by Fr. Bill Garrison
Please note that the following sermon text was provided prior to the audio recording. The two versions may differ substantially.
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
—Matthew 3:13-17
Epiphany begins today. Epiphany is when the hidden becomes evident. Something might have been in plain sight but for the first time we become aware of its presence and truly discover what it is as opposed to what we previously believed. We have an “epiphany”, if you will. Here is an example.
A honeymoon couple was in the famous Watergate Hotel in Washington. The bride was concerned about security as anyone might be in that hotel and asked, "What if the place is still bugged?"
The groom thought about and wondered about it himself. "I'll look for a bug."
He looked behind the drapes, behind the pictures, under the rug. Finally, he said, "AHA!" Under the rug was a disc with four screws. With a big smile on his face he got his Swiss army knife, unscrewed the screws, and threw them and the disc out the window.
The next morning, the hotel manager stopped by the room and asked the newlyweds, "How was your room? How was the service? How was your stay at the Watergate Hotel?"
The groom replied suspiciously, "Why are you asking me all of these questions?"
To which the hotel manager said, "Well, the couple in the room under you complained that the chandelier fell on them.”
Today we heard the story of the baptism of Jesus. He was about thirty years old when it occurred. I am sure lots of people had known him pretty well and had known him for a long time. Yet it wasn’t until the moment of his baptism that they began to get a glimpse of who he truly was. Until then he was just a carpenter, a man with brothers and sisters in the little town of Nazareth in Galilee, son of Mary and Joseph. Nazareth was no big deal and he probably wasn’t thought of as anybody extraordinary either. As Nathanial famously said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
But that day witnesses saw him baptized by John, saw the Holy Spirit light upon him somewhat like a dove, and heard the voice of God. "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."
And they looked at him with new eyes. They might not have recognized him as the long awaited messiah, but they knew he was way more special than they previously were aware.
Have you ever come to know someone as more than you had previously thought? Perhaps it might have been a boss or an associate? It has happened to me and I think the most dramatic example is my maternal grandmother.
I have spoken about her a few times. I hope I am not overdoing it now, but here we go as I talk about her again. Growing up she was just my grandmother. She was a lady, and adult, that I can’t say I knew particularly well. She was always nice to me. She cooked a lot. She made cakes and candy. She lived on a farm and obviously didn’t have a lot of money. She fired up the pickup truck on Sundays and went into town to church and taught Sunday school. She took great care of my granddad, a person who appeared to be somewhat helpless without her. I remember she liked to work crossword puzzles and chat with other people. I can’t say I ever heard her raise her voice. I know I never heard her say a mean word to or about anyone.
But she was just my grandmother, nothing more and nothing less. And it stayed that way all my childhood and well into my time as an adult. I guess truthfully I didn’t have my epiphany about her until I entered seminary and started studying the life of Jesus Christ in detail.
And then it hit me like a ton of bricks. In my entire life I then realized I had never met another person like my grandmother. I recognized for the first time that she was the best example of what Jesus was probably like that I would ever encounter. I still feel that way. I have crossed paths with a number of holy people in my life as an ordained person. Not one has approached the sanctity of my grandmother.
You see the things I took for granted about her were the very things that made her special. She listened. She cared. She loved. She was not judgmental in any way. She had time if you needed it. She had sympathy and patience. She was smart. She was insightful. And I finally realized this was God’s gift to me. Her presence in my life was a seed that would grow and sprout much later. I became aware that this Jesus I was studying was a lot like my grandmother. In an important way I had already encountered Jesus. That was my epiphany. She remains a shining example of the holy for me to this day.
Now I am hopeful I can help each of you have an epiphany today just as the crowd did when Jesus was baptized or I did when I was able to see my grandmother for who she was.
I would like you to think about God and your relationship with God. And then I would like for you to recognize that you did not create God. You did not create your relationship with God. God created you and God reached out to you and that is why you have a relationship with God.
One of my favorite theologians, Karl Barth, reminds us that there is a fixed chasm between us and God. Had God not been willing to make God’s self known to us we would never have known about our creator or even of God’s existence. We only know God exists because God reached out to us.
And so I am going to suggest something perhaps a bit radical to you. God made us. We came out of the mind of God. What we are is what God created. Whatever each of us may have done, good or bad, does not change God’s love for God’s creation. Please remember what God said at the baptism of Jesus. "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."
God said that about Jesus before he had done a thing. His ministry hadn’t even started yet. He was already the beloved just because he was God’s. Just as the father forgave the prodigal son before he could even as for forgiveness God loves God’s creation no matter what.
So I am going to ask us to sit quietly for a couple of minutes and think about it. God created you. God forgives you before you can even ask for forgiveness. You are God’s beloved. Just ponder that for a bit.
"This is my child, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased."
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.