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01/07/24 – God has Spoken – You are the Beloved

GOD HAS SPOKEN – YOU ARE THE BELOVED

January 7, 2024
Baptism of the Lord
Genesis 1:1-5; Psalm 29:1-11; Acts 19:1-7; Mark 1:4-11
Rev. Tim Mitchell

 

Recently, I heard a touching story that illustrates the power that words have to change a life, a power that lies in the hands of those hearing these words. Mary had grown up knowing she was different from the other kids and hated it. She was born with a cleft palate and had to bear the jokes and stares of cruel children who teased her non-stop about her misshaped lip, crooked nose, and garbled speech.

With all the teasing, Mary grew up hating the fact that she was “different.” She was convinced that no one outside her family could ever love her … until she entered Mrs. Leonard’s class.

Mrs. Leonard had a warm smile, a round face, and shiny brown hair. While everyone in her class liked her, Mary came to love Mrs. Leonard.

In the 1950s, it was common for teachers to give their children an annual hearing test. However, in Mary’s case, in addition to her cleft palate, she could barely hear out of one ear. Determined not to let the other children have another “difference” to point out, she would cheat on the test each year. The “whisper test” was given by having a child walk to the classroom door, turn sideways, close one ear with a finger, and repeat something the teacher whispered. Mary turned her bad ear towards her teacher and pretended to cover her good ear. She knew that teachers would often say things like, “The sky is blue” or “What color are your shoes?” But not on that day. Surely, God put seven words in Mrs. Leonard’s mouth that changed Mary’s life forever. When the “Whisper test” came, Mary heard the words: “I wish you were my little girl.”

We are God’s Children—we are God’s Beloved. The voice from heaven that speaks here, we presume, is God’s voice. And God says to Jesus, “You are my Beloved”. And that declaration extends to us.

Ephesians 1:5 says: He (God) destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will,

1 John 3:1, “See what love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”

Through Jesus Christ, God has lavished God’s love on all creation. We are all God’s Beloved. The creator of the universe loves you enough to call you “the beloved,” and that will be transforming for all who drink deeply from its well. And drinking from that well is a work to which we are all called.

Henri Nouwen reminds us that: “Our true challenge is to return to the center, to the heart, and to find there the gentle voice which speaks to us and affirms us in a way no human voice ever could. The basis of all ministry is the experience of God’s unlimited and unlimiting acceptance of us as beloved children, an acceptance so full, so total and all-embracing, that it sets us free from our compulsion to be seen, praised, and admired and free for Christ who leads us on the road to service.”

As Christians, our first work is to accept that we are the beloved. Our second work is to treat others we meet as the beloved. We are chosen by God as God’s beloved. God sends us into the world to convey that they are the beloved. Someone has written:

…are you black, brown, white, or something else? You are God’s beloved.
…are you a Democrat or Republican or something else? You are God’s beloved.
…are you heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or something else? You are God’s beloved.
…are you rich or poor, male or female, young or old, employed or unemployed, married, partnered, divorced, widowed or single? I think you get the point — You are God’s beloved.

Being a Christ-centered community — being this beloved community means we not only see ourselves as Christ sees us, but that we see each other as beloved of God as well. It means that the first thing we think when we see, hear, talk, or even email each other is, “Wow – I’m talking to a child of God.”

Why talk of being the beloved because it allows us to accept ourselves. In her book Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary Of Faith, Kathleen Norris writes about a little boy who wrote a poem called “The Monster Who Was Sorry.” In the poem, the boy explores how he hated it when his father yelled at him. In anger, he threw his sister down the stairs, wrecked his room, and then destroyed an entire town. His poem concludes: “Then I sit in my messy house and say to myself, ‘I shouldn’t have done all that.’”

Commenting on the boy’s poem, Norris writes, “‘My messy house’ says it all, with more honesty than most adults could have mustered. The boy made a metaphor for himself that admitted the depth of his rage and also gave him a way out. If that boy had been a novice in a fourth century monastic desert, his elders might have told him that he was well on the way toward repentance, not such a monster after all, but only human. If the house is messy, they might have said, why not clean it up, why not make it into a place where God might wish to dwell?”

Knowing deep inside that we are the beloved allows us to accept our “humanity” and extend that acceptance to others.

Harriett Beecher Stowe was a most successful writer. She achieved her first triumph as an author at the age of twelve. She was a student at Litchfield Academy. With the other Litchfield students, she was required to submit an essay at the end of the term. Her essay was awarded first prize by the unanimous vote of the judges and was one of two read at the graduation exercises by the headmaster, John Brace. So outstanding was her paper that the audience applauded when it was read.

When it was revealed that Harriett Beecher was the author of this paper, her father, Lyman, pastor of the local church, smiled proudly. The smile of her proud father was a reward Harriett cherished as long as she lived. Her biographer said, “Neither the honors nor the success she won in later life meant as much to her [as her father’s smile], and, in effect, her career was determined.” (1) A father’s smile–a mother’s nod of approval. Powerful!

Deep within the heart of every young person is the need to have a Parent say, “Well done. I’m proud of you. You’re a good kid!” Are you hearing your heavenly parent say, “Well done, I’m proud of you!?”

THE DEEPEST NEED EVERY PERSON HAS IS THE NEED TO FEEL ACCEPTED, LOVED, WANTED, APPRECIATED.

I stand before you today to proclaim, “You are God’s Beloved”!

A little child broke a vase that was a cherished heirloom. Because she knew its value, the child cried out when she broke it. Her mother came running. The child was surprised to see relief on her mother’s face, not anger. “I thought you were hurt,” her mother said, gathering her into her arms. Looking back on that event later, she said, “I discovered that day that I was the family treasure.”

–      I hope that every child grows up with that kind of feeling. “I am the family treasure.”

–      -Would that every person hears within that they are God’s family treasure!

 

I want to close with a poem written by –Jan Richardson

Beginning with Beloved A Blessing Begins here:

Beloved.

Is there any other word needs saying, any other blessing could compare with this name, this knowing?

Beloved.

Comes like a mercy–to the ear that has never heard it. Comes like a river to the body that has never seen such grace.

Beloved.

Comes holy–to the heart aching to be new. Comes healing to the soul wanting to begin again.

Beloved.

Keep saying it, and though it may sound strange at first, watch how it becomes part of you, how it becomes you as if you never could have known yourself anything else, as if you could ever have been other

than this:

Beloved.

 

 

© Rev. Tim Mitchell, 2024, All Rights Reserved
Westminster Presbyterian Church | 1420 W. Moss Ave. | Peoria, Illinois 61606
WestminsterPeoria.org | 309.673.8501