The Baptism of Our Lord, January 9th, 2005.
Yahweh and Children Pty Ltd.
Any parent will know that feeling pride when their child does something the same as them. I’m sure that some of you will know what I mean.
It might be mannerism, or a family tradition. It could be when they take up the same sport, or the same hobby. It could be taking on the family business, taking over the family farm. I feel immensely proud when Jacob rides on the back of the motorcycle. It is very pleasing to share my life, my interests with him.
It works the other way as well. As a son, I feel good when I realise I do something that my father would have approved of, or something that he enjoyed himself. There is a feeling of pride, of something continued, something shared, something that outlives both of us, especially since he died. It is an ongoing connection with him, it maintains something that I hope we had. Hopefully the things that I do like him are good things, positive things.
Now the need to please our parents shouldn’t rule our lives. But it is how we are, and sometimes there is no escaping it. And if it is positive and healthy, then no point escaping it. And the fact is, it feels good to continue this family stuff, doesn’t it. It is an ongoing connection to something that is bigger than ourselves. We feel good because the feelings of pride help to validate who and what we are. It is something worthwhile.
I suspect for Jesus then, it was no different.
I imagine he worked as Joseph’s apprentice, learning carpentry, carrying on in the family business. Then, when the time was right, he picked up his real trade, and carried on that family business – the business of proclamation, salvation and healing. The business we are all a part of. As God’s son, then, it is only natural that God would be pleased with Him.
Most of us know that in baptism we don’t just become member of God’s church, receiving a licence, or an obligation, to get up early on Sunday mornings to sing hymns and feel holy. In Baptism we are actually joined to Jesus as part of His family, and through this we are joined to God. God is our Parent, our Father and Mother. We are God’s offspring, God’s children. We are made members of God’s family. There are obligations in this, and I guess one of them is that we should all live in harmony. A big ask. Because unfortunately all of us in God’s family can’t always agree on matters of faith and biblical interpretation. But there has never been a time where uniform agreement has been a characteristic of God’s family.
Many of us will have heard what the Anglican Dean of Sydney is reported to have said, that the Tsunami tragedy is a reminder for God that judgement is not far off. Now whilst it is being argued about whether or not he was misquoted or taken out of context, and lets face it, it wouldn’t be the first time he has said something controversially conservative and literalist, the fact is that many ultra-conservative Christians do believe in this punishing God, bringing forth disaster on a sinful world, punishing people who are bad. I mean, the Old Testament, in many ways, supports this. You only need to look at the story of Noah’s ark, don’t you. A sinful world drowned, the one good family saved. This belief is biblical. Also Biblical though, is the fact that Jesus did not believe in this punishment thing. Just look at John chapter 9, where Jesus is asked which of a blind man’s parents sinned for him to be born blind. He says neither of them. The man born blind was a way for God to show God’s works to the world, God’s glory, and the power and healing that God can bring. Bad things happen to good people and bad people, just like good things happen to bad people and good people. If those who suffer are all sinners, if it is divine retribution for wrongs done against God, where does the suffering that Jesus experienced fit in? If Jesus was the only one ever born without sin, as He was, then surely under this flawed theology, He would never have suffered.
There will always be sibling rivalry in the church. We have to face that fact. And there will be times when one point of view, one particular theology, one method of biblical interpretation is favoured over others. But we do need to at least try to share the vision of what it is to be part of the family business. And the focus at the moment is, I think, how does the family business, the church of God, respond to massive natural disasters, and where do we find God in amongst it all.
It’s quite natural to doubt God when something like this happens. The logical thought process is that if God is huge and powerful and can do like, anything, then why do these things happen? We all know that this is a flawed human thought pattern that leads us nowhere, except perhaps agnosticism or atheism. We actually need an image of God that is bigger than this Father Christmas thing of good presents for good people, bad presents for bad people, or the superman model of God stepping in to save us all the time. We need an image of God that is much more intimate, much more adult, much more caring. Too caring, in fact to, to want to keep us in cotton wool.
I guess the fact that I strive to know is that even though suffering happens, God is amongst us. Jesus, in his suffering, did more for humanity than the removal of suffering could ever do. For in the face of suffering, human faith triumphs. It’s a pity it takes such an event to spur us into action, but look at the way the world has mobilised to help those affected by the Tsunami. Its not just us Aussies, as some current affair programs would have us believe. It is worldwide. There is an underlying sense of compassion in many people, compassion that has at its root some sort of faith in the future of humanity and the God who leads it. Some would not acknowledge this truth, but it is a truth. God works even through non-believers at times.
God can be found not in the destruction of the Tsunami, not in some huge divine act of retribution and punishment, but in the response of the many millions of people who are mobilising to help those affected. It is the inspiration of the compassion, exemplified by Jesus, and within us in the Holy Spirit, that God can be found. It is the altruism, the care and concern, the empathy. God is in the movement of people to help the common good, and it crosses all boundaries.
Jesus showed us that Gods love knows no bounds. God doesn’t do disasters, or illnesses, or those other bad things that happen to people. That’s just part of the imperfect nature of creation. But God is there, in Jesus, with us in the midst of the bad stuff as well as the good stuff. God loves us, God sent Jesus to live as us, and sent the Spirit to inspire us, to help us keep going.
Caring for others is a tradition in this family of God. The family business is the business of love. It is helping others, telling others about God in thought and word and deed. It is expanding the company. It feels good to connect with that tradition. It feels good to be part of the family, especially this one where all of us together make a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. It is a family that we are baptised, born into spiritually. Even Jesus was baptised into it. And that’s how close we are, that’s how much Jesus empathised with us. He was baptised too, the perfect being treated as imperfect.
When we are baptised, we are connecting with the fact that even Jesus allowed himself to be baptised. We are connected with that greatest of family traditions, of welcoming all, even sinners and the unclean and the sick and outsiders to the family of God. Now personally, I think that is pretty cool.
The Lord be with you,
And also with you.
