The Rubberband of Baptism

Isaiah 42:1-9

Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching.

Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: 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, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols. See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.

Matthew 3:13-17

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

The longest rubber band chain was assembled by the kids of Gettysburg Elementary School in California and it stretched 19 miles long which may seem to be an odd way to begin a sermon BUT this seemingly random fact from the Guinness Book of World Records AND today being The Baptism of our Lord, actually combines to offer some incredible hope!

The Baptism of our Lord is not just an occasion to remember Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist. It is that. But more than that, it’s an occasion for us to remember what Baptism does for us and WHO is the One who does it. The WHO that does it, is God. The first lesson today starts by hammering that notion home… I am the Lord. I have called you. I have taken you by the hand. I have kept you. I have given you to be a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners and free those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord. I give to no other. New things I now declare.

Baptism is God’s work. Period. We see it again in the Gospel story itself. The heavens were opened. The Spirit of God descended like a dove. A voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” God wasn’t well pleased with Jesus because of anything Jesus had done. Jesus hadn’t done anything yet! God was well pleased with Jesus simply because God decided, with immeasurable love and unconditional grace, to be WELL PLEASED with Jesus. And here’s the thing… God didn’t just decide that for Jesus. God has decided that God will be WELL PLEASED, for no other reason than immeasurable love and unconditional grace, with every single one of God’s Baptized Children which includes even the likes of YOU and ME as well.

When our heads came up out of the water… whether we were young or old… whether that was in a river, stream, pond, tank of water, or baptismal font… whether that was with a dunking, a splashing, a pouring or a sprinkling… regardless of ANY of those details. When our heads came up from that water, the heavens were opened and the Spirit of God descended like a dove and a voice from heaven said, “This is my Child, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Did you hear that? Did you hear what God said about YOU? “YOU are my Child, Chosen and Marked with my love, my eternal delight.” YOU are God’s eternal delight! Not because of anything you have done, said, confessed, believed or anything else, but simply because God, with immeasurable love and unconditional grace has decided… THAT is how God wants to see you in God’s Divine eyes… forever.

Now here’s the spot where that 19 mile long, Guinness Book of World Records rubber band chain enters back into the sermon. Because while God is 100% certain that naming you and claiming you as God’s beloved child was and is and will always always be, a brilliant idea. It may happen in your life that YOU might begin to suspect that the all knowing creator of the entire universe was WRONG about that decision. Actually it is almost certain, that you will, more than once even, in all of your flawless humanity, decide that God, in all of God’s deeply flawed Divinity (that’s sarcasm if you couldn’t tell), was wrong about you and you actually SHOULDN’T be God’s child, chosen OR marked with God’s love, nor should you be God’s eternal delight. (Yeah, it sounds dumb when you put it that way, but we all do it… many of us more than once). BUT God has connected with us in our Baptisms like that 19 mile long rubber band chain, so that no matter what we think or how far we go… no matter how we fail to live our lives in a thankful response to the gift of our Baptisms by being a light to the nations, or giving sight to the blind, or freeing those who sit in darkness… No matter how well we do that or how poorly we do that... The Guinness Book Rubber Band Chain of Baptism remains firmly attached to us and will, at some point, snap us back into the embrace of God’s immeasurable love and unconditional Grace.

Some of us will stretch that Rubber Band just a little in our lives before returning to God’s embrace. Others will stretch that sucker out to the full length over our entire lives! Some will learn how securely we are attached to God by stretching it out and being snapped back just once. Others of us... the slower learners among us (raising hand), will stretch it out and get snapped back over and over and over again, never seeming to fully believe the strength and resiliency of God’s Baptismal Rubber Band. It might have even entered your mind that while you, yourself are not currently in doubt of God’s ability to hold onto you personally with that Baptismal Rubber Band… you may have wondered recently if God could, or even would, hang on to humanity as a whole, as we, in our collective hand basket, stretch God’s love for this creation to what in human logic, must be FAR beyond it’s breaking point.

The hope-filled Good News for today is that neither you nor me, NOR even all of humanity in our collective hand basket can ever, ever, EVER break the bond that God has made with you and me and all of creation in Baptism. We ARE God’s Children! Simply and only because we have been Chosen and Marked with God’s love, attached forever to God’s eternally resilient rubber band of Baptism and because of that, God is even now, snapping you and me and all of creation back into God’s unconditional, loving embrace to remind us yet again, we are indeed God's eternal delight. Amen.