The Last Word
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Our God has claimed us from the very beginning, and in that moment when we emerge from our baptismal waters, we claim God as our own as well. We recognize that we’re called to be in relationship with Him. We recognize that we’re called to be in relationship with all of God’s children.
That’s why when we emerge from baptism, we’re celebrating that we’re part of God’s family. We’re marked by a “visible sign of invisible grace” and our lives will never be the same again. And once we finally own our relationship with God – once we finally understand and believe that we‘re made, loved, and claimed by Him as his children – then, as people of faith, we can loudly proclaim that we are indeed God’s beloved children and God is moving in and through our lives to bless this world.
So, when we remember our baptism we are celebrating and affirming God’s deep love for each of us and for all of us. We celebrate the touch of the waters, the power of God’s word, and the gifts of the Spirit that embrace and enliven our whole person – body, mind and spirit. And we’re celebrating our communities of faith that walk with us, who lift us up in prayer, who guide us, and who love us.
We’re all on this journey together and what matters is what happens after we’ve been blessed by those baptismal waters. What matters is that moment when we recognize, embrace and celebrate that we’re claimed and acknowledged by a God who was with us in the beginning, who is with us now, and who will always be there for us.
The feeling of that water rolling down our foreheads reminds us that God’s justice will roll down like water and wash everything new. We’re reminded that in the beginning, God moved over the waters and created life. We’re reminded that God calls us to lay down beside still cool waters and find rest and restore our souls.
And when we feel the water on our foreheads like tears of joy, it’s like a gentle rain washing away our worries, our fears, and our uncertainties. That’s when we remember that we’ve been claimed and transformed, and that our lives are called to be a blessing for others.
That’s the point of Luke’s lesson today. That the moment we emerged from the waters of our baptism we began to live a life based on the principles of the Kingdom of God. In that moment, whether we were old enough to remember it or not, we claimed our relationship with God and began to understand that the world doesn’t have the last word. God does.