What About Grace?

            Our question for today is one I struggled with. The initial question wasn’t “What about Grace?” The question was about the meaning of sin and salvation and every part of my body got tense. I don’t want to talk about sin. Mostly because the word itself  comes with so much baggage. All too often at least for me sin has been defined a set of moral behaviours that you must avoid in order to get you into heaven. Just think of the so called seven deadly sins – pride, greed, lust, envy, sloth, gluttony, and wrath. I see in that list sins that I’m well acquainted with.  Like pride, greed and envy. It reminds me of terrible song we learned in Sunday School. “Be careful little eyes what you see. Be careful little eyes what you see. For the father up above is looking down in love. Oh be careful little eyes what you see.” The suggestion of course if we aren’t careful some version of a vengeful God will keep track of what your little eyes have seen and your little ears have heard and what you little hands have done. And for me none of that fits with the God I love that I know. The one whose carried me through the most challenging times in my life. 

Not to mention the fact that it makes the second word – salvation an impossible goal. If sin is a list of moral behavioural code that we must fit ourselves into, then salvation becomes something that we must work towards.  We can strive and strive to do all the things on the good list but we will always all short because we humans make mistakes. Frances Spufford writes in his article on sin in the Huffington Post, “The human propensity to [mess] things up, because what we’re talking about here is not just our tendency to lurch and stumble and screw up by accident, our passive role as agents of entropy. It’s our active inclination to break stuff — “stuff” here including moods, promises, relationships we care about and our own wellbeing and other people’s, as well as material objects whose high gloss positively seems to invite a big fat scratch.” (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-sin-really-is-the-hu_b_4164852_) 

It seems to me that we’ve spent too many theological hours focusing on sin as moral behavioural code and not enough time talk about grace as gift from God.  truest sense of the word is about the things that separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ. And to many hours focusing on somehow achieving salvation, that we’ve lost sight of Grace. Salvation isn’t about striving for that unattainable perfection. Nadia Bolz-Webber writes, “…the Greek word for salvation is sozo, which means “to heal, bring wholeness, preserve.” (Shamelesspage 18) 

            This is what Jesus was about. Healing. Bringing wholeness. Preserving our lives. For me this is what grace is all about and what Jesus wants for us all. Our parable of labourers in the vineyard is all about grace. Jesus is describing the kingdom of heaven. There is a landowner who needs labourers for his vineyard. So he does what everyone does and goes to the town square and hires those waiting for work that day. The first workers agree to the usual daily wage. Then he landowner goes back to the square at 9, 12, 3 and 5 and sees workers still waiting to be hired for the day. The landowner says to them, “You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay whatever is right.” (Matthew 20:4) 

            At the end of the day, when the labourers are getting paid, the landowner pays everyone the usual daily wage. The people who were hired first thing – and got paid last and the same as everyone else were furious. I think they got their hopes up that they would get more because they’d worked longer than all the others. But God’s kingdom is not about what we consider fair. God’s kingdom is about grace. The life a day laborer was precarious. Not get hired meant not eating. When the landowner says to those hired first, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” (Matthew 20:13 – 15) 

            God’s grace is getting paid a full days wage when you worked only an hour. Grace is the prodigal son being welcomed home with open arms and a party. Grace is the lost sheep who gets brought home safe. Grace is not about what you earn or do or striving for perfection or a moral behavioural code, it is being loved just as you are. Grace is a gift, just for you. And it doesn’t matter whether you laboured all day in God’s vineyard or for one minute. We are all given the same amazing gift – no questions asked. No strings attached. 

            Today we celebrate baptism. Sacraments are that visible sign of an invisible grace. We pour water and offer blessing. So that we can remember the gift of grace that comes to us each day. It is a daily gift and no amount of living can wash it away. So on those days when you are haunted by the voices that tell you terrible things like “not good enough or not loved or failure” we have Gold’s grace that whispers, “You are my beloved, with you I am well pleased.” Amen. 

Is It Really All Part of God's Plan?

Because of what I do, I have spent a fair amount of time in hospitals and at funeral homes and sitting with people in their sorrow. Sometimes, I’ve overheard good hearted, well meaning people say things to people facing loss that make cringe. I’m guessing that the people grieving are wondering why someone would say that? Its things, “It’s all part of God’s plan. God just needed another angel in heaven.” Or how is this one, “God doesn’t give you anything you anything that you can’t handle.” Perhaps the worst one, “If only you’d prayed harder, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.” Somehow all those sentiments make it seem as though God planned our suffering and made these things happen. As though God is up in the heavenly realm doling out suffering to see if or how we mortals handle it. In an article called, “What to Say (and not say to say) to someone who is grieving, David Pogue shares, “In support groups for parents, ‘God never gives you more than you can handle’ is universally known as one of the cruelest comments for devastated parents to receive,” added Wendy Prentiss, whose 6-year-old nephew was diagnosed with a deadly cancer. “It suggests that the parents are weak for being crushed. It comes across as judgmental and tone deaf. It also suggests, wrote Kathryn Janus, “that God had a hand in the death, and that’s just awful. And, P.S., sometimes the death is more than the bereaved can handle.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/smarter-living/what-to-say-and-what-not-to-say-to-someone-whos-grieving.html It is hard to imagine Jesus saying this to someone in their time of need.

Jairus comes to Jesus, falls at his feet and begs him, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.” Can you imagine Jesus saying? “It’s all part of God’s plan.” The woman in our gospel, the hemorrhaging woman, who’d spent everything she had on getting better, who can’t go to worship or be around people or have anyone touch her because the purity laws of the day say that she is unclean. For twelve long years she suffered. Some so called miracle healers came her way, took her money and she is only worse. Would Jesus say to her, “Maybe you should pray harder, God doesn’t give you anything you can’t handle.”

And yet we find woven through scripture the notion that God knows us and knows all our days – the very hairs on our heads are counted. I believe that plan that God has for us, is not about what we eat for breakfast or the minute by minute details of our days. God’s plan for us is wholeness in mind, body and spirit. And when things go wrong, which they do all too frequently, God’s promise is to be with us in our pain and suffering. To be with us until that wholeness is restored. It says in our Psalm, “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.” (Psalm 56:8) Turn to Revelation 21, “See the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear for their eyes.” (Revelation 21:3 – 4a)

When Jairus throws himself at Jesus’ feet and pours out his about his daughter, Jesus doesn’t say anything to make it better. He simply goes with Jairus. Following him to his home. Staying with him in this difficult time. As Jesus goes with Jairus, the crowds follow him. In the crowd is a woman whose suffering is beyond our imagining. The bleeding is just one part of her pain. The other is the social isolation and the loneliness of her condition. She shouldn’t be in the crowd that day. She knows she shouldn’t touch Jesus, but she thinks, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” (Mark 5:28). In that moment the bleeding stops.

And so does Jesus. He feels the change. He says, “Who touched my clothes?” (Mark 5:30) And the disciples can’t imagine what Jesus is talking about because they are in the middle of a crowd – of course someone is touching you! Jesus ignores them, keeps looking around the crowd to see who touched him. I can’t begin to imagine the courage it took for the woman come forward and tell Jesus her story. Jesus pulled her out of the shadows and placed her back into the heart of the community saying, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” (Mark 5:34)

While Jesus is talking to the woman, some tells Jairus his daughter has died and there was no point in troubling Jesus further. Jesus turns to Jairus and says, “Do not fear, only believe.” Jesus, Jairus and the disciples go to Jairus’s house. Jesus enters the room and says to the little girl, “Talitha cum,” which means “little girl, get up!” And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about.” (Mark 5:41 – 42)

Jesus actions are not about being with people in their time of need. When Jairus comes to Jesus and tells him about his sick daughter – Jesus goes with him, offers him hope, and restores his daughter to him. When a woman who’d suffered for 12 long years, reaches out and touches him, he restores her to community. And he does this over and over again. Jesus way of love and compassion shows us God’s love at work.

This morning’s news is awful. In one night, two mass shootings. One in El Paso, Texas with 20 people dead and more than 2 dozen injured and another in Dayton, Ohio with 9 killed and 16 injured. These are tragedies for the mothers, fathers, sisters, aunts, uncles, friends and communities. This is not some part of God’s plan. There is no amount of prayer that could stop this. There are no more angels needed in heaven.

It is hard to understand tragedy and suffering and pain. It comes in so many forms and is different for each of us. It doesn’t matter if caused by sickness, or relationship break down, or depression, or loss or loneliness or grief or abuse, or addiction or unexpected tragic accident, we all carry these burdens differently. What I do know that God does not cause it and faith doesn’t give us a “get of out pain free” card. Faith reminds us that when the pain comes, we are not alone. Jesus stays with us in our sorrow. God counts our tears, God wipes away our tears and walks with us in our time of need. Somehow with time, with help of friends, and God’s sustaining love we too can say with the Psalmist, “For you have rescued me from death; you have kept my feet from slipping, So now I can walk in your presence O God, in your life-giving light.” (Psalm 56:13)Amen.

Water into Wine

            Before we dive into our readings for today, I want pause and appreciate the fact that the bible contains a story where water becomes wine. It’s pretty amazing really. Then you add to it the fact that Jesus is the one who turns the water into wine – mostly because his mother, like mothers of every time and place, says to. Then, perhaps my favourite part of the whole reading, not only does Jesus turn water into wine but it is the best wine of the night. This is a story of the abundance of grace. What could have been a disaster become isn’t. It is generous. It is overwhelming. It is more and better than we could ever have imagined and isn’t that what God’s grace is like. 

            It stands in stark contrast to the world we live in where fear and sacristy seem to be taking hold in every corner of the world. We have school aged children and youth with anxiety and mood disorders – 1 out of 12 are on medication of some form.  (https://www.cihi.ca/en/child-and-youth-mental-health-in-canada-infographic) Turn on the news and we hear about increasing rates of racism, sexism, and homophobia and not just in the United States here in Canada too. People are worried about where their next meal will come from or how they are going to cope from day to day or what bad news a phone call will bring or about their family or having enough money or how their relationship is going to survive or about a loved one who is sick. There seems to be a never-ending list a of reasons to be afraid.  

That’s why we need to lean on that abundance of grace that Jesus offers – when it seems like every possible door is closed and there is no way to move – that’s when we need grace. It seems to me, that all too often in my life, I forget what grace and mercy are like. Our reading today helps us to remember what God’s grace looks like and feels like. 

This reading from John is the first act of Jesus public minister. The wedding at Canna is the first of the “signs” or miracles in John’s gospel. Our reading for today follows Jesus’ baptism and the calling the disciples with the invitation “come and see.” Wedding in Jesus’ day were not like the weddings of today which are a day long affair. A wedding in Jesus’ day lasted a week and was a community celebration. Jesus was there with his whole family, disciples and the entire gathered community. 

Over the course of the celebrations, the hosts ran out of wine. Now this may not sound like a big problem to our modern ears. Today we’d probably think nothing of it. If the wine runs out, we pop up to the store and buy another bottle. Not a big deal. But it was major social faux pas in Jesus’ day. Wine was considered a sign of God’s abundance. If the wine runs out what does that say about God’s love? What does it say about this particular couples future? 

 Upon hearing the news about the wine, Jesus’ mother turns to him, with an expectant look in her eyes. I think it’s the look only a mother can give and says, “They have run out of wine.” Can’t you just hear Jesus saying back to her as he rolls his eyes, “Oh Mother, why are you worried about that. Besides which, this not my time, it is not the hour.”  Do you notice how Mary pays no attention to Jesus’ objection about it not being his hour? Son of God or not, she knows best. She is the one whose watched him learn and grow. She simply turns to the servants and says, “Do whatever he tells you to do.”  

            Jesus has no choice and he somewhat reluctantly tells the servants to fill six huge containers – each holding 20 to 30 gallons of water and to take them to the wine steward. The wine steward tastes the wine and is amazed. He calls the bridegroom and compliments him for saving the best wine for the last days of the celebration. 

Letts but the this amazing sign into context. In ways that make sense for us today. Today wine can be mass produced and shipped easily from one place to another. Not so in Jesus day. In today’s measurements it would be like Jesus gave them about 900 bottles of wine. But not just any wine – the good stuff. This surely never happened on the 3rdday of a week long party. That is just like God’s abundant grace. It is unexpected. It is good wine when you are expecting the cheap stuff and it is more wine than we can imagine! Dr. Karoline Lews writes, “The details of abundance cannot be overlooked in this text -- six water jars, each 20-30 gallons, filled to the brim, of the best wine. The amount in and of itself is extraordinary. But the best wine? At this point in a wedding celebration? Unheard of. Back in the day, weddings typically lasted a week, where the host would serve the better wine when the guests could actually taste what they were drinking, a nice Sonoma-Cutrer Russian River Chardonnay, perhaps. Only after a few days of drinking and determined levels of inebriation would the guests be served the Franzia box Merlot or Gallo jug Chablis. Where have you experienced this kind of grace?” (https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1556) 

In the words of the psalmist, “How precious is your steadfast love, O God! All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.” (Psalm 36: 7 – 9) 

I think it makes all the difference in the world when the starting place each of us is that abundance of unexpected grace. Grace doesn’t insulate us from life’s tragedies or cure us from disease or give us jobs or banish depression or give us money. Grace gives a starting place that reminds us that we are deeply loved. 

This week the Pulizer Prize winning poet Mary Oliver died at 83. Her poetry delves into the heart of faith. She writes, “You can have the other words – chance, luck, coincidence, serendipity. I’ll take grace. I don’t know what it is exactly, but I’ll take it.” Like Mary Oliver, we may know what exactly what grace is, but every now and then we catch a glimpse of what it’s like – an abundance of the best wine when we least expect it. With grace as our starting place anything and everything becomes possible. Whether we know what it means or not grace is ours. Thanks be to God. Amen. 

God's Infinit Love

Many churches have stained-glass windows just like we do. They are beautiful. Their beauty helps us to remember we are entering a holy place. Many of the windows in churches around the world tell us the gospel stories. Look around us this morning. On my left and you find the Christmas story, baby Jesus at the centre and Shepherds and Magi on either side. After church, come stand in the pulpit or by the rail and you can see the parable of the sower, Jesus healing someone, and the great teaching moment “Knock and the Door Shall be Opened.”  Over to my right, your left we have Jesus as young boy in the Temple, the story of the loaves and fishes and others. Stained glass windows are not only beautiful but they serve a functional purpose. When bibles were few and literacy rates were low, the windows told the stories of our faith. In many ways they acted as cue cards and visual reminds of key gospel messages. There are many different gospel stories told in stained glass windows, but if I were to guess, our gospel reading from this morning would not be one of them. It is challenging. 

On the surface we have two healing stories – the Syrophoenician woman and the man born deaf. Jesus has left his home turf around the sea of Galilee and is traveling in the region of Tyre – a predominately gentile area. We don’t really know why. Marks says that Jesus, entered a house and “did not want anyone to know he was there.” (Mark 7:24) Maybe Jesus was looking for some rest and solitude and hoped to find it in a place surrounded by strangers. Even here, in this place, word about Jesus was spreading. 

One of the women from the community heard about Jesus and came to him to plead her case. Jesus was barely through the door when she arrived. She was desperate. Her daughter was sick. Mark says she has an unclean spirit. She was terrified that her daughter would never recover and was willing to go to any length to ensure her wellbeing. Even taking a chance that the rumours about Jesus are true. Elizabeth Johnson writes, “The woman who approaches Jesus breaks through every traditional barrier that should prevent her from doing so. She is “a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin” (Mark 7:26). In other words, she is implicitly impure, one who lives outside of the land of Israel and outside of the law of Moses, a descendant of the ancient enemies of Israel. She is also a woman, unaccompanied by a husband or male relative, who initiates a conversation with a strange man -- another taboo transgressed. …Any way you look at it, this woman is an outsider.” (https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3761) None of this mattered to the woman. Her daughter’s life was at risk and she knew, she believed that Jesus was the one who could cure her daughter. 

This bold and courageous woman found Jesus, knelt at his feet and begged him to heal her daughter. There is no excuse for what Jesus says next. There is no way to translate the words to soften the harshness of his words. Jesus says, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” (Mark 7:27) It is terrible. It is amazing really that there is a record of this event. Somehow it is in two of the four gospels. 

Jesus words are harsh and so different from how Jesus treats people in any other stories throughout the gospels. Not only are Jesus words harsh, but he is dismissing her cry for help simply because she is not one of his people. She is other. In that moment, Jesus believes that God has called him only to bring God’s word to the children of Israel. No one else. He wanted to rest in silence not expand his horizons and share God’s grace with a broader audience. 

But she wouldn’t let him rest. She insisted. She persisted. She pushed back and said, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” (Mark 7:28) Crumbs, those little bits that we brush away, not big enough to be worth keeping. She demands a scrap of the grace and mercy that Jesus came to deliver for her daughter. Jesus says to her, “For saying that, you go – the demon has left your daughter.” (Mark 7:29) When she returns home, she finds her daughter in her bed and the unclean spirit gone. 

There will be no stained glass windows of this story. It is a hard story. Jesus is dismissive and harsh. I find it hard to accept that Jesus dismiss someone just because of where they are from. It is not in keeping with the Jesus I know and love. But maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. 

       Part of being human is making mistakes. Judging took quickly. Having blind spots. Holding on to prejudices. Dismissing people who we deem to be different whether it is because of where they are from or because of the colour of their skin or because of their gender or because of their sexual orientation or because of their income level or because of their disability. None of this is okay. Yet, if I’m honest with myself, I’ve done it and I’m angry with myself for it. Yet I’m guessing I’m not alone. The only thing to do when you make a mistake is ask for forgiveness, learn from it and do better next time. 

       I think that is what Jesus did and maybe the person who was really healed in this gospel story is Jesus and that’s why this story lives on. She stood up and said wait a minute, surely God’s grace and God’s mercy are not limited to one small group of people. Surely God’s grace is for all of us no matter where we come from. Her insistence and persistence changes Jesus. “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” (Mark 7:28)

       In that moment Jesus is changed. He is reminded that God’s grace is infinite and for everyone – no exceptions. In her column, “Dear Working Preacher” Karoline Lewis reflects on this moment when Jesus mission is expanded, “It is a rare moment when we glimpse how much beyond our comprehension God really is and how much beyond our imagination God’s love extends. And in that same moment, we perceive how easy it is to give in to this world’s estimations of God, this world’s propensity to limit what God can do. How quickly we retreat from zealous proclamation and settle for lukewarm confession. How often we shrink in fear from the bold belief.” (https://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=5216) 

       It says in our reading from Isaiah, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. … He will come and save you." Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;” (Isaiah 35:4 – 6)

       So maybe there needs to be new stained glass added to the repitoire telling this story. Jesus learning from the Syrophoenician woman. She helped Jesus remember that God’s grace, God’s love, God’s mercy is without boundaries and limits. It will be our cue card, reminding us, in a time when our political life is making everything us versus them, that we are one people created in God’s image. No us. No them. Just God’s beloved children living into the promise of God’s kingdom. Amen. 

Baptism of Jesus

            I’ve been a minister for almost 17 years now. There are many things I love about the work I do but there is one thing that is always a joy for me – baptism. I enjoy meeting with the families and hearing about their little miracle and hearing about the challenges and blessings of being parents. But perhaps the part that I love the most is standing with person being baptised, placing water on their heads and reminding them that they are God’s beloved child. Every time I do baptism, I have the privilege of offering blessing in God’s name. It is a reminder to us that each one of us is special in God’s circle of love. We all are beloved children of God. The beautiful thing about baptism whether it is a baby, an older child, a teenager or a senior – is that it pure gift. You don’t have to earn the promise of God’s love. It is yours. It is mine. It is ours. No need to strive, or earn or be a certain way. God’s love is pure gift. And in our world where there is a price attached to everything or people have do or be a certain way to be accepted this is priceless.

            I think this is why Mark in his gospel gets straight to what is important. In Mark’s gospel there is no Christmas story. There are no angels or shepherds or dreams or genealogies because none of that matters to Mark. He says it in the first line of the gospel. “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” (Mark 1:1) Then we meet John, clothed in camel hair and eating nothing but locusts and honey. He is a teacher and prophet called to prepare the way for Jesus. In this morning’s reading John is preaching about a “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” (Mark 1:4)

            It sounds daunting doesn’t it? Repentance and sins are words with baggage. But repentance is about turning in a new direction and living in a new way. Sins are all those things that separate us from the love of God. Different perhaps for each one of us. They are the things that prevent us from remembering that we are God’s beloved. John is teaching and preaching to all who will listen about a new way living and a new of drawing closer to God. One day as the crowds are gathered, John says “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptised you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”(Mark 1:7 – 8)

            The very next words of the gospel are, “In those days Jesus of Nazareth of Galilee was baptised by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from haven, “You are my son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:9 – 11) With that, Jesus begins his public ministry of teaching and healing.

            That is the starting place for all of us to. We are God’s beloved children and God is well pleased with us. This past year, we started hearing the hopes and prayers of parents as they bring their children for baptism. Each family offers something different but they are all grounded in a deep love for their children. One family wrote, “Our hopes and prayers for our daughter are that she is healthy in mind, body and spirit. We hope to raise her in a supportive community of family, friends and neighbors - where she feels protected and supported, encouraged and challenged, and treated with respect. We pray that she learns and reflects Christian values in her everyday life: that she has optimistic faith, patience and peace; that she is thoughtful, confident and brave; lives with intention and purpose; gives thanks and finds happiness from within and shares that happiness with the world.”

            David Lose writes, “In Holy Baptism God just chooses us. …God says that we are enough. Already. That we are pleasing to God and deserve to be loved. And that identity of being God’s beloved child – precisely because it is established by God – cannot be taken away from us or, for that matter, lost by us. Rather, God continues to come into our lives to call us beloved and blessed and promise once again to be always both with us and for us. That promise and blessing, in turn, helps us face all the challenges we mentioned earlier. Problems at home or in the community, concerns about the world or our personal lives. We can face whatever might be plaguing us with greater confidence knowing that God is on our side.” (http://www.davidlose.net/2018/01/epiphany-1-b-powerful-words-for-a-new-year/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+davidlose%2FIsqE+%28...In+the+Meantime%29)

            As each one of us meets the challenges of this day, this week, this month we are reminded that faith is not a magical cure all but the constant reminder that God is with us lightening the burden and providing hope. Any challenges we face we do so with God’s help and the support with support from our community of faith. With the words beloved ringing in our ears each and every new day, we are called to be about God’s work in the world. And there are so many ways to respond but they are all grounded in a new way of living that is rooted in God’s grace. This makes all things possible. Rooted God’s love, Jesus showed us what that new way of living looked like. It was the face of compassion. It was mercy. It was grace. It was life giving. It was healing. It was hope.

We are invited to be about that work of compassion, mercy, grace, living-giving, healing, and hope. When we feed those who are hungry we proclaim the good news that God is with us. When we walk in the shadows with those who are lost and hurting we offer the light of new life. When we support our brothers and sisters in Christ. Our lives proclaim the good news that we are all God’s beloved children. It is the promise that comes with baptism and that has called us and claimed us as Christ’s own everyday since. 

            Baptism is a new way of living. Mark knew that. He knew that there could be no better way to start the story of Jesus’ life than on the day of his baptism. Today, we are God’s beloved and with us God is well pleased. Amen