The Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee



The First Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A, January 13, 2008, St Paul’s Church Franklin

“And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matt. 3:17).

Sometime during my freshman year in college, British Rock Band “The Who” released their album and song “Who Are You”; and somewhere out in the shed at our house I know I can find a copy of the original record I bought that year. People make of song lyrics what they will, if they can actually make them out at all (you know what “rock and roll” is like), and I took these lines as a question addressed to myself. College was a time of transition for me (maybe it was for you too), and so issues of identity figured prominently in my life. North of the Mason-Dixon line for the first time, away from familiar landmarks and faced with new experiences, I had a chance to look both outside and inside. Outside, as I gained new information about the world; inside, as I had the chance to figure out what it meant for me and my own perspective. In other words, Who was I?

In our Gospel today, Jesus is at a similar transitional point in his life and ministry. It’s in exactly this sort of framework that identity emerges. He’s moving out of his familiar territory, leaving behind an old way of life, in order to discover his public ministry. Baptism, in Jesus’ day, was an act that signified the beginning of something new, a reversal of course that turned you around right. So Jesus goes down to the River Jordan, to the place where the People of God had entered the Promised Land centuries before, in order to set out in a new direction in obedience to God.

“This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased”. If his identity was an issue in Jesus’ mind at this critical juncture, it certainly was resolved by this. God is speaking, answering the question of who Jesus is. He is the anointed Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior.

In the voyage of self-discovery that modern people take, we tend to emphasize our own powers of self-creation, our ability to fix our own identity and to determine our own destiny. Realization of our own responsibility for who we are is part of maturity, but it is also true that identity is not so much something that we create as something we uncover, a discovery of what God’s call to us is. We are creatures, after all, made by God, and the answer to the question, “Who are you?” is really hidden in the mystery of who God is. We don’t fix our own identity or determine our own destiny: these things are a gift from God that we are invited to embrace.
At his baptism, Jesus is accepting an identity prepared for him from the foundation of the world. Not coincidentally, God’s own identity is revealed as well, as we see the Son and Spirit in this tableau and hear the Father’s voice. This Gospel and this Feast are all about identity, the revelation and uncovering of who God is, and what we are in relation to him.

That brings us full circle back to the beginning of this sermon, to the big question of our own identity. You don’t need to be a freshman in college to be wondering about this. It’s good to look outward, and then to look inward, to ponder and reflect. Today, those being baptized and confirmed are helping us to focus, and reminding us that our own identity and destiny depends on the call of God himself. In baptism, we take on the identity of Jesus Christ, so that we can share in his resurrection life. As St Paul reminds us, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). Our confirmands are reaffirming that reality in their lives today, and all of us will share the identity and life of Christ as we share the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. “Who are You”? What’s your Christian identity? The answer to that question is that we are disciples, Jesus’ brothers and sisters, God’s own beloved children. Our identity is a gift from God.

The Rt. Rev’d John Bauerschmidt, Bishop of Tennessee 

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