Anna Pinckney Straight

First Presbyterian Church ~ New Bern, North Carolina

January 15, 2023

"Who is this man?"

Matthew 3: 13 – 17

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; 17 and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”


“Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

That is what Jesus says when John protests Jesus’ request that he be baptized.

John isn’t wrong.

It is not appropriate for him to be baptizing Jesus. 

But Jesus is not about appropriate. He’s about God’s will.


And John does something here that happens far too infrequently. Given the new information, he changes his mind. Makes a different decision. He will baptize Jesus. For righteousness' sake.


Eugene Boring identifies righteousness as a key theme to this passage and to Matthew:[1]

Both righteousness and fulfillment are key Matthean theological themes. Righteousness here means, as often elsewhere, doing the revealed will of God. Here, fulfill seems to mean simply "do, perform," and the meaning is that it is necessary for both John and Jesus to do God's will, which includes the baptism of Jesus. The plural us links John and Jesus together as partners in carrying out God's saving plan


Jesus is called. 

Created. The son of God. Word made Flesh. 

We know it, but in these early days, before the formal ministry begins,

           I cannot help but wonder. Was he ready?


           It’s a question most of us ask of ourselves, of those we love. 

           As parents, have we prepared our children for the world they will face?

           Are we ready to let go of the one we love?

           Are we ready for that hard conversation?

           Are we ready to take on that new goal, or that new responsibility?

           Was Jesus Ready?

           Was Jesus really ready for what was ahead of him?  

           Could he really be ready for what the world would say, do, and how they would react to his words of love and forgiveness? His acts of acceptance. His actions supporting justice. Generosity beyond reason. Hope beyond practicality. Was he ready for how people were going to respond?


I’m not sure I can answer that question.

It’s not the question that the text asks.

The text doesn’t ask if Jesus is ready, it proclaims that he is called.

           And Jesus has answered that call.

           Answered that call when by proclaiming that he is there to be baptized by John not because

of his own desire or a desire of the people but because it is a part of the path God has placed before him.

           

God affirms that in the words that are uttered after the Baptism, in the voice from heaven. 

Words that speak to Jesus’ place. His purpose. His calling.

           “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

           Words that openly echo one of the other lectionary passages for today, Isaiah 42:1

     Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; 

     I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. 

 

Are any of us ever, really, ready to answer God’s call,

           Or is that the wrong question?

           Instead of asking, “Am I ready?” or “Am I able?”

           Should the only question be “Is God calling?”


Comedian Patton Oswalt may not be someone many of you know since many of his routines rank well above PG-13. I know him much more for his acting roles than the comedy that is the main work of his life. I also know of him because in 2016 Oswalt had a really, really horrible year. His wife died, suddenly, unexpectedly, in her sleep. Leaving him a widow and single parent of their elementary-school-age daughter, Alice.


He has written poignantly, gut-wrenchingly, and honestly about the grief that followed.

And, more recently, he has written about being a single parent. Something he never intended to be. 

At the end of the article, he concludes:[2]

           You will never be prepared for anything you do, ever. Not the first time. Training and practice are out the window the second they meet experience. But you'll get better. I have subjective yet ironclad knowledge of this.

           This is my first time being a single father. I've missed forms for school. I've forgotten to stock the fridge with food she likes. I've run out of socks for her. I've run out of socks for me. It sucked and it was a hassle every time, but the world kept turning. I said, “Whoops, my bad,” and fixed it and kept stumbling forward. Now I know where to buy the socks she likes. I asked two parents at her school to help me with forms and scheduling. I'm getting good at sniffing out weekend activities and scheduling playdates and navigating time and the city to get her and myself where we need to go every day. I work a creative job, but I live a practical life. If I can persuade a comedy club full of indifferent drunks to like me, I can have my daughter ready for soccer on a Saturday morning.

           I'm going to keep going forward, looking stupid and clumsy and inexperienced at first, then eventually getting it, until the next jolt comes, and the next floor drops out from under me until there are no more floors.

 

Was Jesus ready? I don’t know, but I suspect he wasn’t.

Because being ready wasn’t the most important thing. 

The call was the most important.

As I’ve said before and will likely say again many times,

God doesn’t call the equipped. God equips the called.


In baptism. In ordination. In the words given to Jesus beside the river Jordan with John,

Jesus was being equipped for a life, ministry, and death for which there is no real preparation. 

There is only the living of it.


And so it is for us, too, isn’t it?


Beyond the basic skill and lessons, can anything really prepare you to embark upon a marriage? 

Upon parenthood? 

For being an elder, and not just participating but leading the church?

Not just elder, Sunday School teacher, committee member, usher?

Upon committing to the life of faith?


God doesn’t call the equipped. God equips the called.

Instead of asking, “Am I ready?” or “Am I able?”

Maybe our questions should start and end with, “Is God calling?”


In his inaugural address, Union Presbyterian Seminary president, The Rev. Dr. Brian Blount tells a powerful story:[3] of when he was a young child, no more than eight years old, and having the being awaken in the middle of the night by a clear sense of God’s divine presence, and feeling not ready, not prepared, and so he hid under the covers until it went away. He says that while he doesn’t believe in carrying regrets and did answer the call to ministry a few years later, he has always regretted that he allowed fear to take over that night and did not face God when God made Himself known. He concluded his sermon with these words:

Most of us are in hiding [he concludes]. We are hiding not only because the realities in the world around us can be so threatening and so hopeless as to be nightmarish, but also because Jesus’ call to us to come out from our hiding places and engage the realities in our world can be equally terrifying. And so we take the fragile, thin thread of traditional thinking about what is possible, twist it through the tiny little eye of what we can realistically expect, fasten it to the spindly little needle of what is probable and practical, sew what we’ve accumulated into predictable patterns and reasonable expectations, and knit for ourselves unremarkable, unexceptional, uninspiring Christian cover stories that shelter us from exposure to the dangerous opportunities that call out to us, even in those moments when we know we want to get up and be somewhere and someone else.


Not a single person who is here wants that unremarkable, unexceptional cover story. Your presence here speaks to that. And yet I know it can be hard to take that step or leap when God calls.


Friends, we are all being called to something. 

Some step of faith. 

Some increased commitment in our lives. 

Some letting go.

Some picking up and going. 

We are all being called to something. To someplace.


And I, naturally, think about church things, but this isn’t about church, this is about life.

And relationships.


In the reformed tradition we have the loveliest understanding of vocation, that anything and everything we do is a response to God’s call and claim on our lives – and doing it as best we can bring God glory. Where in your life, your relationships, is God calling you?


To honesty?

To commitment?

To grace?

To hope?

To something new?

To revitalize the old?


Jesus’s journey to the Jordan River to be baptized by John speaks to what it takes to embark upon that journey when there is not a clear and certain vision of the road ahead. 


It’s the confidence that God is the one sending us on that road and will travel along with us. Who will provide what we need, when we need it?

Instead of am I ready or am I able, Is this of God?

“Let it be so now;” Not only are these Jesus’ words. 

They are ours, too.  Thanks be to God. Thanks be to God. Amen.


[1] Leander E. Keck, New Testament Editor, The New Interpreter's Bible Commentary, Vol. VIII, "Matthew" by M. Eugene Boring, [Nashville: Abingdon Press] 1995, pg.160.

Pointed to this passage by Brian Stoffregen  http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/matt3x13.htm

[2] “Patton Oswalt’s Year of Magical Parenting” by Patton Oswalt. December 2, 2016, 8:06 am

http://www.gq.com/story/patton-oswalt-fatherhood-moty

[3] Brian Blount, Inaugural Sermon at Union Presbyterian Seminary, “Are you Ready?” May 7, 2008, Richmond, Virginia. I received the sermon by email after it was delivered, but here is an article about his inauguration.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-05-23-presbyterian-black_n.htm