Wednesday, January 15, 2020


A Name for Ourselves
By Griff Martin
A Sermon on Matthew 3:13-17 and Isaiah 42:1-9
For the First Sunday of Epiphany (Jan 12, 2020)
For the Beloveds of First Austin: a baptist community of faith

Incarnate and Coming Christ, we ask that you once again take the Word and transform it into a living and breathing new reality we can all together experience. Make us aware of your presence here in this space and in these words God, for if we are present to you then nothing else will matter, but if we are not present to you then nothing else will matter. In the name of the Creator, the Christ and the Comforter.  Amen.

Let’s begin this morning with the doctrine and theology of original sin…. I know those are the words you got up early and drove downtown to hear this morning – a good sermon (well, a sermon), on the doctrine and theology of original sin. What could be more exciting, right?

So, let’s start here: I don’t believe in original sin. I think this particular theology has been developed and largely taught in the church based on poor readings and understandings of Scripture, Augustine and John Calvin, and it’s been distilled to a simple but incorrect understanding that goes something like this: because Adam sinned, we are all born sinful. It’s in our very DNA, similar to our eye color and height. Adam ate the apple and because of that, we are all doomed to hell.

I could list a host of theological reasoning to explain why I find original sin to be heretical, to include the very birth of Jesus as one fully human and yet, one we claim that is without sin (which is important to remember today because the question should come up in our minds on the day we celebrate the baptism of Jesus: Was Jesus baptized to repent of his sins? No, he was not). Back to original sin. I could point to a more practical example – the birth of a newborn or our practice of family dedication. Never in my life have I held a newborn baby and thought about original sin and how this baby I was holding inherited doom and was destined for the flames of hell. Instead I have thought about goodness and beauty and possibility; thus, why I believe in original goodness of human beings.

I believe we are born good and pure, full of beauty and possibility, and born into a world full of goodness and beauty and possibility – and at the same time, a world that has often fallen for a less than good and pure story. Thus, all the brokenness we see around us. And most of us end up falling for that same story. I think the stories of Genesis 1-11 are trying to tell us that truth over and over again, to warn us…. The stories affirm our goodness and warn us of all the bad stories we don’t need to fall for. It’s all a brilliant way to express a truth found in Proverbs: pride goeth before the fall. 

And I think our foundational myths that are trying so hard to explain our beginning and who we are, the stories we find in Genesis 1-11, all try to warn us of pride going before the fall. Adam takes the apple because he wants to know and be more than God. Cain kills Abel because he wants more. And the stories of pride keep building, until they climax in Genesis 11. 

The story begins with humanity having one language, using the same words. All is good in the story, people seem to be getting along, and then they have this idea: let’s build something grand, something that will get noticed. This is in and of itself not a bad plan. What if the people had this idea, “let’s build something grand for God?” But that is not the story we have; again, pride goeth before the fall. Genesis 11:4: “Come let us build our self a city and a tower that is grand, so that we can make a name for ourselves.” This might be one of the most relevant passages in Scripture, something we all can relate to…. Let’s make a name for ourselves. 

Because isn’t that what it all seems to be about these days? In this world of cancel culture, a world of lists of influential and sexiest and richest people, in a world that is so individualistic and ego-centric… in that world we know these words: let’s make a name for ourselves. Looking at history and humanity as a whole, pride might be our original software malfunction (the virus we all catch from the world and we all fall for). Our very goodness, if not understood correctly, becomes pride. 

Moving from Genesis to the Gospels, God sees this paradox that our very goodness, if not understood correctly, becomes pride. It’s part of the problem. Thus, when God realizes that for us to fully understand things like God’s plan for humanity, God is going to have to become human. This issue has to be tackled. 

So, after a few decades of understanding humanity, of walking around in human skin, of seeing the world, of being a baby and a kid and a teenager and a young adult (the hardest classes in this whole journey of being human)… decades we know very little about, with the exception of running away to the temple (because how many of us, Jesus included, really want our life stories to focus on those years of 12-25?)…  thus, we find Jesus one day in the line of humanity who is waiting to get into the waters of the Jordan River with this prophet John the Baptist. 

He steps into the waters and there is a bit of an argument because John does not feel fit to baptize Jesus – quite a task. But Jesus calls him to the task because that is what Jesus does, constantly call us to tasks that we don’t feel up to or worthy of. John immerses Jesus into these muddy waters. And then, well… hear the words of Matthew again: “And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened up to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and landing on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am will pleased.’” 

Jesus has not done anything yet. There is no public ministry, there have been no healings, the water is not yet wine, the lepers are still lepers, the parables have not been uttered, the miracles have not occurred. He has done nothing that we know of except to live as a human being. He has not made a name for himself yet, and yet, “This my Beloved.”

Beloved. Original goodness. Original worth. Original claiming as God’s own. The only name we ever need. 

As baptists, we take a bit of pride in how we baptize (please hear the echo from earlier, pride goeth before the fall). We do believe in immersion. Baptism is a choice that one makes to demonstrate their belief that Jesus is Savior and a promise to follow his ways, to live like Jesus. For us, baptism is about obedience; thus, we don’t baptize infants. But we should not throw the baby out with the bathwater; there is another element to baptism as well that is emphasized in infant baptism practices… the acknowledgment, the claiming of our original name, Beloved.

Beloved, perfectly created, loved by God, desired by God, pleasing to God, good in every way. Beloved is the only name we ever need.

This is our heritage.

And yet, how often we forget. The Martin family has Swedish, Danish heritage, both on Abby and my side, yet we know very little about this. Abby and I are very hands-off parents; a project is to be completed by the student, not their parent. It’s equal parts principle and pure wonderful laziness. Thus, when Blake was asked to do a heritage project, we suggested Sweden and let her do the rest. Then came the day for the Cultural Fair at school, the first time we saw her project. So, imagine our surprise when we realized that one of the questions the student had to address was “how does your family celebrate your heritage?” And on the display Blake had written, “To celebrate our heritage every summer on Swedish Independence Day by dancing to Abba and eating the candy Swedish fish all day.” 

We have never done that. I looked at Blake and pointed to that answer and she shrugged and said, “sounds fun.” And I knew then we needed to know a bit more about our heritage. So, we started to so some work, and one of the things we discovered was the practice of hygge and lagoom, which are about bliss, coziness and contentment. Now this we have been practicing; this the Martin family does well. Our perfect evening is not a night on the town; we like pizza and puzzles and movies by the fire under blankets wearing sweat suits. That is perfection for us. 

And now we know we have a perfect reason to practice that – it’s our heritage. We were made to do that. This is who we were created to be. Much like all of us here today were created to be Beloved. 

Claim your heritage, claim what you were created to be and do… And our heritage begins with one word: Beloved. 

Before you do anything right or wrong, before you create anything good or bad, before you make a name for yourself, before you do or don’t do anything, before everything… you are Beloved. Hear that. You are Beloved.

You are exactly who God created you to be. 

You are perfect. 

You are good.

You are worthy of Love and Belonging. 

You don’t have to try so hard because everything you want and need you already have: God’s love and affirmation. 

In you, God is pleased.

You are God’s own.

In this world of cancel culture, a world of lists of influential and sexiest and richest, in a world that is so individualistic and ego-centric, know these words: You are Beloved.

Each day you step on the scale hoping you have reached that horrible thing we know as “goal weight,” know this truth: You are Beloved, whatever you weigh. Each day you open that app on your phone that has all your bank account information and you fall for the horrible lie that you are what you make, that you are your own net worth, know this truth: You are Beloved, no matter how much money you have. Each time you open your report card to find out your GPA and how that will affect your college choice, know this truth: You are Beloved no matter what GPA you hold.

Each time you look at your resume and job title, each time you struggle to own who you really are, each time you remember some horrible name someone called you on the playground that you still carry with you or the name they called you online yesterday, each time you feel “less than” because of your skin color or sexuality or gender, each time you find yourself trying to prove and earn your own worth, hear and know this truth: You are Beloved. 

You are Beloved, and so is everyone else. 

Maybe this is why we celebrate Jesus’ baptism each year because we need to hear these words and this truth: You are Beloved. Because if we believed that about ourselves and about everyone else, our world would truly look very different.

This truth is that this is what allowed Jesus to live the way he did. The miracles, the healing, the parables, the water to wine…. It all comes from claiming his heritage of being God’s beloved – a heritage we get to claim as well. 

Who are you? What name do you carry? Beloved. 

Claim it. Live into it. Let your heritage shape you. Beloved, fully loved, wanted, perfect. This is you. Amen and Amen.

*artwork: Baptism of Christ, painting by Zagitov Vladimir, artmajeur.com/zagitov

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