Living as Loved

"You are my son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased."  Mark 1:11.

Wouldn't we all hope to hear that?  Son or daughter, friend or partner, wouldn't we all hope to hear that we're beloved and that someone is pleased - probably "filled with joy" would be better - with us?

Well, you are.  You, whoever and however you are, are beloved by God.  Yes, you are.  Hold on to that thought, I'll be coming back to it in a minute.  But you should hold on to it longer than that because it's true, God loves you.  Really.

This verse from the Gospel of Mark comes from the story of Jesus being baptized in the Jordan river by John, the Baptizer.  It's, quite literally, the beginning: Mark begins with John and Jesus first appears when he comes to John to be baptized.  It's very straight forward: "In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.  And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.  And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

John had been calling people to repent and be baptized in preparation for Jesus.  John's baptism was a washing away of an old life, a sign that people had turned away from sin and back to God.  But, as he reminded people, it was only that: "I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit" (Mark 1:8).

But Jesus' baptism changed things.  It was the foundation of his ministry.  Immediately after being baptized, Jesus goes into the wilderness (we'll talk about that in Lent in a few weeks) and then on to Galilee to begin his ministry.   There was something different when John baptized Jesus.  "You are my son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased."

I wonder if this isn't how we might begin to understand the baptism of the Spirit.  Not a baptism of repentance, but an awareness of something - something different: you are beloved by God and God's joy is with you.

Baptism isn't the sign of something accomplished, but the sign of something begun.  The beginning of living a life filled with the realization that we are loved by God and that we, with joy, may live out that love with others.

Perhaps that's why Mark begins here, because it's - literally - "the beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (Mark 1:1).  Jesus is not just aware of God's love and God's presence, but begins to put that into action, into ministry, in his life.  Jesus lives out his baptism.

We, too, are beloved by God.  So much so, that God came to us as Jesus.  Not so much that we would worship Jesus, but that we would learn to be like Jesus.  The baptism that we observe now, as a ritual, is a sign for us of that beginning.  But the true baptism of the Spirit is that moment of welcoming the awareness that we are beloved, that God is with us, and that, in our life, we will endeavour to live that out with others.