You Are Mine

What is that word that can be whispered on a breath of air and we hear it with longing… with eagerness… with anticipation? What syllables are instantly recognizable among speech that is otherwise unintelligible?  What calls us from sleep… from play… and in times of crisis… to rise and respond with courage… and commitment? It is the sound of our own name.  At the sound of their own name, babies cease to cry… the comatose awaken… and warriors fight with renewed vigor. From the time that we first recognize that the whispered word names us… and claims us… we respond. It is a powerful force.

What is the power of a name? It is our name that gives us our unique identity as human beings and that uniqueness has been recognized in many ways.  Throughout history, hospitality has been extended in many lands to those who named the name of one who was powerful… under whose protection the traveler traveled.  Ties of blood and kinship have recognized by names shared… the primary reason why the name of the father was given to the son… or the children’s surname was the father’s name.  The name “Johnson” originally meant that the bearer of the name was the son of John.  The son of “John” was afforded all the respect and protect of his father. Crown princes bore their father’s name to claim their legitimate right to the throne… and to be protected in their youth by the power associated with their father’s kingdom.

It was also believed that a name carried the qualities and characteristics of those who had gone before who carried that same name.  Thus, the parents who gave their children the name of a great person in history hoped that their children might claim the qualities of character of that great person.  In the same way, parents who gave their children the names of saints of the church hoped that their children’s lives might reflect some of the same traits revealed in the lives of those saints.  All of which might explain why a child named John Douglas MacArthur Smith, Jr., might live under the expectation that he be a strong and courageous leader like Douglas MacArthur, with a fearless prophetic voice like John the Baptist, who would claim his father’s inheritance… or inherit his father’s qualities of character… for, as a “junior”, he was named after his father.

Today, we celebrate the baptism of Jesus and look at all that that sacrament means to us today.  This sacred rite of the church is the one in which we, as Christians, claim our children and name our children… announcing to the world that these little ones belong to us and conferring on them both the protection of our name… and the unique expectations that come with the name we have given to them.  Following this act, these infants are no longer unknown entities, but recognized human beings who have a place in society legitimize by their parents and a unique identity of their own.  Just as God created each unique aspect of this world… naming it, claiming it, and pronouncing it good… so we, in baptism, name our children… claim them as our own… and pronounce that we are pleased with them as well.

We understand why all this is necessary for human children… who are helpless at birth and need the protection of their parents.  What we may not understand is why this was necessary for Jesus… who was the son of God and God himself incarnate. Though the gospel of John never speaks of the baptism of Jesus, the other three gospels do.  And, although Matthew and Mark indicate that Jesus was baptized by John, our text from Luke never names the one who baptizes Jesus.  Yet, in all three gospels, Jesus is claimed by God as his son… and God clearly states his pleasure with this child.  While angels have announced his birth and wise men have worshipped him, this is the earliest record of God’s own public validation of Jesus’ identity.  As with any baptism today, those who were present learned of the relationship between Jesus and his Father… and God the Father publically extended his name… his claim… and his protection to his son.

Names are powerful… and there are many times in the Bible when heroes are renamed in order to demonstrate that their life after that point in time would be different than their life before that time.  Abram (“exalted father”) was renamed Abraham (“father of many”) after God promised him that his descendants would be more numerous than the sands. Jacob was renamed Israel after wresting all night with God himself.  The name Israel means “God strives” or “God persists.”  Hoshea was renamed Joshua (“he delivers”) by Moses for he would be the savior of the children of Israel… leading them into the Promised Land.  Saul (“powerful minister”) was renamed Paul (“little” or “humble”) after he converted from an arrogant persecutor of Christians to a Christian himself.   What are your given names? Have those names… and their history… been transformative in your life? Do you possess the qualities of the person… or the saint… for whom you were named?

I am sure that we all remember the familiar scene at the end of the movie, The Wizard of Oz, when the Wizard… who has been revealed to be nothing more than a displaced patent-medicine huckster, but who still retains some remnants of his former wizard's mystique…  presents to each of Dorothy's three companions a gift: a medal of courage for the cowardly lion, a ticking heart-shaped watch for the hollow-chested tin woodsman, and a diploma to swell the straw-stuffed head of the scarecrow.  Courage… heart… and brains.  While the Wizard gives these three something that symbolizes these qualities of character, in reality, the three already possess the qualities that he bestows.  His acknowledgement of these gifts frees them to live into the promise of those gifts in a way that nothing has previously done in their lives.  Finally, they act outwardly as if they possess the gifts inwardly… which, of course, they do.  Isn’t that what baptism does for us?  Doesn’t it free us to act as if we possess what we have been promised by God?  We already possess it… for it was conferred by God’s grace.  Yet baptism is the sign and the seal of that gift to us.  Baptism does not confer those gifts, but claims us and frees us to act as God’s own people.

The power of our text from Isaiah today is the power of God at work in our lives.  Our text tells us that we have been called by God… called by name.  The calling that we receive is not one that is given to all, but specific to the one who is named.  And, in the Old Testament world, the one who is named has an identity in society… an identity conferred by the father… with all the rights and privileges thereto appertaining.  The naming legitimizes the relationship… in this case, changing us from entities with no name to children of God.  Through the sacrament of baptism, we are publically recognized as a part of the family of God… even though the reality of our relationship pre-existed.  God’s gift of salvation is not conferred through baptism… neither is it dependent upon the person or place where it occurs.  Baptism is a symbol and a sign.  It symbolizes all that God has given through his grace… and as a sign, it points to God, the father of all; Jesus, the one who redeems us; and the Holy Sprit, who transforms us by God’s grace.

Let me also say a brief word about the water of baptism. Jesus came from the waters of his baptism into his new life of ministry.  Water is a powerful symbol of transformation.  In the desert region where Jesus came to John, water was a scarce resource.  It was the difference between life and death… the difference between abundance and scarcity.  When water comes to the desert, it transforms it into a fertile land.  There are many times when the Bible uses water to show what God can do in our lives.  The waters parted for the children of God leaving Egypt.  The waters of the Jordan cleansed Naaman the leper.  Jesus spoke of the transformative power of living water to the woman at the well.  The water we use in baptism is also symbolic of the transforming power of God in our lives.  Jesus was raised from death to life. The waters of baptism symbolize how we are raised from death to life by the grace of God through faith.  Just as the waters of the Jordan purified the skin of Naaman, so the waters of baptism signify our purification… the cleansing from our sins through the grace of God.  Just as the spirit of God moved upon the waters in creation, bringing new life, so the water of baptism symbolizes the new life that we have in Christ.

Many of us use the New Year to set out new resolutions for our lives.  It is a chance for us to begin again… to start over… and, perhaps, to do better this year than we did last year.  The question is… better at what? Martin Luther, the great reformer, saw baptism as a daily practice of dying to the old ways of being and rising up “to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” The term “righteousness” carries for many of us a pietistic connotation… to be “righteous” is a personal state or condition of purity. In both Hebrew (tsadekah) and Greek (dikaiosunê), however, the term also carries a relational sense… to be in right relationship. In fact, the words and their cognates in both languages can be just as comfortably translated as “justice”… and they often are in the Bible, depending on the context. If we reclaim this biblical sense “righteousness,” in the context of baptism, then we die to unjust, wrong relationships… and we are raised “to live before God in justice and right relationships.” If, as Luther believed, this is a daily practice, what meaning would this have for us today?  If each day is a new beginning, how are we transformed by that knowledge… and by the grace of God… each day?

There is one more question that I would like to pose.  There is a name by which we are all known, for we are all Christian… and at some point in our lives, we have claimed that identity for ourselves.  Thus, we are called by the name of Christ and claim a relationship with Christ.  How has this name been transformative for us?  Do you and I live into the promise of the name of Christ each day?  Do we claim our heritage as the children of God?  Do we rise each morning and claim the relationship that is at the center of our lives… re-affirming our intent to live in it… and into its promise? Several years ago, I introduced you to the St. Patrick’s Breastplate… a prayer attributed to the great Irish saint who converted the pagans to Christianity in Ireland many centuries ago.  In this prayer, St. Patrick claims his heritage as a Christian and rises each day to newness of life in Christ.   I would like to challenge all of us to do that each day of this new year.  Claim your calling by God.  Claim your rightful heritage as a child of God… with all the protection of the power that God confers.  Claim the new life you have in Christ.  And live into the qualities of the one whose name you have claimed as your own identity… Christ himself.  Amen.

Isaiah 43:1-7; Luke 3:15-17, 21-22