Sermon for November 19th
This week we will visit a baptism. Jesus invites us to remember his baptism in the Jordan and to remember with him that he is “the beloved child of God”. When we are baptized we are also affirmed by God that “we are the beloved child of God.”
In his book, The Inner Voice of Love, Henri Nouwen tells us we need to accept our identity as the child of God. He writes, “Your true identity is as a child of God. This is the identity you have to accept. Once you have claimed it and settled in it, you can live in a world that gives you much joy as well as pain. You can receive the praise as well as the blame that comes to you as an opportunity for strengthening your basic identity, because the identity that makes you free is anchored beyond all human praise and blame. You belong to God, and it is as a child of God that you are sent into the world.
You need spiritual guidance; you need people who can keep you anchored in your true identity. The temptation to disconnect from that deep place in you where God dwells and to let yourself be drowned in the praise or blame of the world always remains.
Since that deep place in you where your identity as a child of God is rooted has been unknown to you for a long time, those who are able to touch you there had a sudden and often overwhelming power over you. They became part of your identity. You could no longer live without them. But they could not fulfill that divine role, so they left you, and you felt abandoned. But it is precisely that experience of abandonment that called you back to your true identity as a child of God.
Only God can fully dwell in that deepest place in you and give you a sense of safety. But the danger remains that you will let other people run away with your sacred center, thus throwing you into anguish.
It might take a great deal of time and discipline to fully reconnect your deep, hidden self and your public self, which is known, loved, and accepted but also criticized by the world. Gradually, though, you will begin feeling more connected and become more fully who you truly are—-a child of God. There lies your real freedom.”
Do you remember your baptism? Recall the time and the circumstances surrounding it. Perhaps you were baptized as an infant. What are the stories surrounding that baptism? Share your story with me by emailing me at joycecurtis@fcfumc.net or leaving your comments for others to read by responding to “comments”. I look forward to hearing from you.
Joyce Curtis
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