“You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I
am well pleased.” (Luke3:22)
One of my all-time favorite movies is the 1991 Billy Crystal comedy City Slickers. It’s the story of three life-long buddies from New York who decide it would be a cool idea to vacation by going on a cattle drive in the southwest. In a brilliantly written scene, the friends challenge each other to name the best and worst days of their lives. Phil, a woebegone grocery store manager who is being divorced by his controlling, ill-tempered wife, tells his friends that his best day was his wedding day. Knowing how unhappy he’d been in his marriage, his comrades seem incredulous. Phil explains that he was the oldest son in his family, the first to marry, and the first to get a real job. What had made the day linger in his memory was the way his father had winked at him just before the wedding ceremony began.
“I made it,” Phil says. “I’m all grown up. I’m not a goofball anymore.” The father’s wink had been a blessing, an anointing which conferred adulthood on his son.
Luke’s gospel version of Christ’s baptism (Luke3:15-17, 21-22 in the Revised Common Lectionary) ends with the Father “winking” at the Son. Jesus has fulfilled all righteousness. He has been presented and circumcised, grown in wisdom and years, and now has been baptized by his cousin, the senior prophet of the land. Now he is ready and equipped for what will lie ahead, and the Father has bestowed his blessing.
It’s a shame that not everyone gets the privilege of receiving a parental benediction when reaching one of life’s milestones. Some people have had to grow up fast without a parent to teach them the ropes or declare them man or woman enough to handle life well on their own. Others spend their whole lives—well into their middle years—trying to get that wink of approval out of a parent or other mentor who grudgingly refuses to bestow a nickel’s worth of praise and won’t concede that the former child or protégé has drawn even with them.
I have a fuzzy but fond memory of a night when my dad phoned me and asked if I’d meet him at his favorite diner. I was in my mid-twenties, living on my own, and teaching at a local community college. Over a slice of pie and some coffee he asked me my advice on some insurance policy he was thinking of buying. I don’t recall the details, but I recall that night as the moment my dad, in his own way, admitted that I had grown up. It was great moment.
I guess we all have many moments in our lives, many little milestones passed and rituals observed, when new chapters begin. Our baptism, our First Communion, our Confirmation, our graduation from high school or college, our wedding, our children’s baptism, our retirement—all moment for which we prepare or for which others prepare us for something new and, it’s to be hoped, purposeful and enlightening. It’s pretty great—don’t you think?—to have someone with us who says, “Good job!” at such times.
I will always recall how proud my dad—who
grew up during the Depression and never finished high school—was of me when I
received my first master’s degree. Unfortunately, he had passed away before I
was ordained to the Lutheran ministry, but after my ordination mass my big
brother Lee put his arm around me and said, “The Old Man would be proud of you.
I’ll bet he’s smiling from Heaven.”
On the walls of my office I’ve proudly hung my Certificate of Ordination and my Master of Divinity diploma. The most important decoration I display, however, is my framed Certificate of Baptism. This document speaks the loudest because it’s not about any puny thing I’ve done or accomplished. It’s about what God through Jesus has done for me. I can look up from my desk and see this certificate and know that the Father is winking at me and saying, “You’re my child, my beloved; with you I am so well pleased that I sent my Son to die for you.”
Of all the milestone moments in my life, the most important was the moment of my baptism. The washing up I received over six decades ago promised the remission of all my stupid sins and welcomed me into the family of Christ. It fulfilled all righteousness and prepared me for everything that was to come after.
So what is to come? The baptism of John promised the forgiveness of sins, but John promised the baptism of Jesus will bring the Holy Spirit and fire. How does the knowledge of your baptism effect you? Do you feel the Spirit of God’s approval? Can you imagine that at your time of life God has anointed you for a purpose, a purpose that reflects God’s glory and love?
Do you know that God has winked at you,
and is calling you beloved?
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