Mark 1:9-15
“I’m So Delighted with You”
This past week I was reading about a church in another town that was trying to coin a catchphrase their church sign.
The suggestions which were put forth were good, but the church members were afraid that only other Christians would fully understand or appreciate what they were trying to say.
They wanted something with more breadth, greater reach, something that spoke directly and plainly to the heart of anyone who was happening by.
That’s when they decided on this:
“You Are So Welcome.”
I love the word “so”!
The word “so” clinches it.
It’s a tiny word that packs a mighty punch!
“So” injects heartiness into the mix.
Think about one of the most famous Bible passages: John 3:16.
What does it say?
“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life.”
God doesn’t just love us…
…God “so” loves us!!!
“So” declares that God loves us with gusto, with loudness, with arms flung wide open!!!
Like the father in the story of the Prodigal son, God embraces us, God sees us from a distance no matter what kind of shape we are in, God takes the initiative to run to us, to greet us, to welcome us, and to bring us in!!!
This is what we need to know and hear—this is what the world needs to know and hear!!!
We are “so” loved!!!
A famous movie-maker had a huge legal wrangle with his long-time mentor and guide.
The younger man, simply couldn’t handle criticism, and so he ended up rejecting the person who had helped him the most.
When it was all over, a close friend of the film maker summed up the real problem.
The younger man was looking for affirmation and love.
He hadn’t gotten it from his parents growing up, and so he couldn’t handle criticism—even if it was constructive and done with love.
So many people grow up in our world without ever having had a parent or guardian say to them (either in words, looks, or in hugs) “You are my dear child; I love you so much!”
“I am so happy with you!”
And as people grow up with their peers in school and then enter the workforce, although they are starving for love and affirmation many get the opposite: put-downs, bullying, angry voices, bitter rejection, the slamming of doors!
So many folks are walking about in our world with such low self-esteem.
Sure, they may do a decent job at masking it behind, perhaps, a big paying job, a fancy house and car…
…or perhaps, even with a body embroidered with tattoos, or a bottle to ease the pain or drugs to fill the void.
But eventually, the painful truth breaks through—they don’t know they are loved.
They don’t know just how important and wonderful they really are.
A friend of mine is a volunteer chaplain for the Dallas-Bay Fire Department.
We got together last weekend, and he was telling me about the alarming number of suicides the department is being called to.
He was just amazed, by how many people in the fairly affluent Hixson and Soddy Daisy area are taking their own lives.
We just don’t know who may be thinking of ending their life or leaving their marriage or is just feeling completely empty, broken, raw…
That might even describe you this very morning.
In our Gospel Lesson for this morning Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan River.
And we are told that “While he was coming up out of the water, Jesus saw heaven splitting open and the Spirit, like a dove, coming down on him.”
The New International Version of the Bible says that Jesus “saw heaven being torn open…”
And this vision is both violent and yet filled with hope!!!
The only other place that Mark uses this word for ripping and tearing is when he describes what happens at the moment that Jesus dies on the Cross, when the Temple’s curtain is torn in two—marking the radical opening of the veil between heaven and earth—between God and humankind!!!
In both situations, it is God Who is doing the ripping and opening, as the boundaries which separate heaven and earth are being torn down!!!
And while this is happening, Jesus sees the Holy Spirit coming down from heaven, like a dove, descending not just upon Him, but into Him!!!
This is the same Holy Spirit of God that moved over the face of the waters at the Creation of the world; it is the same Holy Spirit which pursues us throughout our entire life—like a shepherd looking for a “beloved” lost sheep or a woman searching for a lost coin!!!
This is the same Holy Spirit, through which God offers us the gift of faith in Jesus Christ…
…this is the same Holy Spirit, Who comes into us once we accept the faith God offers—saving us and recreating us—causing us to become children of God…
…or as John puts it: “children, born not from blood nor from human desire or passion, but born from [or of] God.”
The descent of the Holy Spirit at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry is the signal that God is now remaking this broken, sin-filled creation!!!
And we are told in verse 11: “And there was a voice from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.”
And the whole Christian Gospel could be summed up in this point!
When the living God looks at you and at me, at everyone who believes—God says to us what God said to Jesus on that day.
This does not, by any means, mean we are Jesus or are even close to being equal to Jesus…
…what it does mean is that when God looks upon us, God sees us, not as we are in ourselves, but as we are in Jesus Christ!!!
Jesus is the Messiah, and the Messiah represents His people.
What is true of the Messiah is true of His people!
We are loved.
We are of great value.
We are so important!!!
This sometimes seems impossible to believe, especially to people who have never had this kind of support from their earthly parents and peers, but it’s true!!!
As many of you know, Clair and I have been coaching Mary Ellen’s first grade girls Upward Basketball team.
And we have all become rather close.
Last weekend we had all the kids, their parents and their siblings over to the parsonage for dinner, and a chance for the girls to play together…
…that came to about 20-some-odd people in that house…
Anyhow, last Monday was our last practice for the season.
So, at the end of practice, I had the girls stand in a circle as I looked at each one of them and said, “I want you to know that you are a wonderful person.
God loves you so very much, I love you very much; I am a much better person for having come to know you.”
The interesting thing about this was that it made the girls very uncomfortable.
They appeared to have a hard time listening to this.
And you know, sometimes it is hard for us to hear and believe that we are loved so very much.
Especially when we are down in the dumps or messing up with sin.
It can be hard to believe in and to trust God’s love and God’s Words: “You are my dear, dear child; I’m so delighted with you.”
Try saying that to yourself slowly, with your name at the start…
…and reflect quietly on God saying that to you—right this very moment!!!
Without those Words from God, all we often hear are angry voices, put- downs, bitter rejection and doors being slammed!!!
And those slammed doors, those mean words may not just be coming from other people—they may just be coming from within our minds as well.
I was a believer in God and in Jesus Christ, when, as a young person in college, I was walking across campus in a haze of depression because I felt that God was angry with me and I didn’t measure up.
I felt that I was not good enough for God’s grace.
I had tried so hard to be, what I thought was the “perfect Christian” and yet I had failed every time.
I had “missed the mark.”
I was a horrible sinner.
How could God possibly love me?
Just as these thoughts were reaching a crescendo, I happened into the college record store…
…and through the speakers in the store Billy Joel was singing, “I love you just the way you are…”
And it was a spiritual awakening for me.
I felt as if God were speaking to me, and answering my self-doubts.
And a whole new perspective opened up or was torn open!!!
And through trusting that God truly did love me “no matter what” I began to be able to love myself.
Apparently, I wasn’t alone with those feelings I had on that college campus so long ago.
According to an author who held a series of meetings with college-aged students, one thing they could all agree on was that God was extremely disappointed with them.
At His baptism, “Jesus saw heaven splitting open and the Spirit, like a dove, coming down…”
The Kingdom of God came to earth.
A different reality emerged!!!
And one key to the Christian journey is learning to live by this different reality, even when we can’t physically see it.
All around us we see desperation and decay.
We see men, women and children living separate lives from God and God’s Kingdom.
We see war and famine.
We see anger and shame.
We see persons hurting one another and hurting themselves.
But remember, heaven has been opened!!!
And God loves you so much!!!
God is so delighted with you.
Let those words change you, mould you, make you somebody new—the person God wants you to be!!!
When we do this, we will be equipped, as Jesus was, to be sent into the wilderness of this world to live among the wild animals.
But if we try and journey the Christian life thinking that our God is a bully, an angry threatening parent ready to yell at us, slam the door on us, kick us out into the street because we haven’t quite lived up to His expectations, we will fail at the first whisper of temptation.
Beginning in verse 14 of our Gospel Lesson for this morning we are told that “Jesus came into Galilee announcing God’s good news, saying, ‘Now is the time! Here comes God’s kingdom!
Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!’”
God is so delighted with you!!!
Do you trust God with on this?
If you do, take God’s Words of love, acceptance and life with you, allow them to change you and cause you to not only love yourself but to love God and others as well…
Amen.
