Belonging and Inclusion

 

Matthew 3:13-17

 Son of God.  Jesus is different.  A quote from Isaiah 42:1 and Psalm 2:7, used to speak of the servant of the Lord and God’s adoption of a King, brought together to emphasize the fulfillment of God’s promise through Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel, this passage draws together expectations and hopes in God’s activity in the world.  Jesus insisted on John baptizing Him in order to fulfill God’s promise as well, as John represents clearly Elijah to Jesus’ Messiahship. 

John's baptism was one of repentance.  It was of the old covenant.  Jesus' baptism is the New Covenant.  The mantle had been passed from prophet to prophet, even Messiah, according to Matthew.  So, this New Covenant means something else - the salvation of a people from empire's oppressive systems based on Greed, abuses of power and unequal status.  It means that God calls for a turn-around in the world based on agape.

Jesus belongs to God.  Jesus also belongs to humanity.  John’s baptism of repentance was leading up to this event that changes the complexion of God’s covenant with humanity.  Jesus is baptized in order to embody God’s presence, power and love for humanity.  As Jesus is baptized and belongs, all those who will be baptized belong to God and to one another.  We belong to God together.  As Jesus is child of God, so are we children of God, which makes us sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus.

If we belong to God, then we belong to the Kin-dom of God, and we live within its values.  The turn-around comes through transformation of systems because of the transformation of lives.  We are called as children of God to live the values of God's Kin-dom in this part of it, here and now.  Unjust, inequitable systems that divide, bring despair and destroy lives must go under God's Will, so that we live in alignment with God's values of life, life sustainable and abundant, and life forever.

We either belong to empire and its values or we belong to God and God's values, as we have them through Jesus in the Good News.  We are baptized in Jesus' name because we are called to follow Jesus' Way of being the children of God.  We are baptized into Jesus' death and resurrection so that we may die to the ways of empire and be raised to new life in agape by God's Grace.  We are baptized in order to be the light of God in the darkness of the world of empire.  We are baptized as a sign that we belong to God and to one another in that agape, and that we are about being the light in the darkness.

We who bear Jesus' name belong to the body of Christ, which has the mission of shedding light in a dark world by living agape in it.  We are tasked with making disciples by our examples of loving, so that others may have their lives transformed by this love and work to repair the world through the living of it, transforming its systems to reflect and spread that love to all the creation.  This is that to which we belong.  We are included in the mission to transform the world through the living of agape in it.

It is about inclusion and belonging.  It is about God declaring it.  It is about a celebration of all the Kin-dom of God when we belong to one another and to God. 

Jesus, now declared child of God, must now go out and be tempted as His sisters and brothers, other children of God are tempted.  Jesus, Son of God, must live this life with all its struggles, threats and challenges, and die this death.  We who are baptized in His name must do the same, and love as Jesus loved.  For this whole thing is about humanity knowing that it belongs to God and with God and being a part of God's transformation of the world because of it.  Ask the Ethiopian Eunuch baptized by Phillip in the wilderness.  We who may even be excluded by the Law of Moses for one or another reason, are included under Jesus’ baptism.  We belong.  Inclusion and belonging are given by God through Jesus, beginning with His baptism to change the world.