It was on this Sunday after church in St. Mary’s chapel in my first year of seminary that several of my classmates and I got into a discussion about when Jesus really knew who he was.  Was it at this baptism, or did he know at the age of twelve when he wandered away from his parents and when into the temple at Jerusalem?[1]  Or did Jesus know from birth that he was the Son of God?  Our discussion spilled over into days as we each tried to defend when we thought that Jesus knew that he was the Son of God.  Finally we put the question to our theology professor one afternoon.  Now if you have ever had a conversation with a theology professor, you know that they do not give short answers.  The gist of his answer was that we really do not know.  While the Gospel of John would lead us to believe that the infant Jesus had the knowledge of the divine Logos even before he was born in human form.  But the Gospel of Matthew implies that Jesus knew he was the Son of God when in the temple he tells his parents, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”[2]  But, then all of the Gospels agree that at his baptism Jesus hears God proclaimed him as his Son.

            The baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, what is it really all about?  Is it about Jesus being told that he is God’s Son?  It would seem so with the statement from God as recorded in Mark’s Gospel, “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”[3]  But Mark begins his Gospel by saying “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”[4]  Certainly the story of Jesus is more than his realization that he is the Son of God.  Certainly that is not the only good news that the Gospel writers have to tell us.

            The Gospels are about the revealing of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, to the people of the world – that is the good news.  For the Gospel writer Mark, Jesus’ baptism is the beginning of the revealing of that good news.  He doesn’t waste any time tracing Jesus’ genealogy, talking about his birth, or childhood; but dives right in to tell the story.

            John the Baptist, the messenger that the prophet Isaiah foretold of,[5] was standing in water of the Jordan River baptizing people who had responded to his cries to repent of their sins when Jesus appeared and entered the river to be baptized by him.  As Jesus rose up out of the water the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove and he heard God say, “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased,” thus identifying him as the servant[6] Isaiah wrote about.  Jesus’ baptism is about more than a personal affirmation; it is about the fulfillment of God’s promise to redeem Israel.

            Some four year later, after Jesus’ baptism and resurrection, we find Peter realizing that God’s promise was not just to redeem the people of Israel, but the whole world.  “I truly understand that God shows no partiality…”[7]  Peter had been summoned to the house of Cornelius, a Roman centurion, a Gentile.  Cornelius, a man who believed in God, had received a visit from an angel who told him to send for Peter.  While Peter was talking to Cornelius and his family the Holy Spirit fell upon them and Peter realized that these Gentiles were recipients of God’s promise of redemption in Jesus Christ.  He immediately baptized them in the name of Jesus Christ.

            What does all of this have to do with us?  We are recipients of God’s promise of redemption in Jesus Christ.

            Forty-five years ago last Sunday I was baptized.  I brought the record of my baptism, a copy of the King James Version of the New Testament, in which is written, “To Harold Comer, From First Baptist Church, Goshen, Ind.  Baptized Jan. 5, 1958.”  I think the Baptist have a better idea than we Episcopalians.  Rather than a Baptismal Certificate, they record the baptism in the front of a New Testament.  It’s a power symbol of what a person has been baptized into.  Not the book, but the story.  The story contained in the New Testament.  The Good News of God in Jesus Christ.

            Though our baptism we become participants in the story contained in the New Testament.  At our baptism we receive that same affirmation that Jesus received.  God looked down on us on that day and declared each of us his beloved sons and daughters.  God claimed and sealed us as his.

Do you remember when you first found out who you were?  Now that is a pretty broad question.  I can remember searching for who I was.  As a matter-in-fact, I searched several times in my life.  But my question is really more specific.  Do you remember when you first discovered that you were called to be a Christian?  It may not have anything to do with your baptism if you were baptized as an infant.  Or maybe it does.  Maybe we are similar to Jesus.  Maybe we were created to become Christians and it just took us a while to realize who we are.

            Pastor Steward Bain and the First Baptist Church did make one mistake with me.  It wasn’t until January 19, 1958, that I was received into the membership of the Church.  I really don’t know what the delay was for, maybe I needed some more instruction.  But the fact is, when I was baptized, and when you were baptized, we received our membership.  At that moment the story of Jesus became our story.  How well do you know the story?

            One of the passages that I have marked in my New Testament is from Ephesians, chapter two.  “God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God”[8]

            Just as Jesus rose up from the water of his baptism and received the reassurance as the beloved of his Father, so we to, through Jesus Christ have received that same reassurance.  We have become part of the love story of the Gospels, drawn into God’s arms to receive his loving embrace.

            May we all return that embrace and share the love that we have received in Christ Jesus.