Sermon Title: “With you, I am well pleased”
UCCP Maasin City, Southern Leyte
10 January 2021
by Frank J. Hernando
Texts: Isaiah 55: 1-13; Mark 1: 4-11
Isaiah 55:1-13
55Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.3Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. 4See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. 5See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.
6Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near;7let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. 9For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. 12For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 13Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
Mark 1:4-11
4John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.6Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
9In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.11And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
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I N T R O D U C T I ON
Good morning. Happy New Year everyone! I’m sure that all of us have welcome the new year 2021 with thanksgiving in our hearts that even we traversed the threats and consequences brought about by the Covid-19 Pandemic, we slowly overcome our fears and strengthen our faith that God will graciously save us from the perils that lurk within and outside of our communities.
Once again, I would like to thank all the leaders and members of this church, the UCCP Maasin City for the gracious opportunity to preach God’s Word on several services during the Advent and Christmas Season. I have come to the end of my 28-day holiday break tomorrow, and on Tuesday, I will be travelling back to Quezon City to resume my work at the national office. The Office of General Secretary prays for you to preserve the dynamic unity of the local church, and everyone will contribute towards the making of a church that is vibrant, exuberant, and bearing witness to Jesus Christ as Lord of life and creation. /
Ang Office of General Secretary padayon nga nag-ampo alang kaninyo aron magpadayon ang aktibo nga panaghiusa niiining simbahan, ug ang matag usa mag-amot sa ilang mga gasa ug bahandi alang sa paghimo sa iglesia nga buhi, malipayon, ug nagasaksi sa kamatuoran ni Jesu-Krsto.
O N E
Today, we commemorate the baptism of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is an integral part of the God’s Epiphany in the person of Jesus Christ, one of the persons in God’s trinitarian revelation or pagpadayag sa Dios sa iyang kaugalingon ngadto sa katawhan, sa mga Judio ug mga Gentil or dili-Judio. Together with the lectionary texts of the baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ is the reading from the book of prophet Isaiah, chapter 55: 1-13.
The prophet envisioned something new for God’s people, a kind of life that many of the returning Israelites to Jerusalem after their disheartening experiences of discrimination in Babylon, however, there were extraordinary individuals and families who improved their economic life while working there and waiting for the dawning of God’s time when they can be liberated and start their lives all over again.
The first few verses of chapter 55 are an open invitation to anyone who is hungry or thirsty. This reminds us of the market place call to buy. However, this call is a total contradiction because you can buy without paying. What is offered is free. The Old Testament contains some of the most amazing offers of God's love which are parallel to that in the New Testament.
This vision of God’s offer of food, water, things that constitute the basic necessities in order to live a decent life in the community may sound utopian, but this is quite real in the experiences of many poor families and communities during the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ), when the only way to get food for oneself and for one’s family is wait for ayuda or food packs and a little cash.
I think this ethical reversal, that is, what is the right thing to do is to give out food, water and basic necessities in life was based on the actual experiences of Israelites in Babylon who have been economically marginalized and those who have achieved economic stability and sustainability. This means that, returning home to Jerusalem should proceed with a new way of relating with disadvantaged families and neighbors.
Overseas migrant workers, either sea or land based, have developed an interpersonal and inter-family solidarity as a means of overcoming difficulties in the workplace and become extraordinarily generous as they contribute substantial amount of donations to their organization, to the religious group to which they belong and extend soft loans to their fellows who have been in financial woes. This is beyond usual solidarity and concern for kapwa manggagawa.
But what about the behavior of migrant workers when they return home? Traditionally, those who have worked overseas would bring home expensive liquor, chocolates for the kids, and other kinds of gifts as peace offering to family and friends. I guess this has changed in the last decades when precious savings are not wasted on expensive gifts, but offer a thanksgiving service perhaps and donate to charities and alumni organizations and others, that would somehow express their membership in organizations or religious group.
The overseas migrant workers have significantly contributed to the economic development of their families, communities and the nation as a whole. But overseas employment remained precarious, and the State should reverse the policies on migration and development, and that is not just giving the OFWs ayuda, but make a reversal of economic policies that are inspired by the biblical and ethical principles that would eradicate the gap in the economic life across socio-economic classes in society.
T W O
Moreover, following the invitation to come to eat and drink without payment, is the renewal of the covenant promise which had been made with David. This renewal of promise or comprehensive agreement looks as though a certain historical juncture of the Davidic line has ended in exile. It is in fact being examined in the light of the new historical circumstances and has been expanded beyond the elite Davidic line to include the whole of Israel. The everlasting covenant is with the whole people of God.
I am amazed at how the prophet provided the configuration of the new covenant with God’s people and not just with the elite leaders or monarchy of Israel and Judah. There were required actions and attitude that God’s people are expected to exhibit as they start building the new socio-economic systems. The guideposts for this is to ensure the egalitarian social life for the many, justice is institutionalized and peace is the result of the forsaking of the evil thoughts of the leaders and the members of the community, e.g. their arrogance and greed that led to their downfall as a nation.
Isn’t that we always underestimate the power of God to change the course of history? We used to think that our thoughts are higher that God’s thoughts. We thought God will always bless us and take side with our interests, resulting in taking advantage of our fellow members, or demeaning the church workers for flimsy reasons like their English language ability is imperfect, or their sermons are below our expectations, or their assertiveness to correct matters in the church seem confrontational. Aren’t these thoughts unbecoming? We would like to let them pack their things and go, for we say, “anyway, pastors come and go”, instead of listening to each other, threshing out differences in opinion and levelling-off perceptions. God’s thoughts are higher than ours.
When we are prejudiced with our church workers or even with our poor and struggling church members, we violate God’s command to love God with all our heart, mind and soul and our neighbor as ourselves. We cannot discern the frustration the church workers who have to endure the anguish they experienced because they were not respected. Worse, is to put the blame on the church workers for frustrating the vested political and economic interest of the “powerful” in the church.
God has God’s own way of making sure that God’s will for a just and peaceful nation will not return to God like vanishing thin air. God will make sure that those who usurp God’s power will not see the dawning of a new dispensation. Our church from the local, conference and general assembly levels need new ways of relating and our personal vested interests must be subsumed to the holy will of God in Jesus Christ.
The Covid-19 Pandemic with its cost to the lives of ordinary people and the consequences in the life of our Christian communities, has somehow level-off everyone—all persons can be infected by the virus and can get seriously ill and pass on to the great beyond. Tanan nga tao nahadlok matakdan sa virus, ug tanan nga paagi sa pag-amping sa atong ikaayong panglawas atong ginahimo.
The prophet keeps reminding us that the Hebrew word nephesh or 'soul' refers to the whole being and not some separate part within the human being. Through moral and ethical relationship with God, one finds the fullness of life. In the reversal of the socio-economic systems that God intended for God’s people, there is a need for a re-understanding of historical experiences and how the quality of life that God has given to human beings had been violated due to negligence of taking care the vulnerable people in our society and those in the nations around the world.
T H R E E
Finally, we touch down into Jesus Christ’s baptism at the Jordan River by John the Baptist. In the Hollywood movies that we have seen, such as “The Last Temptation of Jesus,” and few others, Jesus went to the Jordan River, where his cousin John baptized women and men with the repentant baptism. In the Gospel narratives we hear that John the Baptist introduced Jesus to the crowd who were gathered at Jordan to listen to his preaching about the imminent coming of the kingdom of God. People came from the surrounding rural villages of Judea and even from Jerusalem were subsistence farmers and marginalized shepherds were baptized.
John the Baptist’s declaration that he will baptize them with water, Jesus, on the other hand will baptize them with the Holy Spirit. I believe this announcement was new, because predecessors of John did not mention much about the Holy Spirit, aside from the strong wind that animated the dry bones as prophet Ezekiel prophesied or in creation story when God blew his breathe on the first woman and man.
Jesus’ ministry had been associated with the life of the those who were called “sinners” such as the tax collectors, the poor peasants, and those who came to for baptism at Jordan River were of their kind or social background. Jesus asked John to baptize him, a sinner’s baptism, although he did not sin. Jesus’ baptism revealed that indeed he is God’s beloved child as the voice from heaven declares "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."
This Jesus from Galilee is the Son of God, the Messiah? Most of Jesus' contemporaries rejected this claim. Certainly, the religious and political establishment of the day ridiculed the claim and condemned Jesus to death on a cross. A claimant to the throne of power should be eliminated. Even his own disciples wondered what kind of messiah he was turning out to be.
The disciples were in disbelief that the Messiah that God has sent to the world will die a most horrid death. Peter's protest when Jesus began telling him and the other disciples that suffering and death awaited him (Mark 8). No one can accuse Jesus or God of acting in conventional or expected ways! A messiah cannot die, was the long-held perspective of the day.
We find here the mystery of God's ways in the world. At the same time, we can discern that the conventional way of political and economic control is to kill the challenger, more so make his claims unpopular and make him a fool if not, a subversive or terrorist. Jesus’ and Mark's Christian community believed a claim that nearly everyone else laughed at. Paul said that the cross was foolishness and a stumbling block (1 Cor 1:23). It still is.
Yet, paradoxically, it is also the power of God for salvation. How can we continue to live out our Christian faith today in a society that is increasingly skeptical and apathetic toward the gospel? There is one way: to depend on the power of the gospel offered to us through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
When the circumstances of life all around us raise unsettling questions about the validity of our faith claims, let Jesus be our paradigm of perseverance in the face of doubts and questions. As John the Baptist testified, it is this Jesus who is able to baptize with the Holy Spirit. To submit to the baptism of the Holy Spirit administered by Jesus means that we find in him the resources that enable us to remain faithful when the odds are against us. [1]
God declares in the voice from heaven that Jesus is the one in whom God is well pleased. That points to Jesus as the suffering servant, and it was the one thing that Jesus needed to keep him focused on his mission in the midst of the ridicule and opposition that he would face.
I believe that as Christians, we believe in the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Most of us have been baptized as infants or as adults. We were nurtured in the understanding that baptism, or the use of water as the sacred symbol of cleansing from sin enables us to restore our relationship with God.
In infant baptism, it is the faith of the parents that ensures that the child baptized into the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is nurtured and grasped by the child as he/she grows into maturity. It is also an act of initiating the child into the community of faith, such as inclusion into the communicant membership of the church through the local church or parish. Baptism for adults is understood as a visible sign of metanoia or repentance from sin to righteousness before God.
As members of the body of Jesus Christ, we have been baptized into his life, ministry, suffering, death and resurrection. Our membership in the church is not just a privilege, but entails responsibilities that enables the entire constituency of the church to grow and mature in the likeness of Jesus Christ. When we assume responsibilities and duties in the church, we ought to be motivated by our faith in God and empowered by the Holy Spirit, so that the unity of the church will flourish and collective life of the church resembles the dawning of the kingdom of God in our world.
P R A Y E R
Loving God, we thank God for reminding us of Jesus Christ’s baptism. We learn that in his baptism, he was your beloved Son with whom you are well pleased. We may not reach Jesus’ level of commitment and dedication that his baptism commissioned him to live out, yet we ask for discernment of how we can be compassionate in our relationships in our families, our church and our communities. May we participate in the reversal of values, in moral and ethical norms so that we may enhance the growth of the kingdom of love, justice and peace that Jesus Christ has inaugurated.
For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 13Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. (Isa. 55: 12-13). Blessings of love, joy and peace to you all. Amen.
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Reference: Anna Grant Henderson. http://otl.unitingchurch.org.au/index.php?page=saiah-55-1-9
https://photos.app.goo.gl/vQQNJaLXsL3xRxbp7
