Three Sermons on One Baptism
by Griff Martin
A Sermon for the Beloveds of First Austin: a baptist community of faith
On Mark 1:4-11
For the Second Sunday after Epiphany (Baptism of the Lord)
January 17, 2021
*This document comes from an oral manuscript.
Sermon One: Three Sermons on One Baptism
I imagine some of you had the same reaction that Jude did when you all saw the title "Sermon One." Usually I just assume that around the house no one is listening to me as I walk around mumbling trying to figure out what to say…. This week I was in the kitchen mumbling about all that I wanted to say this week and I stumbled and mumbled out the idea, “what if there were three sermons?” To which Jude audibly groaned and said, “if there are three sermons there is no Jude for church.”
So, to put your ease at mind, they are all short meditations… it’s how I can say everything that I think needs to be said today on this second Sunday after Epiphany when we are coming a week late liturgically speaking to the baptismal waters, but as I say to a lot of folks that are worried about baptism later in life, “you always find your way to the water exactly when the time is right and Jesus always meets you there.”
The baptism of Jesus is recorded in all 4 Gospels and in each of these Gospels it’s one of the first stories we get. Matthew gives us the nativity and the wisemen and then straight to baptism. Luke gives us a longer birth story and then Jesus playing hide and seek in the temple at age 12 and then baptism. Mark has barely even started his writing and we are here at the baptism of Jesus only 9 verses in…
At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
You are my beloved… and on this word, beloved, the rest of Jesus' ministry rests… and I think ours, as well.
Sermon Two: You are Beloved
It was a church I served at previously. There each January, the pastor had an entire month of sermons that he preached almost verbatim each year about taking care of your money, your body, your relationships and the world.
This was the type of church where you got a bulletin and sermon notes to fill in and I could not make this up if I tried, the Sunday that he preached about taking care of your body, in the middle of the sermon he stopped and everyone used the provided notes to figure out their own personal BMI (Body Mass Index) and then to discover if you had an appropriate and healthy BMI.
There was a woman who always left the service during this sermon; I always admired her bravery for standing up to this horrible sermon. One year she grabbed my hand on the way out and took me with her saying a bit loudly, “He is not going to get mad at you if you leave with me, trust me I will take care of that, now come out here and tell me something good and true so I don’t have to listen to this nonsense again.”
Well, she did not say nonsense, but let’s stick with nonsense to keep this PG rated.
We sat outside the church the rest of that Sunday and we had a pretty amazing pastoral conversation. She talked about why this particular Sunday was so hard on her. She cried a lot and told me about her own journey and how for the last 20 years she had meant to lose weight and get back to her wedding weight but between having kids, parenting, working, struggling with depression… she had never gotten around to losing the 20 pounds she felt she needed to lose. She told me that she could deal with the ‘new year new you’ nonsense everywhere but not at church, it was too much to hear in church that, in her words, “I am fat and unworthy.”
I was really shocked by all of this because the woman sitting with me was someone I had always thought of as an attractive woman. She was very pretty and had a very appropriate physical appearance and then I realized it, she was still falling for the lie, the myth of beauty and perfection that our American western culture is so deeply obsessed with.
You see, I was still young and believed that there was a magical age in which you stopped trying to be all the things that the world told you were important and mattered, the ideals, and finally started just being yourself. What I can tell you a few decades past that moment, if that age exists, I am not there yet.
So I sat there with her, it’s an odd spot to be in… I believe there is something deeply spiritual and wonderful about our bodies (the diversity, the beauty, the strength), but it’s still a hard conversation to have because we have not yet found the appropriate way to talk about that without veering into creepy territory…. So I decided to go with Jesus, always the safest pastoral route.
“Tell me what you think Jesus looked like,” I said to her.
And then she started, “Well I know it’s not right because Jesus grew up in the middle east so he was likely dark skinned but I still see Jesus the way Jesus is pictured in every Baptist Sunday school classroom -- long flowing blonde hair, blue eyes, tall, skinny, handsome… Brad Pitt-ish.”
I said to her, "Well, you know, there is something really interesting in the Gospels," and she looked at me like most of you do when I say that, so I told her to give me a chance.
The story of Jesus and Zacchaeus is found in Luke 19, it’s a great story. And there is a line in there we often miss, verse 3: “He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd.” Now this pronoun in the second part of that sentence is ambiguous in terms of Greek pronouns and we have no clue who the he is referred to there -- when the text says, “because he was short and could not see over the crowd,” is Jesus short or is Zacchaeus short?
We just assume that it’s Zacchaeus, and we do that not because of a better understanding of the Greek, but because of the strong theology we learned in the classic song, “Zacchaeus Was A Wee Little Man.” But what if Jesus was a wee little man?
She thought about it and then she smiled and said, “I kinda like thinking about Jesus like that, whoever said tall was more fitting for Jesus?”
I said, “Yeah, and whoever said what BMI is appropriate for a saint who meant to lose weight but had children and then raised children and worked full time and battled depression and did a really good job at all of it?”
She said that was a better sermon than the one going on in the sanctuary at that moment.
What is the sermon you need right now? What is the thing you and I would have sat on the couch and talked about that morning? What is the thing that you carry with you that you wish you could change, the thing you don’t talk about often, the thing that is cringe-y and shameful for you… the thing that each New Year you want to change…? Because let me assure you, our concept of ideal is far from right and you might already be exactly who you are supposed to be, and second, changing that will likely not bring you what you are looking for: acceptance and love.
Our Gospels begin with a wee little man who has done nothing significant up to this point and God finds him beloved, with him God is well pleased.
Which means maybe I need to revisit that myth I held that there was an age in which you stopped trying to be all the things that the world told you were important and mattered and were beautiful and finally started being yourself. Maybe there is not an age to that, maybe it’s just an acceptance and once we accept that then our true life can really begin?
Our authentic true life begins when we believe and know that God believes in us, God loves us, God calls us beloved.
No matter what we have done or not done.
No matter what we weigh or meant to weigh by now.
How tall or short.
How gay or how straight.
How brave or fearful.
How rich or poor.
How put together or still working on it in process we are.
God loves us because we belong to God.
You are Beloved.
Sermon Three: So Is Everyone Else
You are beloved.
This should all be so easy… But it’s not, I know that. Accepting that we are loved and good and perfect is the challenge of a lifetime for most of us, knowing that we are God’s beloved is work that takes a lifetime.
And then comes the rest of that sentence, you are beloved and so is everyone else.
I will confess that I struggle here, a lot. I have struggled here a lot the past four years. I struggled when the phrase was uttered, “there are good people on both sides,” referring to Charlottesville. Let me be very clear, there were not good people on both sides, there was a clear right and wrong and one side was good, the other side was wrong and evil.
I struggle with it this week as we continue to look at the pictures of the domestic terrorists that stormed the capital, they are not “very special.” Again, let me be very clear, there were not good people on both sides of the attack, there was a clear right and wrong and one side was good, the other side was wrong and evil.
But they were all beloveds. God’s beloveds.
One of the hardest lessons we learn in Scripture is that God’s love is vast and God loves people and pursues people, all people. God does not agree with all our actions, our hates, our fears, our prejudices, the horrible way we treat one another… But that does not stop God from loving us all and wanting more from us all. If you and I are beloved, then so is everyone else.
There are not good people on both sides, but there are beloveds on both sides, and any religion that teaches you otherwise is heretical and you better pay close attention to any teacher or leader that has any exception for who God loves. God loves all.
Which means, as much as I want to hate them, to write them off, to see them burn in hell, that won’t do me any good because hate has no part in God’s plan. And hating and writing one another off, seeing one another as less than and unworthy is exactly what got us here to this place, the lie of white supremacy is founded on the ability to see another as less than and unworthy. That strategy, hating them and seeing them as unworthy, gets us nowhere. As the brilliant Audre Lord once wrote, “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.”
Valerie Kaur writes, “There is no such thing as monsters in this world. There are only human beings who are wounded.”
Valier Kaur is a Sikh activist and her voice is a voice that I believe is healing our world. As a dark-skinned female in our world, she has received abuse upon abuse and prejudice upon prejudice. And yet she has used her life to heal our world, she heads up the Revolutionary Love Project and her book See No Stranger is required reading today, or at the very least, watch her TED Talk.
She is very upfront that as a lawyer, as someone who has been victimized and as someone who is the target of white male supremacy, she did not want love to be the answer; however, she has learned love is the only answer. Her words again: “Revolutionary love is a well-spring of care, an awakening to the inherent dignity and beauty of others and the earth, a quieting of the ego, a way of moving through the world in relationship, asking: ‘What is your story? What is at stake? What is my part in your flourishing?’ Loving others, even our opponents, in this way has the power to sustain political, social and moral transformation. This is how love changes the world.”
You are God’s beloved and so is everyone else.
Which does not mean that we don’t continue to fight against ideas and systems; this does not mean that we don’t demand accountability and justice. In fact, love means that we do those things even more, even stronger and more courageously than ever. It just also means we realize part of our calling is that there are God’s beloveds who need healing.
Anne Lamott said it best this week in a tweet, “I hope he goes to prison. But God loves this gross, violent man. That’s the mystery of grace. There are people we don’t like and we learn to wash their feet. While I am not there with Trump yet, I’d get him a glass of water. God and the pope would, too.”
One final story I think of every year this Sunday: when she was 4, Blake went through a real princess phase. As in, we dressed like a Disney princess almost every day. One day Blake and I were out running errands and the store we were in had princess stuff in it and I was busy doing something else and Blake went and found a crown and a wand and a cape to make herself a princess. She found me and came up behind me and tapped on my shoulder, playing along I turned and said “oh, a princess… they should let everyone in here know that we have a princess among us.” And Blake looked at me really confused and said, “Dad, it’s me Blake.” And then she looked up at me with her big brown eyes and said, “Dad, do you know why I am princess? I am not a princess because I dress like one -- I am a princess because you call me princess.”
We are all beloveds because God called us all beloveds.
Isn’t that the truth we all so badly need to hear, that you and I need to hear and that the world needs to hear…? We are no more and we are no less… we are Beloved.
You are God’s beloved and so is everyone else. Now go change the world from that place.
Amen and amen. I believe right now we are at a very important moment in our journey ahead as a church -- big challenges and bigger possibility. We are at a defining time of who and what we will be for the next generation of First Austinites, for the next All People.
This moment, now is our chance as this odd pandemic ends to rebuild First Austin utilizing our strengths and calling. In the last ten months we have realized that we can change much quicker than we ever knew and we all know that God is birthing something new and we want to be part of that. This is our chance to have a most important conversation on who we are right now in this new time.
Now, we have a lot going for us at this moment… we have a pretty solid voice on who we are as a progressive, Jesus following community in the heart of Austin, a church that embraces all people, a church that is willing to do the messy hard work of being church, a church that has an incredible fellowship together and a vibrant moving worship service, a church that understands its mission and its voice in pivotal matters this moment like racial equality, justice for LGBTQ individuals and work with and for our unhoused neighbors from shared meals to housing, a church that is bold and risky and willing to dream big with God. We are a closely connected community of Jesus followers who take Jesus' command of "love" seriously… loving God, loving one another, loving all people. We have built a good foundation.
The question is, what does that voice look like in our world now that our world has changed?
Jim Collins has recently updated his terrific leadership manual, Beyond Entrepreneur 2.0, and in it, he says this of our future and planning… “History is the study of surprises. This line captures the world in which we live, we’re living history, surprise after surprise after surprise. And just when we think, we’ve had all the big surprises for a while, along comes another one. If the first two decades of the 21st century have taught us anything, it’s that uncertainty is chronic; instability is permanent; disruption is common; and we can neither predict nor govern events. There will be no ‘new normal’; there will only be a continuous series of ‘not normal’ episodes, defying prediction and unforeseen by most of us until they happen.”
Meaning, we need to allow our voice and our calling to center us and call us so that we can then adapt and become whatever God calls us in the midst of this new world.
It might seem scary but the Gospel is this… God has always done God’s best work in unexpected times and ways with folks who know their voice and God’s voice and find a calling there.
This is what we are doing now.
To do so, First Austin is embarking on a journey to find our voice and action right now. Now, I know what some of you are thinking… Not another strategic plan or survey, we don’t need another strategic plan to talk about and do nothing about except pull it out every few years and say “we should have worked on that.” I have zero interest in that and I have zero skills there, I was not trained to do that work and I don’t like that work. I was trained in story, in learning to listen to stories and pull things out from stories that call us to immediate actions.
This will begin with a guiding document, nothing happens until you discern these questions and send them back into the church office. That is important, you have to do that to be part of this study because your story and answers, your very voice is key to everything here. We need everyone’s words. You will turn these in using a google form.
And one question I think is fair is are we talking about little things or big things? Like, big scary risks that we believe God is calling us to take, the big messy parts of life where God needs us? Or the small details that no one else notices but matters to me? The answer is both. God is found in both and you never know what connections will be made here. Think big and think small.
We are are also asking you to schedule a time to meet online with some of the ministerial staff and a small group for a 45 minute discussion of the emerging ideas. You can schedule that using Eventbrite. During that time, we want to hear from you about your answers and responses, hearing them and connecting with you is really important in this process so we can fully listen, ask follow up questions and discern together. Also it gives us a chance to see you and we all miss you.
After we have finished collecting all our stories and words, there will be a summary of all that we have collected through the forms and conversations, we will share anonymous responses and stories based on what is emerging and the callings we are hearing.
After that we will host a series of town halls where everyone who has filled out a survey and done an interview will then be invited into small groups to talk through what is emerging and to begin to listen to next steps. This will all culminate with staff, deacons and Governing Board conversations and most importantly will result in immediate actions as the world reopens and we begin our work in a whole new way.
The goal is not something that happens in years, the goal is knowing the call as we reopen First Austin right now, we need to be doing the work and calling that we all want to be doing and feel called to be doing. This will also give us ideas and conversations that we will continue and pick back up…. In an ever changing world, ongoing conversations is key.
Now as to the guiding document, the guiding questions are based on one of my leadership gurus, Wendell Berry. The first piece of land he bought as a farmer, he destroyed because he thought knew what he wanted the land to do, so he built a pond in the wrong place and months later when the rains came the pond flooded and broke and ruined all the crops he had planted below. Looking back on that he said he learned that you always ask the land 3 questions: What was the land doing before I got here? What can the land help me do? What will the land allow me to do with a little bit of work?
The guiding document questions are based on those… please take your time to discern your thoughts there, narrow them down to as few words as possible and be surprised by what God may spark in you. Think big and small. Dream with God, which means you should feel hope and fear and joy and wonder. Be risky and bold. Think about what the church you want to be associated with and belong to would be doing. Think about us… a closely connected community of Jesus followers who take Jesus command of love seriously… loving God, loving one another, loving all people, what is our work in the world now?
Let me know any questions you have. And know that you are pivotal in this process, your voice and your story are the key to all of this (all people means your voice matters).
As always I love and miss you all. I am excited and ready to do whatever is next… partly because it’s time and partly because we will finally all be back together where we belong.
*artwork: Baptism of Christ by Zagitov Vladimir
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