January 9, 2022: Mine
Luke 3:15-17;21-22
Rev. Rhonda Blevins
As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16 John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
______
Where do I belong?
Tell me your story and I'll tell you mine
I'm all ears, take your time, we got all night
Show me the rivers crossed, the mountains scaled
Show me who made you walk all the way here
Settle down, put your bags down
You're alright now
We don't need to be related to relate
We don't need to share genes or a surname
You are, you are
My chosen, chosen family
These are the opening lyrics of a song entitled “Chosen Family” written and performed by a new young artist, Rina Sawayama. The first time I heard it, she was singing it as a duet with Elton John.
The phrase “chosen family” is everywhere these days. For those distant from their biological families—whether separated by death or distance, miles or misunderstandings, rifts or rejection—having friends who feel more like become family is a life saver. Literally for some.
As I studied the scripture lesson today, I kept going back to the voice from on high making a declaration: “You are my son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.” God, in that moment, declared that Jesus from Nazareth would be God’s chosen family.
In the Gospel of Matthew this declaration from on high is in the third person: “This is my son.” The announcement was for the community. But here in the Gospel of Luke, the announcement—God’s proclamation of “chosen family”—is in the second person. It’s for Jesus’ ears only. “You are my son.” It’s . . . personal.
How profound must that have been for Jesus? He’s 30-years-old, his biological family back in Galilee. He’s out in the wilderness and he hasn’t quite lived into his calling just yet.
We don’t know much about Jesus’ early years—the visit from the Magi when he was less than 2-years-old—being separated from his parents at Passover—they found him in the Temple astounding the elders with his questions and his insight. He was 12 in that story.
That’s it. Birth narrative. One story from his preteen years. We speculate that he learned carpentry from his father, Joseph, which we know was more akin to what we now call a “handyman.” But now Jesus is 30. He’s out in the wilderness for some reason. His cousin John is out there baptizing people, and Jesus goes to him for baptism.
What Luke reveals that the other Gospel writers do not is that “when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened.” Jesus’ prayer was a portal—it opened the heavens so that God’s voice might be heard. And when God’s voice was heard, God declared three powerful truths:
1. He was chosen.
2. He was loved.
3. He was blessed.
Let’s take a look at each declaration and what it meant, perhaps what it means for us today.
CHOSEN
“You are my son,” declared the voice from on high. At 30-years-old Jesus would hear God, perhaps for the first time, claim him as “chosen family.” The word in the Greek here translated as “son” is anyone, male or female, who shares the same nature as God. “You are my heir,” declared God. “I choose you. You are mine.”
Most weeks I meet with a small group of clergy and we discuss the Bible texts for the coming Sunday. We were discussing this part of our scripture lesson and one of the other ministers talked about when he adopted his child. The long, arduous trail of interviews and paperwork and wondering if, when, it would happen. And finally, at the end of the grueling process, and the tiny baby girl was finally placed in his arms, he held her, the love was instant, and the only words he could form were: “You . . . are . . . mine.”
God chose Jesus as family. I don’t think it happened in that moment, rather God chose Jesus in that same mysterious way that Word became flesh. What changed for Jesus in this passage was his awareness of his chosenness.
Family, in English, is a noun. Today, we make it a verb. On the day of his baptism, Jesus became aware that he was chosen—“familied” if you will. Chosen as God’s son and “familied.”
LOVED
“You are my son, the beloved,” God continued. Not only do I claim you, but I love you. It’s unfortunate that in English we only have one word for love, but in the Greek there are multiple like phileo which is a brotherly love (from which the city of Philadelphia gets its name) and eros, from which we get our English word, “erotic,”—a sexual kind of love. But here, at the baptism of Jesus, God declares agape love, holy, divine, perfect love. This is more than a feeling, but it’s a marker, an identifier. This is like spiritual DNA.
Some translations read, “This is my beloved son,” with “beloved” sounding like an adjective. I prefer how our NRSV translates this, “This is my son, the beloved.” Jesus’ very identity is now that of belovedness.
“Familied.” “Agaped.” And finally, blessed.
BLESSED
“You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” How powerful was this blessing, this affirmation for Jesus, even at 30 years old? We forget that even grown adults need affirmation from their elders.
Recently, a former teacher at my high school started attending church here at the Chapel. When she first introduced herself, and we figured out we were both from Maryville, Tennessee, she said she was a retired teacher. I asked her where she taught, and she said “Heritage High School,” my jaw dropped open. “Class of ’88!” I yelped. I never had a class with her, but I did remember her from around the school. And after she attended a few weeks, even started volunteering in the office on Thursdays, she grabbed me up and said, “I’m proud of you,” I almost melted right then and there. I’m 51-years-old and suddenly I felt 16 again!
It never gets old, having the approval of an elder. Affirmation is a powerful gift. There is one word that combines acceptance, approval, and affirmation—that word is “blessed.”
That day, when Jesus was baptized, and his prayer opened up a portal to heaven, he became aware that he was: Chosen (Familied). Loved (Agaped). Blessed.
Hold that thought for one moment.
If we were to continue reading in the Gospel of Luke, the next section of scripture would be Luke’s genealogy of Jesus. The Gospel of Mark has no genealogy. John’s Gospel offers a poetic, “In the beginning was the word, and the word was God and the word was with God.” Not really a genealogy in my book. The Gospel of Matthew records Jesus’ genealogy as far back as Abraham. But Luke—Luke traces Jesus’ genealogy all the way back to Adam, “adam” literally meaning “human.” Interesting.
And Jesus’ preferred way to refer to himself was as the “son of man” or what some translators call “the human one.” It’s like Jesus was emphasizing “I am human, like you.” Interesting.
And when Jesus prayed after his baptism that day, and the prayer served as a portal to heaven, and a voice from on high declared Jesus as Chosen, Loved, and Blessed—Jesus’ work as “the human one” is to show each of us that yes, we are chosen, yes, we are loved, yes we are blessed. God reaches out, through Jesus, to each of us to say . . . “Mine!” We are never without family, or love, or acceptance ever again.
And if you’ve never known that, or felt that, or received that until this very moment, I say, “Welcome to the family, you chosen, beloved, blessed child of God!”
It’s easy to go a lifetime without grasping that truth, without claiming it for our lives. Because we are human, it’s our default state to feel disconnected, unloved, and rejected. Like we don’t even know we have a God who loves us.
A dear friend of mine from college—I’ll call him John. He and his wife tried for years and years to have children. They did all the treatments, tried all the ways to have children. All the clinics. All the tests. All the hope and humiliation and disappointment and grief that comes with infertility. They did it all. For years.
They finally decided to adopt. And at some point during the long adoption process, the door opened for them to adopt a child from an orphanage in Ethiopia. All the interviews. All the money. All the waiting and hoping. Multiple trips to Africa. And when they finally took the trip to bring home their young daughter, that was the trip when they met little Noah, a toddler at the same orphanage. They brought home their daughter and began their life together as a family. They loved their daughter so much. But they couldn’t get Noah out of their minds.
So they began the process to make Noah their son. The interviews. The money. The waiting. The hoping. Their love for their daughter, now home with them grew and continues to grow. Their love for Noah grew right alongside it. And as the adoption date grew closer, they fixed up a room in their home for him. Whereas their daughter’s room was pink and flowers and butterflies, Noah’s room was blue with trains and trucks. They sent Noah small gifts to the orphanage, including pictures of the three of them. And as the process played out, in their hearts they not only had a daughter who lived with them, but a son across the ocean.
But there are evil people in the world. And one of the earth’s evil people was the case manager for young Noah. And days before my friend and his wife were to go on the trip to Ethiopia to bring home their son, this evil person shut the whole process down. Outraged and desperate, my friend and his wife appealed every place they could find to appeal. Ultimately, they had no power. Weeks later, the fight was over. Noah would remain in the orphanage. My friend would not be able to bring home his son.
That was several years ago now. Noah is a preteen or maybe a teenager by now. The thing is, though Noah never came to live with my friend, John still has the love of a father for Noah. In John’s heart, Noah is his son. When he told me this whole tragic story as he wept, saying, “My hope is that when Noah turns 18, we can find him and reach out to him, invite him to live with us, pay for him to go to college, and finally be a family.”
Here’s something I find remarkable about Noah’s story: he has a father who loves him deeply, and Noah is completely unaware. The world is keeping him from his father’s love. Growing up in an orphanage, chances are that Noah feels disconnected, unloved, and rejected. That’s the farthest thing from the truth.
And if you feel disconnected, unloved, and rejected, I want you to know that’s the farthest thing from the truth. When Jesus prayed, and the portal between heaven and earth was opened, we hear through the “human one” that we are chosen (familied), loved (agaped) and blessed (accepted).
God says to each of us: “Mine!” We are part of God’s chosen family. We are bound into one human family through the spiritual DNA of our belovedness. And God approves. Chosen. Loved. Blessed.
It’s possible we’re unaware of this deep and profound truth. The world can do that to us. But if we could hear with spiritual ears, we could hear God reaching out to us, as if from one continent to another, saying:
You are, you are
My chosen, chosen family