What is your favorite word/phrase to hear?
There has been a running theme in the Kempf family emails and texts as my mother ages. “Who is her favorite child?” It is a little unfair to be asking that, now that she has turned 94, but competitive kids that we are, we still play that game. And we still give each other trouble about that. The good news was that my brother Joe, after having a conversation about her future, and the likelihood that she would not be around too much longer, asked her who her favorite was. After repeating the question, mom said: That would be Billy. YEA ME!
So, silly me, I wanted to double down so as to stir the pot a bit more, so the next time I was there, I asked mom, and twice she replied “I could be any of you!” She’s not as senile as she lets on! And then, last night, my brother Walt mentioned that some of her kids might be rascals. Without blinking, she said: “All of them are.” Back to square one!
As much as we brothers competed, sometimes in less healthy ways in earlier years, there is still that part of us Kempfs that ALWAYS wants to know that we are special. That always wants to hear we are wanted, cherished, important.
I suspect we are not alone in that. That all of us long to hear words of connection, of belonging, of importance. And when we do, they wash over us in ways that are so empowering, so freeing. I think that this was true for Jesus as well.
As Jesus is about to begin his mission, we are told that, after his baptism, while at prayer, (so WE too, have that same opportunity) the heavens open, and the Spirit descends – in that visible form of a dove. In the cultural world of Jesus, the gift of a dove signifies that the recipient is the beloved. At that moment, Jesus sees in the dove and hears those words that every child longs to hear at those critical moments in their lives. “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” That ‘affirmation’ washes over Jesus and empowers him and strengthens him to be on the mission of proclaiming good news.
And that word stayed in his memory forever. “Beloved”. When life was hard for Jesus, and people would attack him, call him names, reject him, I think he would remember this day, the day his Father called him “Beloved” And that was what he needed to be okay. It was the foundation from which he could minister … That he would remember that his father today called him: “Beloved”. From that source he would go forth to live his life …
What I trust about that word, and that baptismal washing we have all experienced (or are journeying toward) is this. At OUR baptism, God also spoke that word to us. The heavens opened and the Spirit came upon us and God could not refrain from pronouncing that blessing upon us. “Ahh. Here is another. Another of my sons. Another of my daughters. Another who is SO BELOVED to me.”
How much I wish every person here could know that, deeply … We are “beloved” of God.
And then that becomes the truth from which we act. The knowledge that we are “Beloved” is not just so that we can have our own personal self-esteem, but rather to free us for going out to the world. After Jesus heard that word, he went forth …
- as a covenant of the people,
- a light for the nations,
- to open the eyes of the blind,
- to bring out prisoners from confinement,
- and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.…
We who were baptized share the very same mission of Jesus. How we treat the cashier, the secretary, the receptionist, our boss, our employee – it all matters. Because we all share that same truth. BELOVED.
I have to admit, it did bring a smile to my heart, knowing that my mom, at least for one moment, called me her favorite. But what I know in faith is that God has whispered an even more amazing word than favorite into each of our hearts. We are invited again today to sit with the truth … you are God’s beloved. And from that great truth, we go forth to love.