Scripture: Mark 1:4-11

While the eyes and hearts of the nation were focused on the Sago mine in Tallmansville, West Virginia, an extraordinary human drama was playing itself out Wednesday morning---just as it is this weekend as the first of 12 funerals are conducted.

I first saw the newswire report of the successful rescue of the miners about midnight while watching the end of the Penn State-Florida State Orange Bowl game, a triple overtime win for Penn State that was over about 1 a.m. I actually woke up Lois to share the relief and joy. Like millions upon millions of others, I went to sleep thinking that they had been rescued and no morning headline here, on the east coast at least, was in a position to correct the misinformation that caused so much heartache. The Sago Baptist Church was both a house of prayer and worship and a community center. When the initial reports reached the church, there was relief and rejoicing and the praising of God for their survival. The pealing of the church bells announced the news but those were soon silenced------- and then restarted--- this time, it was a tolling for the dead. The Hartford Courant had this poignant headline:

“PEALING OF BELLS, THEN A KNELLING FINALITY”

And with it--- profound sorrow and hot anger and maybe the most personal challenge to one’s faith anyone can have--- because of the intensity of the moment.

I can’t even imagine what it must have been like but I know I was thinking how important the words of Paul are--- for us to get through experiences like it:

“None of lives to himself alone and none of dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end, Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living.” (Romans 14: 7-9)

A few of the men wrote notes and from what I have read, they were of great comfort. One read:

“Tell all I will see them on the other side. It wasn’t bad. I just went to sleep. I love you.” JR.

(Allen C. Breed, HC, 1/6/2006, A2)

Not a single day passes that we all don’t need to hear those words--- “I love you.”

Not a single hour passes when we do not need to know that in life and death we belong to the Lord.

Not a single moment passes when we do not need to know and believe that we will see each other on the other side.

And as we come to worship this morning, on this the first Sunday in a new season of Epiphany --- that’s the truth that was revealed to the world in Christ’s birth --- We belong because we are loved! And because we belong we have life and life eternal.

We come too on a baptismal Sunday. The scriptures tell about the baptism of Jesus, and as a community of faith, we will celebrate the baptism of Mason and Jacob.

The message God gives us is the same for both.

The baptism of Jesus is an event of record for each of the Gospels but Matthew differs from John and both differ from Mark and Luke. In Matthew, similar in purpose the preceding story of the visit of the wise men--- being a revelation to the nations---in Jesus’ baptism the voice from heaven speaks so that all may hear--- all the people there in and on the banks of the Jordan. The words are so familiar:

“This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

John gives us an account with no voice from heaven. Rather it is John the Baptist who bears witness to Jesus.

Both give an emphasis to the unveiling of Christ to the world as God’s own ‘beloved’ and baptism ever since has been the sacramental declaration of God’s love for us…. a declaration for all the world to hear.

Both Mark and Luke, however, have Jesus presumably knee deep in dirty water and amidst the crowd. He is praying and the voice speaks directly to him. No one can be sure that anyone else heard the voice--- the epiphany is not to the world but to the man:

“You are my beloved son, in whom I delight.”

This particular account gives us pause to ask: Is there any greater human need or a more profoundly defining moment in a person’s life than being told that you are loved, that someone actually delights in you? AND EVEN IMPORTANTLY, THAT NOTHING CAN EVER CHANGE THAT.

THERE IS PLENTY TO CHALLENGE IT. BUT NOTHING THAT CAN CHANGE IT.

There are times when I am somewhat addicted to the news and as a result, sometimes see the world through the various stories and accounts AND I GUESS THAT I AM ALWAYS WORRYING ABOUT THE KIDS AND THE WORLD IN WHICH THEY WILL BE GROWING UP.--- WHAT THEY WILL AND WHAT THEY WILL EXPERIENCE.

I am reminded of a wonderful quote--- anonymously scripted:

“We suffer from seeing too much death and not enough life,

too much sorrow and not enough joy,

too much greed and not enough giving,

too much loneliness and not enough love.”

There are times when that is certainly true--- times that will require so much of our faith and us—when life reduced its basic essentials and fundamental truths and in baptism--- those that we perform today and those that we remember today, namely our own—we affirm what is true and essential--- that we beloved—God delights in us and no matter what God is with us—our Emmanuel.

Some time ago, we received here at the church another church’s version of a Church Call and it included a little story as ‘filler’ from some Daily Guideposts. It went as follows:

“Recently I heard a little story about President Theodore Roosevelt. He would sometimes go through a bedtime ritual by heading outdoors to contemplate the stars. After searching the skies for a few moments, he would say: ‘There’s the spiral nebula of Andromeda. It is as large as our Milky Way. It is one of a hundred million galaxies. It is 750,000 light years away. It consists of 100 billion suns, each larger than our sun.”

Then he would pause before saying, “Now I think we are small enough. Let’s go to bed.”

Then the writer of the reflection, Shirley Pope Waite, says: “Yes, as T.R. said, we are small--- tiny in comparison with the vast universe around us. Still, what I marvel at most is that, small though we are, God’s love for us is so big—nothing in life is greater.

How’s that for something to teach Mason and Jacob? How's that for something that we need to remember as we begin this new year? Nothing is greater---- that God’s love for us.

NOT THE TRAGEDIES THAT SOMETIME BEFALL US.

NOT THE EVIL THAT SOMETIMES HAS ITS WAY WITH US.

NOT THE SIN THAT SOMETIMES MISLEADS US.

NOT THE ILLNESSES THAT SOMETIME WEAKEN US.

NOT THE VIOLENCE THAT STALKS THE WORLD AND SOMETIMES EVEN LIVES WITHIN THE HEART.

NOT THE MISTAKES WE SOMETIMES MAKE OR THE FALSE NEWS WE SOMETIMES BELIEVE.

NOTHING IS GREATER--- THAN WHAT IS BEING WHISPERED FROM HEAVENS THIS MORNING….

“YOU ARE MY BELOVED SONS AND DAUGHTER IN WHOM I DELIGHT--- TODAY AND ALWAYS.

Amen