Children’s Message, Sunday, January 8, 2012--Well Pleased—Mark 1:11

What a wonderfully busy and exciting few months we have had! Advent has been our time of thinking about, preparing for had celebrating the birth of Jesus. In Sunday School and in church, you all have spent time with the stories around Jesus’ birth—Mary and Joseph and the angels and the shepherds! And now, we have this Messiah—this Jesus! As we move forward in Sunday School, we will jump into the stories of Jesus and his ministry. The people he taught, the miracles he performed, the sayings and preachings that the world has remembered.

But let’s take a step back for a minute.

Today, we celebrate the occasion of the baptism of Jesus. Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist earned his name in this passage of scripture. He told the people about how wonderful Jesus was, and then, right there in the Jordan River he baptized him! This healer, this teacher, this miraculous Messiah—was baptized right then and there. Of course, at that point—he wasn’t a healer yet. He hadn’t done much teaching yet. But it didn’t matter to God—God knew that Jesus would be special and would bring God’s word to the world. The gospel of Mark tells us that just as Jesus was coming up from being baptized in the water, God’s voice came from heaven saying, “You are my son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11) Now, of course, anyone would be well pleased with their child—especially if they were Jesus! But what I notice is that God doesn’t say, “You are my child the miraculous healer” or “you are my child the great teacher”. Nope—“you are my son the Beloved.”

At this point in our story, Jesus wasn’t yet a great teacher or a great healer or the leader of the disciples. Jesus was God’s child. God had great things planned for Jesus, but the main thing was that God created Jesus, had a special job for Jesus and most of all, loved and was pleased with Jesus. And although you all are not Jesus—you are God’s children, and I am pretty sure that even before you do anything great, you, too are pleasing to God as God’s beloved.

Let’s pray: Loving God
As we remember the gift of baptism
And we remember that we are yours,
We pray that we may please you. Amen.


* With Thanks to Carolyn Brown and her fantastic blog, "Worshiping with Children" for the kernel that grew this sermon.
http://worshipingwithchildren.blogspot.com/2011/11/year-b-baptism-of-lord-january-8-2011.html