God is all in

Jesus loves us this we know, for his baptism tells us so.  Sinful ones to him belong.  We go down, and he’s along

                                                              Dale Brunner

We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.

                                                              E.E. Cummings

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When we think God

as “with us”

as coming into time and space

we think of his birth

that weird and wonderful entrance

as a child

of a mother born

with pain and tears, and I suspect, joy and relieved laughter too

When we think of God

Identifying with humanity

We think of the manger

That humble, common, earthy birth

But when we think of Jesus identifying with sinful humanity

With greedy, hateful, selfish humanity

With violent, abusive, destructive humanity

We need to think of his baptism

Of that time when Jesus,

“God’s beloved son”

The one who expressed the reality of the Sacred

Uniquely

Fully

Powerful

Went into the dirty waters of the Jordan with all those

Miserable sinners.

John’s Baptism was a baptism of repentance

It was an act of contrition

The people who flocked to the Jordan to

be dunked by a wild eyed, scruffy, politically incorrect prophet

were people who knew

if they knew nothing else

that they had not lived up to their identity as “the people of God”

they were remorseful, and regretful

and penitent

and their journey to the river was a statement

we have sinned against God and against humanity

we do not deserve to be part of this family of faith

we are prodigal

And while the religious elite of the time

Stood on the banks and watched,

Amused perhaps by the antics of the camel hair wearing

Locust eating baptizer

And by the foolish folk

Being dunked into the dirty water of the Jordon

Jesus jumped right in

They went down

He went along

Showing through that action

That he was, and is

“all in” with humanity

There are no contingencies here

Just total identification

Just love

He stepped into the muddy waters of the Jordan

And all heaven broke loose

And all those people

Soggy robes, wet hair

Tired souls, fearful hearts and all

Knew

It was OK

Knew that God is love

And all those people were set free

To do life a different way

For there is nothing as empowering

Nothing as freeing, as unconditional love

This is what the Sacred does when it comes

It touches us with love

It “reveals that deep inside us something is valuable,

worth listening to,

worthy of our trust,

sacred to our touch.

This is what the Sacred does

as it comes as Spirit, that same Spirit that came to Jesus

It sets us free

To start again

To create not just new beginnings, but new endings

It sets us free to do life a different way

I allows us, because we are certain of Sacred love,

To risk

“curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight”

To risk generosity

To risk forgiveness

To risk kindness

To risk love

It free us to be who we truly are

Sacred children