"who Are You?"

“Who Are You?”

Matthew 3:13-17

Tony was a formerly homeless man who lived in a church shelter.

He had lived on the streets of New York City for half of his life.

One night, at dinner, he told the other people at the table that it was his birthday.

They weren’t sure they believed him and so Tony gave them proof: he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his birth certificate.

Then Tony asked, “Want to see my baptismal certificate?”

His baptismal certificate showed that he was baptized as a child at an Episcopal Church on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Just imagine.

Tony had carried his baptismal certificate around with him for all those years as he wandered the streets of Manhattan.

Why did he do that?

Why was that such an important document to him?

(pause)

In our Gospel Lesson for this morning Jesus comes to the Jordan River to be baptized by John the Baptist.

John, of course, is horrified.

“I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” John protests.

Then Jesus responds, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.”

Why do you suppose Jesus insisted on being baptized?

It’s not as if He had sin to repent of.

One answer to this question has to do with identity.

We are told that as soon as Jesus was baptized, “heaven was opened, 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, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

The baptism of Jesus reveals His identity to both Jesus and to us as well.

He is the beloved Son of God.

And this identity must give Him confidence as He moves ahead with His ministry, defending Himself to those who question Him and to the devil who temps Him.

God’s voice from heaven must sustain Jesus as He is later declared a criminal and crucified by the worldly powers.

Others will label Him a liar.

But God declares Him to be God’s beloved Son.

And as Christians this is our identity as well—sons and daughters of Christ.

As Paul writes in Romans Chapter 6: “don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Jesus were baptized into his death?

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

And the Holy Spirit we receive for this new life brings about our adoption to sonship and daughter-ship of God.

“And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’”

In fact, we are told that the Spirit of God testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children…

…heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.

If we are followers of Jesus, we, like Jesus and because of Jesus—are beloved children of God--those in whom God is well-pleased.

I don’t know about you, but that blows my mind.

I’ve shared this story before but I think it is worth re-telling here.

When I was in college, I was having a bit of an identity crisis.

My freshman year I had a radical born-again experience, but after that I got in with a cult.

And this really messed me up.

I didn’t stay in the cult long, but I stayed in long enough to become indoctrinated…

…to believe that because I was no longer in that particular group I was living outside the will of God—headed to hell, unloved by God, rejected by God.

It’s not a good place to be.

Have you ever felt as if God didn’t love you, couldn’t love you?

Have you ever felt you have gotten so off track that God that God has given up on you or you should just give up on God?

Maybe you feel like that now.

In any event, one day I was sort of aimlessly walking across campus

as I was struggling with these feelings of not being loved by God.

And on my walk, I happened into the college record store.

And coming out of the speakers in the store was the song by Billy Joel, “I love you just the way you are.”

And because of what I was going through, I felt as if God’s Voice was speaking to me through the lyrics of that song.

I felt as if God were saying to me: “Ken I created you. I love you. I rescued and saved you.

You are my beloved son.

I am pleased with you.

I love you just the way you are.

Sure, you’ve got a lot of things in your life that we need to work out, and we will.