Love Is Our Identity

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
January 7, 2024
1^st after Epiphany, Year B
Genesis 1:1-5
Psalm 29
Mark 1:4-11

Yesterday was the Epiphany, the day when we celebrate the coming of the Magi to visit Jesus. We call it the Epiphany because it was an “Aha” moment. These gentiles had somehow heard that Jesus had been born. They’d somehow heard that Jesus was to be king of the Jews. They visited with Jesus, with Mary and Joseph, and they bowed down before Jesus. The “Aha” moment was the first revelation of Jesus to the gentiles. Decades before Jesus began his ministry, these gentile Magi came to see that there was something special about this child named Jesus.

Now, today, on this first Sunday after the Epiphany, we have another “Aha” moment with Jesus’ baptism. Right after he was baptized, the heavens were opened, God’s voice called Jesus his beloved Son, and the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove. This was a revealing Jesus’ identity, of who Jesus was and is.

Last Sunday we heard about Jesus’ identity, that his identity was revealed in John’s gospel as the Word of God, which is God. Jesus’ identity is God who became human to live as one of us. By becoming human, God connected with us completely in every aspect of our lives. We are one with God, even when we hurt ourselves and one another. Even when we disconnect from one another and from God, God has already joined Godself to that disconnection, so nothing can separate us from God, not even our sin.

That’s called Incarnational Atonement. Our salvation is our unity with God, and that unity has come in Jesus.

Part of Jesus’ unity with us was that he was baptized by John. John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and Jesus joined with all of the people coming out to be baptized. The “Aha” moment in Jesus’ baptism is hearing that Jesus’ is God’s beloved Son. Now, when Jesus was baptized, he was already God’s son. As we know from John’s gospel, Jesus was God from before all time and forever. So, his baptism by John the Baptist didn’t make him God’s beloved son. Jesus’ baptism revealed him as God’s beloved Son.

One question is, to whom was that revelation made? Who exactly got the “Aha” moment? Did Jesus? Did he already know who he was? People were coming to John confessing their sins. Did Jesus do the same? Did he think he needed a baptism of repentance for forgiveness? Did he know that he was the one whom John was proclaiming? Perhaps Jesus’ identity as God was revealed to him as well. He was, after all, human, having to learn and grow as he went.

So, maybe Jesus’ identity was revealed even to Jesus. We’re not exactly sure, but we are fairly sure that no one else knew that Jesus was God, and we know that because almost nothing was mentioned about his life between his birth and his baptism. For about 30 years, Jesus was just some carpenter’s kids from the sparrow-fart town of Nazareth. He was a nobody, just a regular bloke. It’s as this nobody, regular bloke that God chose to unite with us.  

For us, then, being united to God doesn’t take anyone special. No fancy collar or clothes, no degrees, no training, no particular holiness. Being united to God simply takes being. In the Incarnation, Jesus has united all of us to God for the simple fact that we are people.

As Jesus’ identity was revealed in Baptism, so is our identity revealed in Baptism. At the end of each baptism, we say, “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.” That sentence reveals a truth that was already there. Just as Jesus’ baptism gave an “Aha” moment, revealing who Jesus is, so do our baptisms give an “Aha” moment, revealing who we are.

We are one with Christ. We are one with God. We are God’s beloved children. In baptism, we are revealed as Christ’s own forever. We already are Christ’s own. We always have been. Baptism reveals that truth.

Looking at some more of what Baptism reveals about us, think on our Genesis reading. “In the beginning… God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good.” Everything God made is good, and everything God made is made in the light.

Now, again, from John’s gospel, we know that Jesus is the Word of God which spoke creation into existence. Also, in the Word of God “was life, and the life was the light of all people.” The very life of God, which is light for all people, is the life in which we were made. We were made in the life and light of God, and we were made in God’s image. We have the life and light of God within us, as part of us.

That too is revealed in our baptism. We are part of the life and light of God. So is everyone around us, all part of the life and light of God. Whether baptized or not, all of us are part of the life and light of God. Baptism reveals that truth of our identity.

Remembering from 1 John that “God is love,” we see another part of our identity revealed in Baptism. Julian of Norwich wrote, “Everything exists through the love of God,” and “With creation we started but the love with which he created us was in Him from the very beginning and in this love is our beginning.” (Revelations of Divine Love, Julian of Norwich)

Love is our identity, as is being God’s beloved children, as is our unity with God. There’s nothing special we need to do or be to make this identity happen. Just as Jesus’ identity was revealed to him in his baptism, so is our identity revealed to us in our baptisms.

We are made of the love of God, and love is our identity. There needn’t be anything special about us for this to be true. In his earthly life, Jesus was just a regular bloke, so as regular folks ourselves, we are part of the light and life of God. We are fully one with God because God became human, uniting Godself to us. In that unity with God, we find our identity, God’s beloved children, all of us and everyone we’ll ever meet, God’s beloved children.