his son as a sacrifice. If that is what it means to be God’s chosen one, who among you wants to volunteer to have that title?

For Israel to be God’s chosen nation, it meant serving God alone. They could not make treaties with neighbouring countries or participate in their religious practices. They could not intermarry with non-Jews; in fact, they were not even to associate with them. In order to be God’s chosen people, they had to obey God alone and not just do as they pleased or what they thought was reasonable or desirable. They had to be separate and different. Often they fell short in this calling. Then God punished them: Their land was ravaged by war and their people were taken into exile. It was not easy to be God’s chosen nation. So who wants to volunteer to be God’s chosen nation?

Finally, consider Jesus: What did it mean when God said: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased”? God said this as Jesus was baptized. That Jesus was baptized is very curious. Wasn’t baptism for repentance? For saying, “God, I have sinned; forgive me; help me to start a new life?” So what on earth was Jesus doing in the Jordan River? That was the question John asked Jesus: “I should be baptized by You and You come to me?!” The answer Jesus gives is instructive: “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). The righteousness Jesus fulfilled in His baptism was not His own but ours. In His baptism, Jesus identified Himself with us and “put on” our sinfulness. This Jesus carried to the cross where He paid the penalty of our sin. He did this so that when we are baptized, we identify with His victory over sin and “put on” His righteousness. For Jesus to be chosen by God meant to die as the sin-bearer of the whole world. We in turn are chosen by God for eternal life. Here in baptism we see God taking our identity, God making “Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

As Jesus embarked on this epic rescue mission, identifying Himself with sinful mankind in His baptism, the Father said: “You are my Son, whom I love; with You I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22). The Father was pleased because through His Son’s obedience He can now say to each one of us: “You are my child, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” He says that not because we have earned or deserved it, but simply because we are baptized into His Son (Romans 6:3) and are “wearing” His righteousness. So is God showing favourtism in choosing people? Not really, because He loves all people equally; His grace and favour extends to everyone equally and without measure. In your baptism you became God’s chosen one. You are His chosen and beloved child.

But as we have learned with Abraham, Israel and Jesus, to be God’s chosen one means that you have also been given an important task. God never chooses people without giving them a challenge. And God never challenges people without empowering them to succeed in fulfilling that challenge. And while God loves each person equally, those who are His faithful people, we who have been baptized into His Son, have each been given unique opportunities and tasks as His agents of love in this world. You see, God’s grace and favour are given equally. But each of us are given different gifts for service.

You are asking, “God has chosen me – for what?” Jesus told His disciples, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” (John 15:14) In His love for us God has chosen us to be His children so we are enabled to share His love with each other. In baptism we were chosen in love and chosen for love. What does it mean for us to love as God loved us? There are many sermons one could preach on that subject. I shall focus on just one thing, that which Peter discovered in our Epistle reading from Acts: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favouritism but accepts men from every nation who fear Him and do what is right” (10:34). God does not show favouritism! He loves each one of us equally. He does not discriminate in who He chooses. He gives His Spirit to all who fear Him and do what is right.

We have all learned to discriminate. Even though we may deny it, we all tend to react differently to those who are rich than those who are poor, to those who have a good career than those who are jobless, to those who have an excellent education than those who have failed in school, to those who are established citizens than those who are immigrants or refugees, or to those who are from another race or ethnic group.

But God does not show favouritism! And because we are God’s chosen people, it is wrong for us to think more highly of some people than others. It is simply wrong! And because Satan attacks each of us with negative thoughts about our fellow neighbour, we need to confess that sin to God. It must not be allowed to continue to pollute our minds and compromise our love and care for each other. It is also important that we pray for each other. Even as you pray for your enemy, it will become difficult for that person to remain your enemy. By lifting another person up to God in prayer you will begin to see that person the way God sees him. You will see him as the person God loves; as the person for whom Jesus died on the cross.

The Apostle Peter learned this lesson when he saw God pour out His Spirit on the Gentiles who heard the message of the Gospel. These Gentiles received the same Spirit He had received on Pentecost. Then and there he realized that God does not show favouritism. The divisions that exist between peoples, the suspicions and hatreds, the prejudices and inequalities, were now being challenged by a new way of thinking. The old system operated by laws and customs. These served their purpose in maintaining and preserving order. The new operating system that God introduced with Jesus was grace. In Jesus there is freedom from sin. Instead of just trying to maintain and preserve, this system has power through the Holy Spirit to restore and to make all things new again.

I believe that God is also doing a new thing among us. It may be hard for us to realize because often we can only see the deficiencies. But people who visit our church often comment on how culturally diverse we are and they find it a very beautiful thing. It is beautiful because it is a testimony to the power of God’s Spirit that has been poured out on His people. In spite of all differences and barriers that may exist among us we are able to work together with God as His chosen people in His kingdom.

To stay on the right track, we need to keep our eyes off of ourselves and our differences, and on what we have in common, on Jesus. For in Jesus we each have our true identity as God’s beloved child with whom He is well pleased. Today we encounter Jesus most perfectly and fully as He comes to us in His Body and Blood, In His perfect humanity and divinity. There He meets us with His words of comfort and promise: “Given for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.” Through this most blessed God-given means of grace, may you also grow ever stronger in the grace you received in your baptism so that it may become “a fountain within you welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14).

And now as God has called you in love to be His own, may you be empowered by the Spirit to love each other as God has loved you. Amen.