Will you come and follow me?
The Baptism of Christ, January 9, 2022
Isaiah 43:1-7 • Acts 8:14-17 • Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Today is the day we remember the beginning of Jesus’ ministry at the age of around twenty- nine. Yes, I know we just celebrated his birth, and, just this last Thursday, the wisemen’s visit to the young child. But if you’re going to get from Christmas to Easter in just over three months, things have to be speeded up!
Between his birth and today’s baptism in the Jordan by John, we don’t know much about Jesus’ life. We know he grew up in Nazareth. We believe he learnt his father’s craft while being taught by the rabbis. At some point, perhaps recently, he has left Nazareth. Bur what has he been doing? It seems probable that he has followed an inner urge to question his vocation, and becomes a disciple of one of the numerous spiritual teachers, perhaps even his cousin John.
And today, after Jesus has been immersed in the waters and is praying:
the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."
We don’t have to explore the impact of that experience on Jesus at this time, we can save that for the beginning of Lent. As you remember, it was dramatic, driving him out into the wilderness for forty days as he grapples with the enormity of the understanding.
Remembering and appreciating the significance of the events of Jesus’ life is an undoubtedly significant part of our faith life. And this event is a big one. For our own ever evolving faith, we do need more. We need to find our place in the teaching, where we can be nourished and grow, both individually and as a community.
For me this week it was that extraordinary idea, found in the passage from the Hebrew scriptures, that God calls each of us by name, it’s not just Jesus. Isaiah tells the exiled but returning Israelites, that the Lord has:
.....called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”
I don’t know about you, but I find the idea of God calling each of us by name, promising to be with us through all challenges, claiming us as God’s own, an astonishingly powerful one: I catch my breath with the enormity of it. And yet, the God of both Hebrew and Christian scriptures says it clearly a number of times.
“I have called you by name, and you are mine.”
And when we are called by name, we respond. We turn to hear the invitation, the opportunity. It is our choice what we do with it, but, be in no doubt, God is calling each one of us.
You have in your bulletins the lyrics of a song by John Bell and Graham Maule, written in 1987, called ‘The Summons’. It is one we do sometimes sing here at Holy Innocents so you may recognize it. John Bell and Graham Maule were key figures in the Wild Goose Worship Group in Scotland, mainly in Glasgow and Iona.
I could keep using my own words to say what is in the song, but why when it has been expressed so beautifully by Bell and Maule?
Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don't know and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown? Will you let my name be known,
will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?
Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me?
Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free and never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean and do such as this unseen,
and admit to what I mean in you and you in me?
Will you love the "you" you hide if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you've found to reshape the world around,
through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?
Lord your summons echoes true when you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you and never be the same.
In Your company I'll go where Your love and footsteps show.
Thus I'll move and live and grow in you and you in me.