The Voice From Heaven| Mark 1:9-11
Mark 1:9-11
The Voice From Heaven
M. Scott Peck, the author of The Road Less Traveled, once said that all families are dysfunctional, just some more than others. I am aware that view has been challenged. There are others equally as knowledgeable as Scott Peck in the areas of psychology and therapy and families who say “ no, there are some families that are not dysfunctional.”
I wouldn’t disagree. I think they might be right. I think some families may not be dysfunctional at all; I just haven’t met any, maybe you have. I would not rule out that there are some out there.
That it’s not exactly a flattering sentiment for humankind, but here is the beautiful thing — even if you’re from a family that is not perfect or as “functional” as you would like it to be, you can still feel loved and affirmed. Social workers and therapists now have a phrase they often use, called “the good enough family,” or the “good enough parent.” They will ask those they are working with, “did you have a good enough family when you grew up?” (That is, one that made you feel loved, even if it was not perfect).
I did. I did not have a perfect family, and if it was perfect before, it was not perfect after I was born. I am so thankful that I had a family that made me feel loved. I think I’ve shared the story before about my aunt Vada’s funeral. She was robbed and killed while working at a store in Clarksville, Tennessee. The funeral was in Perryville, Missouri, where my grandparents lived. I arrived to the funeral home for the visitation the night before her celebration of life service the next day. I noticed there were signs on the first three pews that said “reserved for immediate family.” The signs didn’t say “reserved for family.” They said, “reserved for immediate family.” I don’t know why they had to add that word “immediate,” but it was there, and I was in a quandary.
I was in a quandary because I wanted to sit in those first three rows with my family. I was not in my aunt’s immediate family; but I lived with my grandparents until I was 10 years old. My aunt was more like my sister than she was an aunt.
I remember her going out on dates and sneaking into her and my aunt Charlotte’s room and listening to their Creedence Clearwater Revival and Smoky Robinson 45s on their record player. I remember when she graduated from high school. She was like my sister, so I wanted to sit with the immediate family, but I also try not to be a rule breaker.
So I told my grandfather during the visitation “I don’t know where to sit at the funeral.” He asked me, “what do you mean?” I told him about the sign that said reserved for immediate family. He did not say anything about the sign but he reached out to me, and hugged me, and he said, “we love you son.” I’ll let you guess where I sat the next day at my aunt Vada’s funeral.
We can read a text like we have for our passage today one hundred times and see something new every time we read it. As I was preparing for this message today and I began to read through this passage, I was reading a translation from a commentary by NT Wright. The phrase that stood out is from there in verse 11 “… You are my wonderful son, you make me very glad.”
We don’t hear a lot of details about Jesus‘s upbringing, but I’m sure that Mary and Joseph made Jesus feel very loved, because after all they were picked for the job by a celestial, divine process…. but I’m also sure that when Jesus heard that voice from the cloud say, “you are my wonderful son, you make me very glad” it made him very glad.
We had a baptism right here about a month ago. Louisa Faulkner Harris asked her parents to ask me if she could be baptized. I can’t think of a time in my ministry when someone asked me to be baptized and I said “no.” From time to time I’ll have someone ask, “when a 10-year-old wants to be baptized do you really think they know what it means?” I always say, “well when an 80-year-old wants to be baptized, do you really think they know what it means?”
I think if someone wants to be baptized, they know enough. They know that they want God in their lives and that’s good enough for me to baptize them.
Anytime, anyone is baptized in our church whether it’s an infant and the parents are there to pledge their support for the spiritual nurture of the child or an adult, I hear that voice from the cloud saying “this is my child, he/she/they whatever makes me very glad.”
Our lives as Christians begin with baptism, and Jesus’ ministry began with baptism. I love that! Jesus’ ministry began with a declaration of love, with that voice from the cloud saying to him “you are my wonderful son you make me very glad.”
…throughout Jesus’s ministry time and time again, when he met people, he let each one know, “you are God’s wonderful child and you make God very glad”
Before Jesus answered the rich man who wanted to know what he needed to do to enter the kingdom of heaven the Bible tells us Jesus looked at him and loved him, and then told him the truth, told him that his possessions were holding him back
Jesus saw that the woman who was brought before him having committed what was then a terrible sin worthy of death by stoning was a child of God, and he defended her as one beloved of God.
He did not say, as the Bible does say, that people who did what she had done should be stoned, now pick up a rock and let’s get to it. He could have said that because the Bible does say that, but that’s not what Jesus said and did, which tells me there are lots of ways the Bible can be interpreted. I also believe that sometimes when people say they’re just “following the Bible” they are just being mean.
Methodists believe that the Bible is to be interpreted through the ministry and life and spirit of Jesus.
Jesus’ whole ministry was an echo of that voice he heard standing in the Jordan River with his cousin John and all of Israel around him.
I never thought of that hug that I got from my grandfather as having anything to do with baptism, but in light of our scripture today, I see that it does.
Baptism is God’s way of grabbing a hold of us. Maybe when we’re not even sure if we are loved or lovable and saying, “I love you son, I love you daughter, I love you child now go out and help others experience that same love and that same forgiveness as you are set free from sin.”
Why do we do what we do as disciples of Jesus? Last week I shared the mission of the United Methodist Church. The mission of the United Methodist Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
Why do we invite people to Sunday school? Why do we invite children to Vacation Bible School? Why do we assemble backpacks for children who might not have the school supplies they need if we didn’t provide for them, why do we host Room in the Inn? Why do we train people to walk alongside of others going through difficult times in our Stephen Ministry program? Why do we invite people to worship? Is it because we are commanded to do so? Is it because the Bible tells us to do so? Is it because it’s part of our Wesley and theological tradition?
Those are all pretty good reason, but I hope most of all it’s because we want the whole world to receive the hug that we have received from God at our baptism.
That’s what a disciple is – a disciple is someone who has received that hug from God…
Each week when we end our worship services at Bethlehem, we join hands or at least touch elbows and sing the chorus, “Bless Be the Tie That Binds.”
When we join hands and sing those words at the end of our service today I really encourage you to really, really think about what they mean. They mean that the love that God has for us and pours out for us can flow into our love for one another.
They mean that up there — the heavenly realm — can be experienced down here as we join together in Christian love as those baptized, as those who have heard that Voice from God say “ you are my wonderful son, you are my wonderful daughter, you are my wonderful child you make me very glad.”
Do you hear it? Do you hear it? Do you hear it? It is the voice of the one who is head over heels in love with you. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.