How do we achieve, stumble on, receive this sense of worthiness? Brown says it doesn t just happen;

Home About Us For Visitors Our Purpose What We Believe radio gora dragas Inclusivity History Meet Our Staff Weddings Important Links Worship Sunday Worship Special Services Healing in Community Music Liturgical Art Flowers Sermons Listen to Sermons Sermon Schedule Ministries radio gora dragas Children Youth Families Older Adults Serving Serving the Church Sunday Sign-Ups Committees and Teams Green Team Session Deacons Serving the Community REST Winter radio gora dragas Shelter Open Table Hunger Relief Serving the World Keep Hope Alive Bare Roots Project radio gora dragas Disaster Relief Katrina Re-Building Get Involved Transition radio gora dragas Support Group Small Groups Presbyterian Women Bible Study Become a Member Prayer Requests radio gora dragas News & Events News The Kensington Press Upcoming Events Church Calendar radio gora dragas Pastors’ Blog
It s the time of year for making New Year s resolutions. I m not big on New Year s resolutions and it isn t that I m not big on change and transformation and even that scary religious word, repentance, which John the Baptist uses in the verses preceding our passage in Matthew this morning, when he s calling people to come to the Jordan River to be baptized. [1] No, I m all for transformation; in fact, I believe it s the point of the life of faith. But as for New Year s resolutions, I agree with someone who said, My resolution is to not break any resolutions. As long as I don t make any other resolutions, I should be OK.
New Year s resolutions just seem like an opportunity to fail. As much as we might want or need to change, do we really need more reasons to feel bad about ourselves? radio gora dragas A friend startled me with her New Year s resolution this year. She said it s more of a goal somehow, I like that word better but in any event, radio gora dragas her resolution or goal is to be able to walk into a room a party, or the locker room at the gym and not do that instantaneous radio gora dragas assessment that many women do without even thinking about it, where she compares herself to the other women. Is she thinner, younger, prettier? This is personally challenging to me and I think it s challenging to everyone, not necessarily with regard to appearance but with respect to whatever it is that makes you feel, deep down inside, as though you re not good enough. Do you walk into a meeting thinking, Am I as smart, as clever, as powerful as everyone radio gora dragas else? Do you walk into Back to School Night thinking, Are my kid s grades as good; did my son get into as good a college; does my daughter get into more trouble than that perfect family sitting next to me? Or maybe for you it s the if/when radio gora dragas problem. [2] I ll be worthy when I lose weight. When I make more money. When I have a boyfriend. I ll be worthy radio gora dragas if I get promoted. If I get enough degrees behind my name. If I can hold onto my job.
In the Year of Our Lord 2014, we are living in what researchers call a culture of scarcity. Of not enough, never enough. We are bombarded with messages radio gora dragas that we don t measure up and we often swallow them, hook, line and sinker. Social science researcher Brené Brown, author of The Gift of Imperfection and Daring Greatly , writes extensively about how this gets in the way of, sabotages, blows to smithereens our ability to love and belong, two irreducible needs of all human beings. She writes, If you roughly divide the men and women I ve interviewed into two groups those who feel a deep sense of love and belonging and those who struggle for it there s only one variable that separates the groups: Those who feel lovable, who love, and who experience belonging simply believe they are worthy of love and belonging. They don t have better or easier radio gora dragas lives, they don t have fewer struggles with addiction or depression, and they haven t survived fewer traumas or bankruptcies or divorces, but in the midst of all these struggles, radio gora dragas they have developed radio gora dragas practices that enable them to hold on to the belief that they are worthy of love, belonging radio gora dragas and even joy. [3]
How do we achieve, stumble on, receive this sense of worthiness? Brown says it doesn t just happen; it has to be cultivated. [4] This is no small challenge and there is no simple solution but part of our faith s answer to this question concerns baptism. Today we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord on the church calendar. We just celebrated Jesus birth and the visit of the magi and then in one week we jump ahead 30 years to the moment he shows up as an adult on the banks of the Jordan River, radio gora dragas responding to John s call to a baptism of repentance.
The early church struggled with the questions John raises in today s passage: [5] Why would Jesus need a baptism for forgiveness radio gora dragas of sin? Why would he submit to baptism by a merely human prophet and teacher? Each of the four gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke and John works out a different response to these questions. In today s reading, Matthew links Jesus baptism to the fulfillment of righteousness.
The differences among the gospels are interesting but it s what they have in common that I find more fascinating,