Loading..."Do not fear, for I am with you."
This is a promise that Dan had heard early in life and it was repeated often.
He heard it from his parents
and he heard it at church.
He never questioned it or its validity. It was just there for him.
As he grew into his teenaged years,
he started filtering what his parents said to him and
he went to worship less frequently, so he didn’t hear the promise repeated very often.
By the time Dan finished college, this promise was barely a whisper in his mind. The loud voices that directed his thought and action were instead the messages from society around him.
Dan was pretty sure by this point that the way to feel good about himself and to feel secure in the world
was to get a good job with a good salary;
work hard and get recognition for his work;
keep up the friendships with his buddies;
buy the latest model rig;
and marry a beautiful woman and have children.
And, some of those things seemed to work for him for several years.
Then his mother got very sick and died. After the funeral in the church where he grew up, Dan realized that he really hadn’t been happy for quite some time. He sat for a long time on the swing on the front porch of his parents’ house looking out of the river and he realized that while there had been transitory moments of happiness, those moments came and went quickly and were based upon a promotion, or a new “toy”, or some award that he got.
Aside from those brief times, he was actually feeling a sense of emptiness, of being lost and directionless.
In fact, Dan thought, I’ve been seeking hope and joy and happiness from others.
I’ve been looking for outside things to tell me that I’m valuable.
And to be brutally honest, rather than feeling joyful, I feel despair.
Dan sat on the porch swing for awhile listening to the echo of one of the Bible verses that had been read at his mother’s funeral, a verse he had long forgotten, but that reminded him of the promise he had heard so often when he was a kid:
Do not fear, for I am with you
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
~~~~~~~~~~
These words were first spoken to people living in exile.
They were first said to a people who had been proudly independent –
with their own king, nation, economy, religion, and culture,
but who had fallen apart and had been overrun by an invading force.
These words of promise were first spoken to a people
who were forced to leave home, land, and even family and
who were taunted and reviled by the victors who told the exiled people that their god must be weak and must have abandoned them
otherwise, they would not have ended up in exile.
These words of assurance were first spoken to a people who feared that maybe there was no God and that they had been abandoned and were now lost.
These words of hope were first spoken to a people who despaired.
Do not fear, for I am with you.
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you,
I have called you by name, you are mine.
These words of promise, assurance, and hope
have also been spoken over you
and are repeated for you each week and each day.
These words of promise, assurance, and hope
are a constant in your life even if the static and noise of other stuff
has reduced the words to a whisper.
They are there
•spoken over you in the waters of baptism
•repeated each time you remember the baptismal covenant God made with you
These are the words of the promise
that goes with you each day because God has been with you on your journey from the very first step.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jesus took those steps with the crowd into the waters of the Jordan river in baptism
to walk where we walk
but also, and more importantly, to keep those waters from overwhelming us.
Jesus’ baptism was not to “wash away sin” from the one who is sinless – truly not what is most important for any of us are baptized either.
Rather, it was a time for Jesus to be claimed and identified as beloved.
It was the time when Jesus was sent into the world with his call, his mission.
It was the Incarnation at work – the Divine One walking with all of humanity,
with each of you.
Do not fear, for I am with you
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
This is your first call, the one made to you in baptism:
the simple promise made by God,
and the statement of love – you are my beloved child.
This call, and this statement, is one that we are asked to repeat for one another,
especially when we have a hard time hearing it for ourselves,
or remembering the promise and this truth.
We repeat it for one another in worship, in care and support,
in service and the giving our ourselves, and through love.
We are asked and called to do these things and to live this way
so that we may know and experience the magnitude and completeness of God’s love
to the very depths of our very beings.
Do not fear, for I am with you
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
Your identity and value comes not from the outward things – job, possessions, or even {gasp} your nearest and dearest relationship and people.
Your identity comes from the commitment that God has made
and continues to make to you
Your identity comes from the life of commitment you live.
Your identity comes from a life that springs forth from the nourishing waters.
Your identity comes from this new life in Christ where you give of yourself
and with all of God’s love in you.
Your identity comes from a life in which you live in and
share the compassion and grace of God.
Do not fear, for I am with you.
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
For Dan, for you, for each and every person washed in the waters of baptism,
the promise is given and real today and every day.
This is the first, last, and enduring promise made to each of you.
This is the voice of God who calls you and claims you.
This is the life of the world, and the hope for all people everywhere.
Amen
