|
The story of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan river is our story. This is why we celebrate the Feast of Jesus’ baptism. It has something to do with us, with our lives. It’s not just about Jesus but also about us. Of course, we can go into its theological significance that Jesus is baptized for us despite his sinlessness or that this gospel account proves he is the Son of God, but let’s set them aside because we don’t meditate on the gospel lesson to defend Jesus. Jesus doesn’t need our defense. He can very well take care of himself!
I would rather like us to focus on the voice from heaven: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” What Jesus hears in his baptism is what we can and should hear, not just when we were baptized but all the time. Many of us were baptized as an infant or a child that we might not vividly remember a single thing but might have some pictures in which your parents were lovingly watching you who was about to be soaked in water and oil and all your family and church members were laughing or smiling at you crying. From the perspective of the infant or child, this whole ritual definitely looks far from love. Yet, love is there in the heart of God as well as in the hearts of all those gathered in person and spirit. The baptismal rite is a sign, a symbol, or a public statement that everyone is God’s beloved. Those who are to be baptized have two roles of 1) responding to the divine love by going through the ritual themselves and 2) reminding others of God’s love that it is available for all. What this sacrament of baptism conveys is then much greater than gaining membership to church or having access to the Holy Eucharist. The message that you’re God’s beloved, that your life is precious to God, tears apart the heavens to reach down to you, us, and the world. This message can only be delivered through the Holy Spirit herself to you, us, and the world. Now, I want our spiritual exercise of contemplating the word “beloved” to be useful and practical. There are three steps: 1. Let’s break down the word into “be” and “loved.” As you’re reading this reflection, adjust your body to a comfortable posture, and sit still. As you open up your chest, your neck and head tilt down a bit. Keep your shoulders back, and have your spine straight and upright with your eyes half-closed. Then simply be. If thoughts and feelings distract you, don’t fight but interiorly say “be” as you breathe in and “loved” as you breathe out. If you become drowsy, return to the word. The word “beloved” not only becomes your anchor to be in love with the triune God but also helps to create a sacred time and space in you that brings you to the Jordan River. 2. The phrase said in our baptismal rite, “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever” means you’re God’s beloved forever. In a way you’re embodying the sacred word, “beloved.” Whenever you become judgmental of yourself, say to yourself the word “beloved” or “I’m beloved” silently or aloud. “Beloved” becomes your formula or mantra that stops you from attacking yourself. It’s an anchor that grounds you in God’s compassion that leads to self-compassion. Say to yourself either silently or aloud, “I’m beloved.” This is another way of saying, “God loves me.” 3. This can work in situations where we become judgmental of others. As you’re about to come up with judgmental comments or even after you make a judgment of others, say to yourself, “s/he or they are God’s beloved.” This spiritual practice is not about indulging in wrong behaviors, but prioritizing the order. Mercy comes before justice. Mercy cleanses our eyes of judgment to see others through the lens of compassion and seeks justice so that wrongdoers can amend their lives. Friends in Christ, let us start this year by learning to be. Seek within your hearts the inner place where you simply are loved. In the moment of being loved, we are immersed in the love of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit who is our source of love for others. Amen. The Christian expression of being “chosen” or “destined” for adoption as God’s children is not meant to make Christians feel more special or “holier than thou.” Being chosen or adopted as God’s children through Christ is not a privilege or a ticket to heaven but a holy burden we are to carry for the sake of others. It is the very basis of our Christian duty that we live for our neighbors and love them as ourselves. To put it simply, if we’re chosen to be God’s children, we ought to live and act like one. This certainly gives us an enormous weight of socioethical responsibility, which can lead to a form of Christian legalism. We cannot avoid being legalistic unless our action originates from our self-acknowledgment and self-awareness of being chosen as God’s children. We don’t serve and love God and our neighbors to be chosen but only because we’re chosen.
Let’s frankly unpack and explore what it is to be chosen. What’s the experience of being chosen? As Christians, we traditionally call this experience our personal encounter with God. I’ve mentioned a lot about how this encounter actually takes place. It doesn’t matter where we are. (Yes, you can encounter God outside the church for sure. Let’s put God in a tiny box!) Whenever storms of our thoughts and feelings calm down and there’s nothing else in our hearts, God who is always in us reveals as if we can see things after clouds of dust settle down. When we close our eyes to sleep at night, thoughts might pop up but when they disappear gradually, there’s a sense of tranquility or calmness. We might fall asleep right away but in that slight moment, God is seen. Have we ever had those moments when we wake early in the morning around 4 am that our minds are so vividly lucid? Not much thought or feeling arising but just simply and curiously wondering, “What am I doing this time?” What about observing a cute intruder in our backyard who might be looking for bread crumbs? We don’t think or feel much but are in awe. These are so ordinary experiences of our daily lives in which God suddenly and gently visits that we don’t even notice or can’t imagine “that” would be God. But if not here and now, where else would God be? “The eyes of your heart enlightened” that St. Paul in today’s lesson mentions are the eyes that can see God so quietly visiting in our ordinary lives. To be chosen is to see God with the eyes of our hearts enlightened. With these spiritual eyes, we can see every single encounter with God in its nature is the experience of our union with God. God is not an object distant from us, social-distancing, keeping 6 feet apart. We’re always in God’s embrace. Our encounter with God is another term for our self-awareness of being in union with God. Thus, being chosen is being united with God. Being adopted as God’s children is being conceived in God’s womb. Both of these spiritual metaphors indicate God’s eternal oneness with us that we’re ever present to God because we’re in God. On the other hand, God also dwells in us. How God is experienced is in us, which is why our encounter with God is always personal. Spiritually speaking, the doctrine of the Trinity is experiential. The Transcendent (traditionally God the Father) in whom we are and the Imminent (traditionally God the Holy Spirit) who is in us are experienced in our human nature that Jesus (traditionally God the Son) shares with us. As we continue to observe the season of Christmas, we are reminded that this intimate coming of God in us is the core message of the incarnation. The incarnation is our deepest spiritual experience of God. In our human body which is temporal and impermanent, the divine is experienced as in Christ the human and the divine are united. This oneness is nothing but love. Having been immersed in the baptism of love in which we’re sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own, we cannot help but love. If I may add two more words to Emily Dickinson’s poem “I dwell in possibility” introduced by Amy Allen this past Sunday, we who are chosen and loved are to “dwell in possibility of love - the spreading wide my narrow hands to gather paradise.” My friends in Christ, as we enter a new chapter of our lives in 2021, may God grant us all with a spirit of wisdom and revelation that the eyes of our hearts be enlightened, to see ourselves chosen and loved by God so that we choose love for others. Amen. |
Paul"...life up your love to that cloud [of unknowing]...let God draw your love up to that cloud...through the help of his grace, to forget every other thing." Archives
January 2025
|