I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
a light to the nations, (Isaiah 42:6)
I went to a meeting last week as I am wont to do when possible to sit and listen and learn from people whose lives are different from mine. Their lives are not different because we hope or dream for different things—like feeling safe or being loved or having good work or being treated with dignity. But different that comes simply because of the situation of our birth, or the color of our skins, or life circumstances that in a heartbeat can upend plans for a future. It is an important spiritual discipline to be present and it opens my heart and mind to listen for God’s call in the world.
At this meeting, I picked up a book that I had been wanting to read. It is written by the Rev. Dr. William Barber, a preacher in the Disciples of Christ tradition in North Carolina. It begins with a story about his grandmother. He calls his grandmother, ‘Grandmama.’ While he was growing up his grandmamma always cooked for the whole family (and often for others who would stop by). When the Rev. Barber would visit as a child, he would often sit in the kitchen with other family members helping to roll out biscuits, stirring the bubbling pots on the stove, and listening to church songs being sung. He remembered that she had a ritual whenever the food was done. His grandmother would take a bottle of anointing oil that she rubbed on people’s heads and slip it into the pocket of her apron. She would then take some money and some of the food she had cooked and she would say, “I’ll be back shortly. I’ve got to go and hope somebody.”[1]
He said that as a young boy learning proper English in school, he thought that his grandmother was misspeaking—that she meant to say “help” when she said “hope.” But looking back he says that his grandmother articulated more theology in that single phrase than some preachers manage to communicate in an entire sermon. So if you hear or learn nothing else this morning, remember the charge to “go and hope somebody.” As a person of faith she knew that prayers had to be accompanied by food for the hungry. She practiced “visitation” that was to her every bit as important as Sunday worship. She knew in her careful choice of words that love in action was not simply about helping people. It was a practice of hope that enabled others to keep going and kept her eye on the promises of God.
Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. It was a very intentional trip to see the evangelist who was baptizing many people by water calling on them to repent—to turn their lives toward God– for the kingdom of God was near. It is only in this Gospel that we hear this exchange between John and Jesus. Only here in the New Testament is the word, “restrain” or “prevent” used. Found in verse 14, John uses this word to protest Jesus being baptized by him. John knowingly states that the order should be reversed. Jesus should be the one baptizing John.
John knows his place. John understands his role is to point to the One who is greater than he, the One whose sandals he is unworthy to tie, whose ministry will supersede his and who will authorize baptism, not only by water, but by the Holy Spirit. John knows that baptizing Jesus, who he recognizes as God’s anointed, does not conform to the rules.
But Jesus knows that from the moment of his birth to a young woman in a simple stable, that in God’s kingdom the rules will be fulfilled, but will also be surpassed. In God’s kingdom, the letter of the law will be surpassed so that the heart of the law may be fulfilled. The last will be first so that all may participate in God’s glory. The one who tramples on the head of the poor will be cast down so that all may share in God’s goodness. And whatever is done for the most humble will be counted as being done for Jesus himself.
Jesus convinces him that his baptism is necessary ‘to fulfill all righteousness.’ That it is Jesus’ life to be in solidarity with all who struggle to experience God in transformative ways. God’s will for both John and Jesus come together when Jesus stands on the side of the river with broken humanity and submits to baptism; and John, uncomfortable and unworthy, submerges the divine in the waters of the Jordan River.
“To fulfill all righteousness” is a prayer, a plea and a proclamation. To “fulfill all righteousness” is to be right with God—to line up with God’s will. This “righteousness” is not about our righteousness, but rather the righteousness of God—the way God works in the world to set things right. God points us to the way to live abundantly, to love extravagantly, and to become the beloved who we were created to be.
But God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and God’s ways are not our ways. John may recognize in Jesus the expected Messiah, but God’s ways are not for Jesus to keep this good news only for himself—to claim all authority for his own benefit—for the Messiah to consolidate power rather than serving others. God’s ways are that Jesus will take on the form of a human, live a life in the fullness of humanity, and draw all of creation to God by reaching out to all through his words, his actions, and his life.
In the baptism of Jesus, righteousness is being fulfilled. God’s covenant is once again affirmed in that God, who created the heavens and the earth, who gives people their very breath, tears open the veil between heaven and earth and frees humanity through his son, the beloved. Jesus comes up from the waters of baptism, his faith and purpose renewed and sealed, ready to begin his public ministry. In the form of a dove, the Holy Spirit alights on him to strengthen him for his mission of healing, teaching and redeeming. The voice of God proclaims that Jesus is his beloved Son. It is only a brief plunge in the river, but it initiates his life of ministry in humility and love, and nothing in human history will ever be the same. The Son of God is among us. In him all righteousness will be fulfilled—in him God brings hope to us all. Jesus is getting ready to hope somebody.
Our baptism is a gift from a mighty God who demonstrates his love through his son, who becomes our hope, and who from his baptism steps fully into our humanity, sharing in the fullness of the human experience, forgiving us, pointing us toward freedom, and making righteousness a reality for the world.
In baptism, we become connected through this righteousness. Through the waters of baptism we are joined to our true Source. We become one with Jesus in his life, death, and resurrection. God takes us by the hand, provides for us, protects us, guides us, and sustains us as we journey together as covenant people.
On our baptism we are drenched in God. As we are held in love by our birth family and our family in faith, as prayers and water are poured over us, our chosenness is confirmed. Not in a way that blinds us to our own need, but in a way that empowers us to live lives, so in tune with God’s liberation, that bruised reeds and dim wicks are safe in our care. Living so fully as a part of God’s energizing force that we do not faint or give up while justice is denied to any of Gods’ beloved children. Being infused so completely with God’s love that we can be a part of God’s eternal plan to “hope somebody.” In baptism we are marked as Christ’s own forever. In baptism God reaffirms God’s promise to all people that God has not abandoned us or given up on us or on this world.
Baptism is saturated in hope.
Baptism is an image of beauty in the midst of chaos. At its core it recalls the chaotic waters of creation and the Spirit of God hovering with compassion over the deep abyss. Every baptism reminds us of liberation from exile, the waters parting as we walk the perilous path out of bondage into hope. Every baptism is an invitation to open our eyes and see God at work in us and in spite of us, a holy wind of life touching and inspiring us. With every life that comes to the font, grace is released once again into the world as one more person rises to life in Jesus and becomes a fulfillment of the promise that God makes from the beginning of time.
Today we will renew and remember our time of baptism. In the words spoken at our baptism we look forward with hope. As we come to the thanksgiving table, you are invited to be renewed by touching the water of baptism to your face and reminding yourself that you are “God’s beloved and with you, God is well pleased.” I would like to have you practice saying this. So please turn to your neighbor. If you are sitting on the end, turn around and find someone behind or in front of you and say to them, “You are God’s beloved. With you God is well pleased.”
Whatever waters rage around us, we remember a story of God hovering over the surface of the deep bringing light from darkness and goodness from the emptiness. We remember God’s accompanying liberation that carried the people from bondage through a parted sea. We give thanks for the son of God who rose from the river to the words that affirmed his life and the lives of all who follow him, “You are my beloved.”
No matter where we are in our journey in life—through the waters of baptism, through the promise of God, through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, we are vessels being filled with hope. In God’s time and with God’s help, may we be a people called in righteousness whose mission and blessing it is to “hope somebody.”
[1] The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. The Third Reconstruction. Boston: Beacon Press, 2016, pp 3-4.