Our first reading today comes from the book of Isaiah. In it Isaiah tells the people that they are precious in the sight of the Lord. They are loved by God. But He speaks these words to a people who feel anything but that. For generations, things have not been going their way. The dream of a united kingdom had fallen apart within months of Solomon’s death. There were constants wars back and forth. Oppression and corruption were rampant. The poor got poorer and the rich got richer. The orphan and the widow were neglected. It was a dark and bad time, but the rotten cherry on the top of this sundae was that the Babylonians had come and sent the people into exile. This was not a time when anyone could look around and say, boy, do I feel precious in the sight of the Lord. Instead, this was a time when people wrote psalms that said things like, we sit down by the waters of Babylon and weep; we take our harps and hang them up, because how can we sing in a moment like this? And at this moment when people are feeling this way, Isaiah says you are precious in the sight of the Lord, and you are beloved by God.
What in the heck is he talking about? How is that possible? The people can look around and know that this does not seem to be the case. Isaiah knows it is not a good time. He has spent chapters and chapters talking about all the things that have gone wrong; all the ways the people have not been loving God and loving their neighbor. And yet Isaiah says in spite of all of that, it is still true that you are precious in the sight of the Lord and beloved by God.
What is the argument for this? You cannot look around and see it at that moment. His argument, as we heard in the reading, is Creation. Isaiah looks back and says you are precious in the sight of the Lord and beloved by God because God made you. Full stop. You are precious and beloved because God created you. The same God who made the world, and at the end of each day looked out over it and said, it is good, it is good. And on some of the days he said it is very good. This God thinks that you are precious and beloved. Creation was made by the overflowing love of God into the world, so you are precious and beloved. The creation story tells us you, made by God, were made in God’s very image. You are precious and beloved. Not because of what is happening in this moment, but because of what has happened and, Isaiah adds, of what will happen. We look back to Creation, but also have to look forward in hope to the redemption. There is love abundant and clear in both of those. Even though you cannot see it in this moment, the love is still there. You are still precious and beloved, even in this moment that you might feel abandoned. It is still true. If you are having trouble seeing it, look past this moment and look back and look forward because God loves you, just as you are.
Our Gospel reading today is the story of Jesus’s baptism. This story is echoing Creation. What happened in the first Creation story in Genesis I? In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was a formless void, it said that the Holy Spirit was moving over the waters of creation. And what happened in the Gospel reading? Jesus goes into the waters, the heavens open up, and down comes the Holy Spirit like a dove. Just as Isaiah said that because of this Creation you can know that you are beloved, we have in the Gospel story a voice from the heavens saying, this is my beloved Child. This baptism is not just a cleansing, it is a new creation. It happens in our baptism, as well. Remember Baptism is a sacrament of unity in which we become one with Christ, part of the Body of Christ. And therefore the words spoken over Jesus, that he is beloved a Son, are the same words spoken over us by God: you are a beloved child. You are precious and beloved. No matter how dark and difficult it gets, remember to look back to Creation and to look forward in hope. Whatever difficulty is in your life and surrounds you, do not forget that you are precious and beloved.
A few weeks ago I came to the office, and on my desk was a poem. It took me a while to figure out where it came from, but it came from Ryan. It is by a theologian named Kate Bowler, and is titled “A Blessing for What is True about You.”
When God thought you up, it was a good day,
a lovely dream realized in God’s imagination,
a celebration from before you were born.
You were made out of God’s overflowing love,
in who you were, and are, and would become.
God saw it all, from way before the beginning, ‘til way past the end.
And saw that it was good.
This one, God said, this one I love.
I delight in the beauty, and the promise,
the wonder and the glory that is this one whom I have made.
And my gaze is ever upon them,
constant, and warm like the sun at golden hour,
gentle as starlight, transforming and continuing,
calling forth all the growing, all the becoming that is to be done.
Remember this truth:
You were made by love, for love, to love.
AMEN
