Jan. 9 Sermon: You Are What You Eat
You Are What You Eat
Rev. Kate Hurst Floyd
Holy Covenant UMC
January 9, 2011
Matthew 3:13-17
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“You are what you eat”
This is the title of our new sermon series, lasting through the beginning of March.
In my small group this week, a look of worry and dread glossed over people’s faces when this topic came up. Somebody finally said: you’re not going to tell us what to eat and what not to eat, are you? He was ready to defend his food choices to me, having eaten a hamburger earlier in the day. We get enough scolding this time of year, from special K commercials and weight watchers ads. It’s not exactly what we want to hear from church.
Is this sermon series really about what we put into our bodies?
Somebody else in the group said: Aha! I get it: it’s a metaphor. We become what we take in. When we fill ourselves up with scripture, prayer, love, compassion, we’ll become a living prayer, compassionate beings, living the words of the Bible.
Is this sermon series really about preparing ourselves spiritually?
In this New Year, as you make resolutions, break them, keep them, start anew, my hope is you’ll join us at Holy Covenant to find out what it means to be what we eat. To answer the invitation to feast at God’s welcome table. For beginnings, in the life of faith, are critical. Even Jesus had to prepare himself for the years to come.
**
We meet Jesus, this morning, at a moment of new beginning and preparation.
He’s at the river Jordan, gathered with the crowds to be baptized by John the Baptist. Jesus has yet to begin his public ministry….he hasn’t healed a single sick person, raised anybody from the dead, given food to the hungry. Nobody even knows he can walk on water. He’s a 30 year old guy, last seen visited as a baby by some wise men, now in need of some serious preparation. He probably made a lot of resolutions (vowing to only buy fair trade cloaks, make one Pharisee a week mad at him, drink more water from the well), all of this to prepare him for his work ahead.
Before he can begin any acts of justice, compassion, and mercy, before he can save anybody’s life, he has to go down to the water. It is there that John protests: Not I, Lord. Surely you must baptize me. But Jesus insists, saying, baptize me with water, John, so he does. And as that cool, clear water washes over Jesus, suddenly the heavens are opened, and the Spirit of God descends like a dove. And God’s voice rings out, saying: This is my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.
And in that instant, baptism changes everything. Jesus is prepared, empowered by the Holy Spirit, ready for ministry. And so are we.
**
Every year, on the 2nd Sunday of January, churches all over the world, from many different denominations, celebrate the Baptism of our Lord. We remember Jesus’ baptism, the dove descending, the Holy Spirit breaking forth, the voice from the sky. As we do so, we remember our own baptisms, and today do more than remember, we participate again in the ritual act of being claimed by God and sharing an identity with Christ. So the question is before us, as it is before many Christians on this Sunday: What does baptism mean for us? How does it prepare us?
In The United Methodist Church, we baptize infants.
This means that it can be easy for us to sentimentalize baptism…We marvel at babies, beautiful and adorable in long white gowns, or brand new outfits with bonnets and smiling parents, doting grandparents. We sing sweet songs and eat cake afterwards, sharing gifts, perhaps gifts of more cute outfits.
We also sentimentalize baptism by thinking that it’s an individual act…the moment when a child or adult is called God’s beloved, calls a person’s name, and that child experiences the sweet moment when it is loved by God.
At Baptism God’s voice does call out: You are my beloved, with you I am well pleased.
But let me be very clear: Baptism doesn’t magically turn us into God’s beloved children. We are born as God’s beloved. God the creator created each one of us…God knows our names before we are born and the count of all the hairs on our heads. Whether you were baptized as an infant, a child, an adult, or never baptized at all, you ARE God’s beloved. You are God’s child. That was always true and will always be true, by virtue of being created by God, and the act of baptism doesn’t change this. Nothing can make you God’s beloved or take away God’s love from you: it is always there.
So what is baptism then? Baptism isn’t a sentimental ritual, an excuse to see cute babies in worship, neither is it an individual act….Baptism is a radical ritual that initiates us into the Christian story and fundamentally changes our identity. For in the receiving of the water, the anointing in the name of the God who creates, redeems, and sustains, the one baptized is physically and spiritually marked as one whose identity is as a Christian. Whose primary identity is in Christ.
In the act of receiving that grace, as part of a community, we no longer have an individual identity. We are not first and foremost our own individual self; we are now first and foremost part of the body of Christ. The child’s name is no longer just their given name, but their given name, sister of Christ, brother of Christ.
And there is nothing sentimental about that.
It’s a radical act to attach your identity purposefully to something beyond yourself and to do this for the children in your life; to attach yourself to the community and the common good. Especially today, in our hyper-individualistic culture, it’s radical to mark on our bodies that we belong to something beyond ourselves—that we belong to God.
Especially during this weekend, when we’ve been witness to political violence, it is critical that we, as Christians, attach our identities to Christ. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t other parts of our identities that shape who we are, what we believe, what we stand for. But as we share these commitments, we must, must engage first and foremost as followers of Christ. As we engage in social and political causes and conversation, we treat one another not as particular political parties, or newscasters or blogs tell us we should be treating one another—no, we engage one another as Christ would have us engage, with mutuality and respect. And we never, ever dehumanize one of God’s beloved.
When we remember our baptisms, we remember that our identities are fundamentally changed, and that we are claimed and marked for the kingdom of God—not for the ways of this world. What better way to start the new year?
It’s easy to think that baptism is an end in and of itself; our identities are changed so God’s work is done. On the contrary, our baptisms mark a beginning and prepare us for the Christian life, just as Jesus’ baptism began his public ministry.
So our task, as we remember and reclaim our identities, is to live lives of discipleship. Baptism, by the power of the Holy Spirit, empowers us to live radical lives, participating in the ministry of Jesus Christ.
This is why, when we remember our baptisms, we also meet at this communion table. This table where we participate as the body of Christ. For this table, to which we return week after week, is the place where we remember, receive, and are transformed. We are sent out to live as disciples…feeding and forgiving; seeking justice and welcoming the stranger; receiving salvation and building the kingdom; forever raised to eternal life…as those whose names are sister and brother of Christ.
**
You are what you eat. Is this about what we literally take into our bodies? Is it a metaphor for filling ourselves spiritually?
This morning, this year, find out.
Remember your baptism. Feast at this welcome table. Taste and see that God is good.
Let the baptismal waters wash over your body and hear the voice of God saying: You are my beloved, with you I am well pleased.
Receive the grape juice, hearing Jesus say: drink from this, all of you, this is my cup of the new covenant, poured out for the forgiveness of sins. Drink and be forgiven!
Jesus lifts up the bread, breaks it, says take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you.
You are, friends, what you eat.
Thanks be to God!
Tags: Kate
