January 8, 2022, the Baptism of our Lord -Hope Lutheran Church, Calgary
Isaiah 42:1-9, Matthew 3:13-17
So did anybody make any New Year’s resolutions? How are you doing on that?
I have a love-hate relationship with New Year’s resolutions. Or maybe it’s more of a like-hate relationship. I like sitting down once a year and reflecting on the past twelve months and being honest about my failures and shortcomings and thinking about what kind of person I really want to be and thinking about what I can do in the coming year to live into being that person. I appreciate the honest self-reflection and commitment that comes with New Year’s resolutions.
But more and more I have become wary about the way in which resolutions have led to this idea that we should be perpetually dissatisfied with ourselves. That there is something about that us that constantly needs improvement, that we’re not good enough the way we are, that there is something lacking in each of us. I see the ads for fitness programs to start the year with, or fancy home or garage organization systems that will help us live without last year’s clutter, or new systems of daily planning that will help us live our most productive year ever, and I feel unsettled. It’s not that I’m perfectly fit - far from it, or that my house is perfectly organized - that is not true and I definitely have too much clutter, and it’s not that I am particularly productive in my daily life. I absolutely get side-tracked in my day more than I want. I need improvement. And yet, are we really supposed to be this dissatisfied with ourselves?
This question comes up particularly strongly whenever I hear the story of Jesus’ baptism and God’s words, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” It’s an echo of the words we just heard in Isaiah, when God says, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.”
Wow. I bet Jesus never wondered whether he was good enough. I bet he never made New Year’s resolutions. If God claims you as beloved and speaks about being well-pleased with you, if God’s soul delights in you, would you feel like you needed to make a new year’s resolution or would you think you’re doing okay?
If you have been baptized, then you, like Jesus, are one of God’s beloved. You are one of those with whom God is well-pleased. Regardless of what gurus and advice givers and fitness experts are saying to you, you’re doing okay. More than okay - you are one of those in whom God delights. Now before I explain why, because your instinct is probably to go eh, I’m not so sure about that, just sit for a second and try to believe it.
Okay, here’s why. You were baptized into the same baptism as Christ and that means you are as good as Christ. We know this, Paul says this in Galatians 3:27: as many of you as were baptized into Christ were clothed with Christ. In baptism, you were clothed with Christ. In baptism, God put Christ on you. Your shortcomings, your failures, your sins were exchanged for Christ’s perfection, and accomplishments, and righteousness. This is what God does in baptism. This is why we say baptism saves us, wipes away our sins, effects our forgiveness.
And this is not our doing. This is not our doing. This is an act of God. And this is why you are God’s beloved, and why God’s soul delights in you. Even though we do, in a sense, have improvements to make, even though we may have failed to keep last year’s resolutions, even though our lives might be messy or simply just a mess, even though all of these things - God has given you Christ’s perfection in baptism and God sees you as you are in Christ. Beloved. Delightful. Sufficient. Perfect, even.
But again, perfect because of Christ, not perfect because of ourselves. Being covered by Christ in the waters of baptism does not mean that every decision we make, every thing we do, is perfect like Christ. And that’s because we forget that Christ, who lived for others, who died for others, is how we are made perfect, and instead, we give in to what the world tells us, and we live for ourselves and we die for ourselves and we center ourselves as the reason or cause of our perfection. We start believing that it’s our own attempts at self improvement that make God love us and that delight God. And that’s when we go astray. That’s when arrogance and self-justification and lording it over others takes over.
And that’s when we turn to those New Year’s resolutions because that’s when we get that little voice inside of us telling us that something is not right with us. Advertisers tells us that what’s not right is our body, or our house, or our work, but what’s actually not right is that we have forgotten that Christ, who calls us to himself and in doing so calls us to live for others, is who makes us right.
And when we allow God to turn us to Christ, and to our baptism in Christ, then we are turned away from ourselves and recentred in the source of our righteousness and perfection. God says this in Isaiah, “here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon them.” God is the reason we are beloved by God, God’s spirit is the reason God delights in us.
Thank God, then, that because of our baptism we can be 100% positive that God’s spirit is with us. The Spirit that descended from heaven onto Jesus in his baptism descended onto you in yours. And so you are likewise empowered to “bring forth justice” to be “a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon,” you are given God’s strength and wisdom to make the world a better place.
So perhaps this year, rather than making resolutions about becoming a better person, either healthier or more organized or more productive, perhaps you might resolve to remember daily that God has clothed you in Christ and empowered you with the Holy Spirit. Perhaps you might resolve to live into being the person that God has already made you to be in baptism. And to remember daily that because of that, no matter what, you are God’s beloved, and in you God’s soul delights. Thanks be to God, Amen.
