Locking Horns

Can you imagine Joe Biden coming to Justin Trudeau to get baptized?  That’s an odd image, isn’t it, two leaders coming together and one, the leader of the bigger country, asking for a blessing ritual from the leader of the smaller country.  This is hard to imagine, but I think it’s close to what actually happened in this story.

When we remember the baptism of Jesus, it points to how Jesus leaded in ways that respected and honored the leadership of others.  

Many times when two powerful leaders get together, it becomes a battle over who has the most authority or skills or money or followers.  It can become a fight over who is the best.  Like two big horned sheep fighting over a ewe, they lock horns and butt heads and crash together. Two bulls in a pasture, two stallions in a wild herd of horses.  You just know that fireworks are going to ensue.  Leaders often lock horns.  Jesus and John didn’t lock horns, they didn’t do anything that suggested that a power struggle was going on.  Luke’s version omits John’s question to Jesus, “Why are you coming to me to be baptized?” which is in Matthew and Mark.  

Jesus didn’t come as someone wanting to take over from John and steal all his followers.  Jesus didn’t come to push John out of the river and start his own baptism show.  Jesus came with respect, honoring the leadership and ministry John had, and recognizing John’s God-given authority to baptize.  And John was clear with his followers, a better spiritual authority was just around the corner.  John didn’t claim to be a messiah, and he didn’t let anyone call him such.  He knew that Jesus was the one people had been waiting for, who would fulfill the promise that no one need live in fear.  Who would share the message that God claims us all and sees us all as precious. God created us for glory and not for locking horns in power struggles.  

Baptism is meant to be a sign that reminds us of this love.  It’s meant to remind us that God is with us, we are not alone.  All too often, baptism has been corrupted and turned into a ‘get out of hell free’ card.  Although that idea was started in medieval times, it has had a long history of being used abusively. The ticket out of hell idea was originally supposed to assure people, and lower their anxiety.  Instead it increased people’s shame and fear. It was abused to show who was an insider and who was not.

United Church Stewardship leaders say that “Baptism is about the affirmation that there is something sacred about life and that a piece of that sacred goodness is found deep within us. Baptism affirms the inherent worth of each of us and is a physical sign of a spiritual reality—that we belong to a loving God and that the goodness that comes from God is deep within us and serves as a communal symbol of God’s unconditional love.”

It’s easy to brush off this idea or pretend it doesn’t mean much in this world of discrimination, political turmoil, horrendous forest fires, and divisive conspiracy theories.  But the reality is that we need to be reminded of the love God has for us just as we are.  Baptism is not what we do for God, anyone looking at a newborn baby knows that they don’t need to be cleansed of any thoughts or deeds, they are too busy learning what the world looks like and what language sounds like and what food smells like.  They are truly innocent.  And we need regular cleansing of our need to be competitive, of our need to put ourselves down before others do, or our need to hide our flaws, or our need to be right.  And this is something we wrestle with, in community as a collection of flawed but beloved human beings.  Like God’s love, baptism isn’t something earned, or something bought or something won, it is a gift bestowed on us and recognized by a loving community as precious in God’s sight.  It helps us remember that we too are gifts of God to the world.  We are enough as we are.

So how do we respond to this astonishing claim that we are gifts of God to the world?  I think that Jesus and John also model a response to that knowledge.  Instead of locking horns, they looked each other in the eye, and treated each other’s gifts with deep respect.  John acknowledged Jesus and his ministry with profound awe.  “One is coming who will baptize you with fire”, he said, anticipating not just Pentecost, but the burning passion his disciples developed for sharing the healing and compassion that Jesus gave them.  The fire of compassion for one another that would send them around the world with their message of hope and healing and love.  And Jesus acknowledged John by coming and asking for baptism.  Jesus didn’t put on any airs, he didn’t say, “Thanks, John, it’s time to tie up my sandals now and be my personal butler,” he said, “baptize me like you have baptized all these other people.”  

What humbleness, what servant leadership that showed!  Instead of us locking horns with those around us, what if we too looked our neighbor in the eye and saw them as also a beloved child of God, one to cherish and support.  Just as if Biden came, looked Trudeau in the eye and said, “I want to become a Canadian citizen”, we can remind ourselves and each other that we are to see each other as a beloved child of God.  Let us honor and respect the leadership of each other the way Jesus and John honored each other, as God loves us, and as we are called to love one another.

When I’m Calling You

When I was in university back in the 80’s, I would walk to class from my Grandma’s house in the McKernan neighborhood.  One day a couple came by and called out, “Lisa! What are you doing back in town? Why didn’t you call us?”  I tried to tell them that I wasn’t Lisa, and they got quite indignant.  They honestly thought I was pulling a prank on them.  I should have asked for their name and try to contact my doppelganger, but I didn’t think of that, and found the whole incident rather disturbing.

Then a few years ago, I got a pile of e-mail resumes sent to me for a daycare down in Texas.  Turns out there are several Monica Rosboroughs on Linked In, one of which is a daycare manager in Marshall, Texas! So someone can look like me and not be me, and someone can look nothing like me yet have my name.  It’s a confusing world out there at times.

Jesus seems to know not just Nathaniel’s name but also his face, and more than that, his character.  He recognized Nathaniel as a faithful and honest man.  In some ways, that is the hardest to understand of all.  We humans struggle with knowing when we can trust someone.  Con artists abound, a testimony to our innate desire to trust people, and we often choose wrong.  We also trust too broadly and when someone loses our trust, we can become very judgemental.  We can even overreact.  If someone like Bill Cosby does what he does, of course he should go to jail.  But if someone is late for a meeting or gets angry at something we do, it doesn’t mean that we should automatically convict them as untrustworthy.  

Don’t trust me to put together a budget on time and accurately, it won’t happen!  But do trust that I will care about how we set priorities and how we worship together.  We all have strengths that we are trustworthy with, and wise is the person who knows what they can be trusted to do and what they can’t.

Also wise is Jesus who can see to the heart of someone and call them into discipleship with such clarity and trust. And of course, God is the source of all wisdom, and calls a diverse group of people into service. Last week we learned about John Wesley and his heart being as he put it, strangely warmed.  That was his personal call story, how he found himself called into ministry.  Today we also hear the story of Samuel, called when he was a child.

Doesn’t Samuel sound like a spoiled kid who won’t go to sleep? Eli was an old man who hadn’t been a great parent for his own sons, but now was stuck raising this kid to be a holy preacher.  Sounds more like a holy terror.  Kid, get to sleep!  Go back to bed! Let me get some shut eye! Eli didn’t trust the boy to know God’s voice, and God shouldn’t have trusted Eli to raise Samuel to be the next religious leader of the people after messing up his sons.  But God gives second chances and calls young and old into new lives and new adventures.  Sometimes it’s with words, sometimes it’s with feelings, sometimes it’s just the logical thing to do.

Everyone is called to different tasks, and everyone’s call is unique.  It doesn’t matter if they look similar to someone else or share someone else’s name, their call is unique to them.  Hearing the call is one thing, understanding it is another.  Many are called but not all answer.  Some folks don’t recognize that tug on their heartstring as a call, some find it too scary to contemplate and they give up.  Some feel crippled by their lack of self-esteem.  Moses almost walked away from the burning bush because he felt so inadequate, Jeremiah almost quit because he felt too young even though he was older than Samuel. I often hear people apologizing for not having the gifts they feel they should have.

“I should know how to knit”, they say “so I could also make prayer shawls”, or “I wish I could speak in front of people” when they really don’t want to do such a thing.  Sometimes God calls us to do things that are hard and take a good deal of fortitude, but more often God calls us to do something which gives us great joy!  And it may be something we already enjoy doing!  One little boy was so inspired by Samuel that he and his grandma collected enough bottles to buy a ghetto blaster for his grandma’s Sunday School class.  That’s hearing the call!

Maybe it’s phoning people who are living alone, maybe it’s being a walking buddy for someone who needs encouragement.  Maybe it’s starting a petition for our parks.  Maybe it’s a letter-writing campaign to a government official.  Maybe it’s going back to school or taking lessons on something that has been haunting you for a while.  Maybe it’s sharing the Zoom link or YouTube video to our church service with a friend who talks to you about faith.  Maybe it’s finally calling a mental health hotline and getting support for yourself in these difficult times.  Test it with the Wesley test – is it logical, does it fit my experience, does it resonate with my faith and does it feel right emotionally?  Share it with a wise friend whose advice you have found to be helpful in the past, then take even a tiny step towards that action. Whatever you are feeling called to do, be it big or small, old or new, scary or joyful, take time to pray about it, then trust that God will guide you and call you into a new and renewed sense of your own discipleship.  May it be so for us all!