Called from the Beginning

Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, January 7, 2024
Mark 1:4-11

    “What do you want to be when you grow up?”  Do you remember that being an annoying question when you were in high school or college, especially if you weren’t totally sure what you wanted to do with your life?  Are any of you still wondering what you’ll be when you grow up?  As we get older, the question to make conversation becomes, “What do you do for a living?”  And in retirement, “How are you spending your time these days?”  We ask what you want to be, but what we mean, really, is what do you DO, how are we spending our time, what is our job, our career, our hobbies and activities, right?  Americans love doing.  We get a lot done!  We are hard workers and take pride in our work, most of us.  Hopefully, many of us view our jobs not only as “just a job,” a way to make money, but also as a calling – a way to use our gifts and talents and make a living doing that.  As people of faith, it’s good to remember from time to time that being is as important as doing.  Who we are as Christians is as important as what we DO to live like Christ as Christians.  Ideally, our actions speak for who we are.
    This month, our readings will be focused on God calling different people in the Bible, people like Samuel, Jonah, Moses, and the first disciples.  We’ll be looking at how those call stories fit with what we hear God calling us to do today.  We’ll ask how we hear God calling us today.  Today, we start with the reminder that God’s call is not only about vocation and career choices.  God doesn’t just call us to DO things, God calls us to BE certain things.  God calls us to be the light of Christ.  God calls us to be Christ to our neighbors.  God calls us be followers of Jesus.  God calls us to remember who and whose we are – children of God, God’s beloved.  We can always go back to our core identity in Christ, no matter what we do, and that starts with our baptism.
As we begin a new year, we started today’s readings right from the beginning, with the first chapter of the first book of the Bible, Genesis 1.  Who did God create us to be?  Our scripture readings remind us Americans who are so focused on doing to also remember who we are and who God calls us to be.  As Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan river, we join Jesus in his baptism.  Michelle had the blessing of joining Jesus in his baptism today, and we all celebrate with her and remember our own baptisms into Christ.  The voice that sounds from heaven at Jesus’ baptism is the same voice we hear at our baptisms, “You are my child, my beloved, with you I am well pleased.” We begin responding to God’s call with this phrase grounding and rooting us.  With the voice of God surrounding us, we know who we are so that no matter what we go on to do, we know that we belong to God – we are beloved, along with Jesus our brother.
Two weeks ago on Christmas Eve, we heard the beginning of Jesus of Nazareth’s earthly ministry with his birth to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem in Luke’s gospel.   Mark’s gospel starts out with a different beginning, with the appearance of John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, as an adult, calling us to prepare the way of the Lord.  In all four gospels, Jesus does not begin his public ministry as an adult at thirty years’ old until he is baptized by John.  Baptism is a new beginning for Jesus.  Note that Jesus has not done anything yet, so to speak – no turning water into wine, no healing of the sick or raising of the dead, no calling of the first disciples even.  God’s blessing and declaration that Jesus is his beloved Son at his baptism is not dependent on what Jesus does.  Jesus doesn’t receive baptism as a reward for work well done – and God’s declaration that Jesus is his beloved son is not based on any human achievement.  Jesus IS the son of God because God simply declares him to be.  Jesus’ actions follow as a result of this beginning declaration through baptism.
So, too, baptism is a new beginning for us, not based on anything we’ve done. Living out of our baptisms, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to do many great things in Jesus’ name.  In fact, like John the Baptist’s baptism, our baptism includes repentance and forgiveness of sins for what we have done and left undone that we regret or wish we could UNDO.  Baptism for us is not only where we are blessed and claimed as God’s saints, but also a radical welcome and cleansing for sinners.  These words we hear at our baptism and hear again today, “You are my child, my beloved, with you I am well pleased,” are given as pure gift for us.  Any call we receive from God after our baptism is rooted in this foundation of knowing we are beloved eternally by God – anything we do is a response to God’s great love for us, knowing God loves who we are and not just for what we do.
Claimed and called beloved by God through out baptism, then, we are strengthened to go out in the name of Christ and share God’s love.  How we do that – where, when, and what we do, too, depends on the unique gifts and call God gives each one of us.  We’ll unpack that a bit more in the coming weeks.   But no matter what we do, thanks be to God, we belong to God and we bear the name of Christ.  Amen!