Catonsville United Methodist Church

About Catonsville United Methodist Church

We are a vibrant community church seeking to make disciples and transform lives in Catonsville, Maryland and beyond. Learn more at https://www.catonsvilleumc.org

Publisher

Catonsville UMC - David Jacobson

Category

religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

12 Jan 2020

Latest episode

8 Mar 2020

Latest episodes

10 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   8 Mar 2020

   March 8, 2020 – Born into the Kingdom

   A sermon on John 3:1-17 by Pastor David Jacobson The post March 8, 2020 – Born into the Kingdom appeared first on Catonsville United Methodist Church.

2. 

   1 Mar 2020

   March 1, 2020 – Facing Temptation

   A sermon on Matthew 4:1-11 by Pastor David Jacobson A few years ago I learned that there is a Japanese TV show that’s been running for 30 years called “My First Errand.” Apparently, it’s common for Japanese parents to send their kids out on a first errand at a very young age. Kids as young as five or six are sent across town, sometimes via public transportation, with instructions about what they are to do and bring home. The TV show has hidden cameras placed along the route to track the kids’ progress. According to a 2015 article in the Atlantic about this show, the goal of this practice is to demonstrate “[n]ot self-sufficiency, in fact, but ‘group reliance,’… ‘[Japanese] kids learn early on that, ideally, any member of the community can be called on to serve or help others.’” I think that sometimes, God will do this type of thing with his kids. God will give us a clear task, not to foster self-sufficiency, but to demonstrate God-sufficiency. God might be out of sight, but that doesn’t mean that God is far off. The scripture says that “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.” Jesus had just been anointed by the Spirit of God at his baptism. He had just heard a voice from heaven speak, “this is my Son with whom I am well pleased.” Jesus had had a powerful experience of God, to say the least. Sometimes people who have experienced God in a powerful way make the mistake of thinking that times of comfort and ease are ahead. After all, you can’t have a more powerful friend than God. Shouldn’t life be smooth sailing? That isn’t frequently the case, though, is it? It’s very common that on the other side of a life-changing encounter with God, someone will find that they are facing profound new temptations. But we shouldn’t be surprised that an advance of the kingdom of God is often met with a counter-attack from the kingdom of darkness, if you will. When Jesus begins his ministry, he will be on the front lines of the battle between those two kingdoms, facing the attacks of the enemy all day, every day. And so, it seems that in preparation, the Spirit of God leads him into the wilderness to face the core temptations that would come his way. But Jesus’ temptation is also more than that. Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness. In Deuteronomy 8:2–3, Moses reminds the people about their years in the desert. He says, “Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart…. He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, … in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” (Sound familiar?) Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness. Jesus spends 40 days. It’s a representative amount. Jesus fast represents Israel’s time in the wilderness. He’ll face the same temptations. Let’s look more closely at the temptations that Jesus faced. First: Hunger It says that “He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.” And the devil said, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” The hunger must have been awful after 40 days in the wilderness. When Israel got hungry in the wilderness, they grumbled at God. Would Jesus require instant gratification at the end of his fast? Or would he trust God to provide? Jesus answered the devil, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’” He is remembering the words of Deuteronomy 8. I think Jesus understands exactly what is going on. His job is to succeed where Israel had failed. The temptation for instant gratification is one of the greatest that we face. Unfortunately it’s also something that our culture values, cultivates, and enables. And obviously they’re many benefits and conveniences of ou

3. 

   28 Feb 2020

   Ash Wednesday 2020 – Rummage

   An Ash Wednesday message from Pastor David Jacobson Since this is a service where we do a lot of confessing– I have a confession to make. I hope this don’t scandalize anyone… I hope you don’t think less of me. Over the past few months, I’ve let my car get really messy. In retrospect I see how it happened, but along the way I hardly realized it was happening. Just a couple months ago I had vacuumed the whole thing out and it was squeaky clean. But I’ve picked up a few bad habits. First, I frequently take a can of soda with me when I get in the car. Ok, no big deal. But then, 90% of the time, I forget to take the empty can out as I exit the car. Add to that the fact that I have kids who will frequently want to take a snack in the car. We then forget to take the empty packaging out of the car. So one piece of trash at a time, my car gets messy. And of course I can’t handle having a little trash bag, so the empty soda can goes on the floor of the passenger seat. Sorry passenger. I’m not typically ready at a moment’s notice for passengers. Yes, I have a long way to go. But today I cleaned up. I finally decided to deal with the mess that I’d made for myself. Similarly, I’ve got all types of stuff in my basement. Things that we used to use years ago but no longer do. Even some things that we’ve never used. And so we’re in the process of cleaning out our basement. And of course we’re rummaging around for the things that are important, but forgotten, or things might have value to others, say, for a rummage sale. So between my car and my basement, I’m thinking a lot about the ways that we make messes in our lives. At a spiritual level, we make messes in our lives. We make bad decisions. We choose to do the wrong thing. And it doesn’t seem like a big deal at the time, but just like my trash piled up one piece at a time, our bad decisions pile up one decision at a time. At some point, we have to look at the pile and say, “wow, I’ve got one big mess on my hands.” Lent is a time for us to purge the junk that has accumulated in our lives, as well as to find some of the treasures that we’ve forgotten or neglected. Lent, of course, is the season of the church year that runs from today until Easter. And just like lots of us go and clean out our basements and closets ahead of the rummage sale, we need to do some soul clean out work ahead of Easter. We need to deal with those things that are separating us from God. That’s what this whole service is about. It’s not a cheery service because we’re getting serious about turning from our sins. At the same time, Lent isn’t just about throwing out the spiritual trash in our lives. It’s also about filling our lives treasures that we might have been neglecting– with things that glorify God and cultivate a deeper relationship with God. Jesus highlights three very specific practices for his disciples that are meant to draw us into closer relationship with God. The first is almsgiving, which is simply giving money to the poor. Giving money to the poor means that we won’t have that money later. And so even as God is using us to provide for someone’s needs, we learn to trust that God will provide us with the grace we need to be content with less. The second practice that Jesus teaches on is prayer. Praying cultivates dependence on God. It’s a giving over to God those situations that we either can’t or shouldn’t control, and trusting God for the result. Giving money to the poor. Praying. So far so good, right? And then there’s the third one…. The one that I’m pretty sure only applies to people that don’t like food as much as I do: fasting. Fasting is simply choosing to not eat in order to seek a deeper relationship with God. We make ourselves feel physical hunger so that we have to turn to spiritual food for nourishment. And then our prayers take on an earnest desperation: “Fill me, God. Stay close to me in my discomfort. Don’t forget those who are crying out to you beca

4. 

   23 Feb 2020

   February 23, 2020 – Awestruck

   A sermon on Matthew 17:1-9 by Pastor David Jacobson Over the years, we’ve enjoyed reading the stories of Beatrix Potter with our kids. She’s the author and illustrator of “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” and many other children’s stories. All of her tales take place in the Lake District in the northwest of England, which is somewhere that Katie and I happened to have traveled a few years back when she could catch a break from residency. You’ve probably heard of Peter Rabbit, but I’m guessing not as many of you have heard of the “Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle.” They just don’t make names like that anymore, do they? It’s about a girl named Lucie who lives in a farmhouse. Lucie loses her handkerchief and goes searching for it. She sees some white on the mountains in the distance, and she decides that it must be her handkerchief. The mountain she went to was named Cat Bells. The first time I read this story with Caleb, I read that, and I was immediately transported back to a moment in my life when I was absolutely awestruck. I was taken in my mind’s eye back to a reall glory sighting. When we’d visited the lake district, Katie and I had hiked to the top of Cat Bells. It was a rather nasty day– windy and rainy– but I didn’t mind because we were on an adventure. The hike took us up a ridge with a Lake on our left and a sheep-filled valley with our Farmhouse B&B on our right. After a relatively steady climb, mixed with periods of getting to scramble up a few rocky parts, we were rewarded the most satisfying summit I’ve experienced, despite the weather. Other summits that I’ve experienced have had things preventing a panoramic view. But on this summit (thanks to deforestation!) there were no trees or other obstructions. The summit itself was even small enough that you could look in any direction and see the ground at the foot of the mountain.) But even better than that, in the distance there was a break in the clouds. And these fantastic rays of sun shone down into the valley. I was in awe. The scene in itself was incredible, but it also pointed to the fact that the time was coming soon that the wind and the rain would stop, and bright sun would soon cover the whole landscape. Have you ever had a moment like that– a moment where you’re just full of awe and wonder? Words always fail to describe the experience of it. In fact, these moments can simply leave you speechless. It is as if reality– true reality– has burst into the mundane and the uncomfortable. We might even say that it’s as if the veil between heaven and earth has become thin, and we’re able to see what is usually hidden from us. But here’s the thing, the sense of the glory of God that I got several years ago from the view on the top of a storybook mountain is dwarfed by the awe-inspiring sight of what the disciples saw on the mountain of transfiguration. On that day, in a story that shows up in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus’ appearance is changed. The word in the original greek that means “transfigured” is the same word that we get our word “metamorphosis” from. This is more than a few rays of sunlight falling on Jesus’ white clothes. Something incredible happened. And in the words of second Peter, this is not a cleverly devised myth. Rather, it is was a historical event that Peter, James, and John got to witness. The experience of Jesus’ face shining like the sun is impossible to capture fully in words. But the scene really just begins there. Beside Jesus, Moses and Elijah appear– two great heroes of the faith who had profound experiences of God’s glory on mount Sinai. And Peter… Peter just can’t help himself. He tries to put his feelings into words– “This is great! Let’s pitch some tents for the three of you!” Whenever I think of Peter saying that, I picture the Donkey from Shrek, played by Eddie Murphy, saying, “We can stay up late swapping manly stories, and in the morning, I’m making waffles.” But Peter doesn’t get to go on. You would think that Pet

5. 

   16 Feb 2020

   February 16, 2020 – Renovation of the Heart

   A sermon on Matthew 5:21-37 by Pastor David Jacobson Katie, my wife, will tell you that I’m not exactly Mr. Handy Man. But from time to time, with the help of my Dad, I’ve taken on some pretty sizable renovation projects, particularly in our previous house on Stratford Rd. in Academy Heights. Our basement bathroom was original to the house, which was built in 1950. The shower walls were made of sheet metal, so it sounded like a thunderstorm whenever you showered. And if that weren’t bad enough they were this queasy green color, that someone had apparently decided was so trendy that they thought that they would paint the bathroom walls AND ceiling in the same color. That bathroom desperately needed a renovation. And so my Dad and I started the hard, but rewarding work of demolition and reconstruction. It took us quite a while, but the end product was a new bathroom that was as beautiful as it was functional. My sermon topic today is the “renovation of the heart.” That phrase, and a lot of what I have to share today, come from “Dallas Willard,” whose books have challenged and grown me as much as any I’ve read. What I’d like to do today is first to persuade you that you need a renovation of your heart. Then I will try to show briefly 1) what that renovation would look like once it happened, 2) the importance of actually making a decision to have a renovation done, and 3) the actual means through which the renovation will take place. So first, I want to convince you, in love, that you need a renovation of your heart. If your heart is pure and free from sin, then you may disregard this section of my message. Otherwise, I urge you to continue listening. Four times in the reading for today, Jesus says, “you have heard it said… but I say to you.” Sadly, I can’t talk in depth about each of these statements today. But I do want to simply point out that each time, Jesus takes a prohibition about some external behavior prescribed in the Old Testament law and he turns it inward and takes it deeper. You’ve heard it said “don’t murder”… but I say to you “Don’t be angry or [insult others]”You’ve heard it said “don’t commit adultery”… but I say to you “don’t lust”You’ve heard it said “When a man divorces his wife, he should give her a certificate of divorce,” but I say [to paraphrase] the marriage bond cannot be broken easily, so “Don’t divorce for cheap reasons.”You’ve heard it said “don’t swear falsely” but I say “don’t swear at all”– basically be a person who means what they say and says what they mean. In every case, Jesus seems to be saying, “this isn’t just about external behaviors, it’s about intentions. It’s about the heart.” But here’s where the really tricky part comes in. Mere human will is never enough to get our hearts to the right place. I can’t will myself into not being angry with someone. I can’t will myself into not lusting. We can control our external behavior to a degree, and thank goodness for that, but we can’t control what comes out of our hearts. What all of our experience teaches us is that when we aim to will ourselves into acting like Jesus said we should, we fail. That gritted-teeth method of forcing ourselves into right behavior is what Jesus called “the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees” earlier in Matthew chapter 5. The scribes and Pharisees were very exacting at holding to the letter of the law. But Jesus scolded them, saying, “You are like whitewashed tombs. They look beautiful on the outside. But inside they are full of dead bones and all kinds of filth. In the same way you look righteous to people. But inside you are full of pretense and rebellion.” In other words, “People look at the outward appearance [and you look impressive indeed], but the Lord looks at the heart [and there finds you lacking].” Jesus said to his disciples, “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” I really believe that

6. 

   9 Feb 2020

   Feburary 9, 2020 – You Are the Man

   A sermon on 1 Corinthians 2: 1-12 and Matthew 5:13-20 by Rev. Carroll Gunkel The post Feburary 9, 2020 – You Are the Man appeared first on Catonsville United Methodist Church.

7. 

   2 Feb 2020

   February 2, 2020 – Are You in Control?

   A Sermon on Matthew 5:1-12 Have you ever heard someone give a testimony of Jesus bringing radical transformation? My church experience didn’t have much of this growing up, but from time to time, I’d hear stories about people addicted to drugs or alcohol who’d find Jesus and their lives would be changed. They’d say they were “born again.” For some reason, those stories never really landed for me. I’ve been trying to figure out why that is. I think I had this sense in the back of my mind, like, “Well, good for them, but I’m not addicted to anything, so I guess I’ll probably never describe myself in that way?” In other words, I wasn’t sure I was a bad enough person to need Jesus like those folks did. And so, in my mind, there were two types of Christians: 1) those whose lives were out of control because of the really bad stuff they’d done, whose lives get turned around with the help of God, and 2) the rest of us who are in control of our lives, that get salvation without having to hit rock bottom. But what if the first group just realizes something that the second group doesn’t. What if we’re actually all lost and out of control without Christ’s transformation? Today, we’re looking at a section of Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount,” as it’s called, known as the Beatitudes. Jesus highlights eight surprising situations where you can receive God’s blessings. I’m pretty much stuck on the first one, though:“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” What does it mean to be poor in spirit? Someone who is poor in spirit knows that they don’t have it together, and so, in the words of Micah 6:8, they walk humbly with their God. Their spiritual poverty makes them desperate for God’s intervention. Saying that someone is poor in spirit is a way of describing a certain posture of the heart. I think of the old hymn Rock of Ages, and how well it describes that posture: Nothing in my hand I bring,      Simply to thy cross I cling;      Naked, come to thee for dress;|      Helpless, look to thee for grace;      Foul, I to the fountain fly;      Wash me, Saviour, or I die. Is that too harsh, or is it reality? I think it’s reality. The spiritually poor person says “I don’t have anything to bring to you, God. I’m messed up. But I’m done wearing my mask. You know that I struggle not to do things that are wrong. You know that even the good things that I do, I do with mixed motives. The person prays along with Psalm 51, which says “Create in me a clean heart and put your Holy Spirit within me! Pastor Rick Warren talks about the Beatitudes as “the road to Recovery.” As his church was launching Celebrate Recovery, he preached through the beatitudes. Those sermons were made into book called “Life’s Healing Choices,” by John Baker. Next month during our Sunday School hour, a group is going to be working through the beatitudes with that book . I want to share with you the opening sentences of Pastor Rick Warren’s forward to that book: “Do you ever eat or drink more calories than your body needs? Do you ever feel you ought to exercise but you don’t? Do you ever know the right thing to do but don’t do it? Do you ever know something is wrong but do it anyway? If you answered yes to any of the questions above, you’ll know without a doubt that you are a citizen of the human race. As fellow members of the human race, we all deal with life’s hurts, hang-ups, and habits. And Jesus, who left heaven to become one of us so that He could minister to those needs, said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Here’s the hard truth: if you think you have it all together, Christ really doesn’t have anything to say to you. But what he does with the first Beatitude is to say, “you are invited to admit to the reality that you are poor in spirit, that you don’t have it all together.” It’s our tendency to not want to admit that we have any pr

8. 

   26 Jan 2020

   January 26, 2019 – What’s Your Net Worth?

   A sermon on Matthew 4:12-23 When I was 11 years old, I had an experience that I’ll never forget. One school night, my sister and I hopped in the car with my Dad and drove to DC. He took us down to the old Executive office building, where we were met by a white house staffer that was a relative of my Dad’s coworker. He led us through the security there, and then through a tunnel. The next thing I knew, we were in the West Wing of the White House. Now, I don’t know what the situation has been lately, but at the time, since the West Wing is a busy office during the day, the only way to get a tour of the West Wing was to be invited by White House staffer willing to lead you on an after-hours tour. Since that was precisely what we had, I ended up being in places that I would have had no right to be if it weren’t for our guide. I stood behind the podium in the press room. I went into the cabinet room. We walked outside in the rose garden. When we were out there, I have a vivid memory of looking onto the west wing colonnade and seeing Socks, the Clinton’s cat, out on a late night prowl. That was the closest we got to seeing a member of the first family, even though I was able to stick my head through the cracked door into the oval office itself. Now, of course, I didn’t have any right to be there by myself. I only had the privilege to be there because I was with someone who belonged there. Someone who sacrificed his evening to do a favor for a family friend– a favor that I would never be able to reciprocate. And for me, this trip to the White House was an opportunity for me to learn that old life lesson: “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” It’s a dynamic that we see at work in the reading from Matthew. Jesus is calling all sorts of people to follow him who haven’t in any way merited their call. Who does Jesus call first? He calls fishermen. Later he’ll have Matthew, a tax collector. He’ll even have Simon the Zealot– perhaps a member of a political party of revolutionaries. They’re not society’s elites. They’re probably not the go-to great speakers. They’re not necessarily the smartest.  Honestly, they might have already been rejected as disciples by other Rabbis. But it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Or maybe it’s not what you know, but it’s who knows you. Peter and Andrew are approached by someone great and invited to follow. Nobodies like them can become apprentices to Jesus himself. They’ll get to see things in life that they have no right to see, apart from Jesus. It’s an opportunity like none other. And it’s worth taking. It says that Peter and Andrew left their nets and followed Jesus. They didn’t take their nets, but they left them. Why was that move important, or even essential? On a purely logistical level, you can imagine the ridiculous scene of Peter, Andrew, James, and John mozying into a new inland village with Jesus to announce the kingdom of God, healing the sick, but Peter’s carrying this heavy net behind. It’s not useful for the new type of work, Peter. Why are you dragging that thing around? But we all know, I think that there is something deeper going on here. It’s a symbol of a clean break, isn’t it? They had been fishermen– most likely their whole lives. And so, what was their net worth? It was everything. It was their livelihood. It was their expertise. It was everything they knew. And yet at the call of Jesus they drop the life they knew and they follow Jesus. They’re master fishermen, most likely, but they give up their expertise to become brand new apprentices to Jesus. Is there a net in your life that Jesus is calling you to abandon for the sake of following him? The hard thing for us to handle is that nets are good. We have a tough time imagining that following Jesus would ever mean needing to leave something good. At the same time, I love how Jesus has a way of redeeming what we give up for him. Jesus calls the fishermen to fish for people. The fi

9. 

   20 Jan 2020

   January 19, 2020 – Remain

   A message on John 1:29-42 The DoveSeveral years ago, a dove started hanging out under the awning over our back porch. I’d look out my kitchen window, right next to the back porch, and see the bird flying in and out. At one point, I turned to Katie, and asked “What’s with the dove? It really seems to like to perch on our porch.” Katie said “hmm,” as she walked outside to investigate. Sure enough, on the porch she found the beginnings of a nest in a hanging basket we’d left outside for the winter. Apparently our porch seemed like a safe place to build a nest. Last week, we looked at the story of Jesus being baptized by John in Matthew’s Gospel. That story was told from Jesus’ perspective. It said that when he came up out of the water, one of the things that happened was that “he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove.” In today’s reading, John the Baptist recounts the event, so we actually get John’s perspective and interpretation of what happened. John says, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.” When I first noticed this imagery of “the dove,” I asked the same question that I did that day when I saw the dove fluttering around my porch. “What’s with the dove?” So what is with the dove? The Holy Spirit is frequently depicted as a dove on church banners, bulletins, and other places, and so it would be understandable if you thought that the Dove was a common image for the Holy Spirit in the Bible. As it turns out, though, this story of Jesus’ baptism in the four Gospels is, in fact, the only place in the whole Bible where the Spirit is explicitly described as a Dove. The precursors are there in other places though. The Dove BroodsIn Genesis 1, the first chapter of the Bible, it says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” The word that was used for “hovered” in the original Hebrew is also used to speak of a bird brooding, or hovering, over its eggs. Around the time of Jesus some Rabbi’s expanded this image, and when they told the story of Genesis 1, they’d say that “the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters like a dove.” The Dove Brings New Creation The next time we see a dove in the scriptures, Noah has sent one out to hover over the face of the flood waters. When the waters subside, the dove returns to Noah with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. The dove carries new life with him. And when the Dove, the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, he brings new life. A new beginning. New creation. It’s a fitting metaphor. The Dove Brings Purification Doves were also a sign of purity and innocence in the ancient world. That’s one reason that, when Jesus sends his disciples out, he tells them to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. And within the sacrificial system in the Old Testament, doves are frequently used for offerings made for the purpose of purification. This aspect of the Holy Dove’s work continues in the New Testament, where purification and sanctification are often attributed to the Holy Spirit. The Dove Perches in a suitable place In the Old Testament, the presence of God, the Holy Spirit, only came into the Temple once everything about the Temple had been cleansed with blood. In the same way, the Holy Spirit only comes to rest upon a person who has been cleansed by the blood of Jesus. In the case of Jesus, he was never tainted by sin, and so the Spirit was pleased to come and rest on him. The Dove Remains John’s Gospel has a striking little detail about the dove as it recounts Jesus’ baptism. John the Baptist says “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.” It remained on him. Isn’t that a strange little detail? Why was it worth mentioning? The Dove is Sensitive Well, back to the dove on my back porch. As much as I enjoyed

10. 

    12 Jan 2020

    JANUARY 12, 2020 – Identity

    A Sermon on Matthew 3:13-17 “May I see your ID?” Just this week I was asked that question when I went on a hospital visit. I have to admit that most of the time I take it for granted that I have an ID. It wasn’t always that way, though. I remember going with my parents to the MVA to get photographed for my first ID. It wasn’t even a driver’s license. It was some other photo ID. I don’t remember why I needed it. But I remember the feeling of getting handed that state-issued piece of plastic. This sounds kinda crazy to say, but in some way, it was really validating. Like, “I have an ID! I’m somebody!” I even have the little hologram to affirm that it’s real! It wasn’t like I suddenly “became somebody” on the day at the MVA. But my identity was affirmed in a new way. I think I’ve probably felt similarly with every other ID I’ve gotten since that one. My driver’s license, for sure. My college ID at the University of Maryland– I was definitely really proud of that one. My government ID, when I worked for the government. Even when I became a card-carrying Methodist pastor. There’s just something validating about getting an ID. Of course, IDs are just one thing that makes up identity. Presumably if you wanted to steal my identity, you’d benefit from having my social security number, my mother’s maiden name, and probably some other things. I wonder what you consider to be core pieces of your identity. For some people it’s the work that they do. And our culture feeds into that, doesn’t it? What’s one of the first things that you tend to ask someone when you meet them? “What do you do?” It seems that we think that if we want to know who someone is, we have to know what they do. Our identity can be based on lots of other things, too. Maybe it’s your political party. Or your number of instagram followers. Maybe it’s that you make a good salary. For students, maybe it’s that you get good grades. What is your identity based off of? Identity is actually front and center in the story of Jesus’ baptism. Again, this is how Matthew says what happened: As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” The Father speaks from Heaven and the Holy Spirit comes to affirm Jesus’ identity as God’s Son. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, seen in one act at the same time. It’s such an amazing moment. But do you know that something very similar happens when someone is baptized as a Christian? We don’t typically get the heaven-rending spectacle that Jesus did, but in a very real way, in our baptism, the Father speaks a word over us: “This is my daughter. This is my son.” And the Holy Spirit comes to affirm our identity as God’s own child and to empower us to do God’s will. Jesus is God’s Son in a unique way. But Christians are God’s adopted children. When you adopt a child, you don’t love that child in a second class child type of way. You love that child as you would love your own biological children. Paul says, “you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” The Holy Spirit comes to witness to us the reality of our identity as children of God. The Holy Spirit is the hologram of authenticity on the ID that the Father gives you. I love that when Jesus was baptized, he hadn’t really done anything at all yet. All he’d done is show up to be baptized, because it was the right thing to do. His ministry hadn’t launched yet. There were no healings, no signs and wonders. And yet, God speaks and says, “This is my Son.” That’s how it is at your baptism, whether as a baby or as an adult. It’s not about what you bring. It’s about God’s declara

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