“YOUR SECRET WEAPON̶= 1;

Mark 1: 4-11=

We are children of God,

se= rvants and sovereigns.

A sermon preached by

Dr. William O. (Bud) R= eeves

First United Methodist Church

Hot= Springs, Arkansas

January 11, 2009<= /o:p>

Back during the days o= f the Cold War, when the world was being threatened by Communist takeover and tot= al nuclear annihilation, the genre of spy stories flourished. Our culture was intrigued with the thought of secret agents and espionage. Although some of that still goes on, and there are still threats to our national security, it’s not like t= he golden days of secret intelligence. That was back when Sean Connery was James Bond, and Peter Graves led= the Mission Impossible team. There were popular TV shows like The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and The Avengers and my favorite spoof= of the spies, Get Smart. Of course, James Bond is still popular, and they remade a Get Smart movie, so there is still interest in s= pies and espionage.

My favorite feature of= the old spy shows when I was a kid was the gadget room, where they equipped the spies with their secret weapons. Every spy had secret weapons. James Bond, of course, had the coolest stuff: pens that were guns, cameras in his buttons, and a sports car that had machine guns behind the headlights (what every commuter needs in rush hour traffic). Maxwell Smart even had that teleph= one thing in his shoe. Hidden wea= pons saved many a secret agent’s life.

What we wish for today= would be some secret weapons that would help us with the more practical aspects of life. We’re not too wor= ried about Communists or nuclear bombs or dictators bent on world domination. But there are some very real and out-in-the-open threats to our well-being that confront us each and every d= ay. You can name them as well as I can—relating with family and friends, dealing with pressures on the job, making the grade in school, paying the bills, finding something meaningful to do, health issues, grief issues—they’re all part of life. We need help; we need some secret weapons.

What I want to share w= ith you today is that there is a resource hidden deep within you, a spark that cannot be extinguished, a power that cannot be quenched, and this deep hidd= en resource can be your secret weapon against anything the world might throw against you. With this weapon= you are invincible! What I want to reveal to you today is your secret weapon—your Christian identity.

Our Christian identity= is revealed in the identity of Jesus Christ.&= nbsp; Who he is makes us who we are. We see the identity of Jesus revealed in his baptism by John in the = Jordan River. In the Gospel of Mark especially, the baptism is a personal epiphany= for Jesus, a secret revelation of his identity. The other Gospels make it more of a public event, but in Mark it seems to be an experience Jesus had with his Father.

John had been baptizin= g in the Jordan River for some time. He was a messenger in the traditio= n of the great prophets of Israel. He even dressed and ate the part; = rough clothing and natural food were the habit of Elijah. He told the people to repent, and proclaimed the coming day of the Lord.&nbs= p; He said there was One coming after him who would baptize not just wi= th water, but with the power of the Holy Spirit. The people flocked to his ministry= .

Jesus was part of the = crowd one day, and when he came down for baptism, he went under the water like everyone else. But when Jesus= came up, the heavens were ripped open and the Holy Spirit descended from the open skies like a dove and rested on him. Then he heard the Voice—his Father’s Voice—saying,= “You are my Son, the Beloved; wi= th you I am well-pleased.”[1]

You might wonder why J= esus got baptized at all. Did he h= ave some sin to confess and be forgiven? If all baptism means is cleansing of sin, this would be a problem. But if we look at baptism in the b= roader sense as a mark of our identity, then we understand better. Jesus was baptized as an identification. In this act, he identified with a = sinful humanity and showed he was “on our side.” Through the Voice and the vision o= f the dove, God identified him as his Son, his Servant, and his Sovereign.

The important thing fo= r us today is to find our identity in the identity of Christ. We are who we are because he is wh= o he is. Our self-understanding is= based on our understanding of Jesus. Paul makes this point with the Galatians: “for in Christ Jesus y= ou are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves = with Christ.”[2] Our secret weapon is the ident= ity of Christ, revealed in his baptism and alive in us when we are baptized Christians. As it did with Je= sus, this means three things for us.

Baptism identifies us as children of God. When Jesus was baptized, the Voice said clearly,= “You are my Son.” When we are baptized, we are adopt= ed into God’s family, to be brothers and sisters of Jesus and heirs of t= he promise of God. This identity= is something God gives us because he loves us, as it says in I John: “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.”[3] This is a mark of our ide= ntity that cannot be destroyed.

Janet Wolf is a pastor= at Hobson United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Hobson is an inner-city church tha= t does a great ministry with the homeless people living on the streets. Janet wrote about a woman in her c= hurch named Fayette. Fayette lived = on the street and had a constant struggle with mental illness and the pain of lupus. But she began attendin= g the church and came to a membership instruction class. She seemed particularly fascinated= by baptism, and she would ask over and over, “And when I’m baptize= d, I am…?” Pastor Jane= t and others soon learned to respond with Fayette’s favorite words, “Beloved, a precious child of God, and beautiful to behold!”

The day of FayetteR= 17;s baptism came, and when she came up from the water, she came up spluttering = and cried out, “And now I am…?” To which all the people gathered a= round sang out, “Beloved, a precious child of God, and beautiful to behold!” Fayette shoute= d, “Oh, yes!” and began to dance around the fellowship hall, still dripping wet and covered with a towel.

Two months later, Jane= t got a call from the hospital. Fay= ette, still living on the street, had been raped and beaten severely. When Janet got to the door of Fayette’s room, she could see her standing by the window, muttering to herself, “I am beloved…”= When she saw Janet, she said out loud, “I am beloved, a precio= us child of God, and…” At that moment she caught sight of herself = in the mirror—hair sticking up, blood and tears streaking her face, dress torn and dirty—and she started again, “I am beloved, a precious child of God, and…” She glanced at the mirror once more and said, “and God is still working on me. If you come back tomorrow, I’ll be so beautiful I’ll take your breath away!”= = [4]

No matter what adversi= ties or tragedies afflict your life, your baptism tells you who you are—beloved, a precious child of God, and beautiful to behold!

Secondly, baptism identifies us as servants of God. When Jesus was bapti= zed, the Voice said, “with you I am well-pleased.” Let = me let you in on a secret here. Those words were well chosen. They = are a reference to a verse from Isaiah that says, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.”= = [5] Here is a clue to the ide= ntity of Jesus. He is identified wi= th the servant of God in Isaiah. As = Jesus entered into his public ministry, he was a servant of God, fully submitted = to the will of his Father. He li= ved, he taught, he healed, and he died as God’s servant. From the point of his baptism on, = Jesus was the complete servant of God.

We are called to be the same. Paul says, “Let this same mind be in you th= at was in Christ Jesus.”[6] Because Jesus was a serva= nt, that is part of who we are as well.

Early one Saturday mor= ning the successful dean of a prominent college was awakened by a phone call. Campus security informed him that = one of the men’s dorms had shaving cream, peanut butter, and worse all over = the walls. Evidently there had be= en a food and fluid fight during the night.&nbs= p; The dean got dressed and went over to investigate. Of course, nobody knew anything ab= out it. He talked to innocent boy= after innocent boy. Now he had three options. He could make every resident in the dorm participate in the clean-up. Or he could call custodial service= s and pay them overtime to clean the mess up.&nb= sp; Or he had a third option.

Quietly, the dean got a bucket and brush and started to work himself, cleaning the walls. Soon, doors began to open, and one= by one heads popped out, and word began to spread about what the dean was doing. Before long, a whole c= rew of college men was cleaning the dorm, led by a dean who was great enough to ta= ke the role of a servant.

There are many great examples of Christians who serve, some right here in our church. You see them teaching classes, work= ing with the children and youth, sharing the gift of music, feeding the hungry, visiting the sick and the elderly. They are baptized children and servants of God.

Children need to be fe= d, and we are God’s children. = As Christians, we need to be fed. We need to have our spiritual needs met. But then the time comes when we have to take off our bibs and put on= our aprons, because others are hungry, too!&nb= sp; Children need to be fed, but servants need to feed, and that is part= of our Christian identity as well.

Finally, baptism identifies us as sovereigns.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> We are people of power, given dominion over our lives, and anointed by God to be his agent in the world.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> When Jesus was baptized, the Voice= said, “You are my Son, the Beloved.” This, too= , was a secret codeword, a reference to the second Psalm, where God says to the K= ing, “You are my son; today I have begotten you.”[7] Jesus was the King, the Anointed O= ne, the Messiah, and his baptism identified him that way.

We are not sovereigns = in the same sense that Jesus was, but we are anointed with the same Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God that descen= ded on Jesus like a dove is the same Spirit that dwells in us and anoints our livi= ng and gives us power today. The= re is only one. Paul says, “There is one body and one Spirit, just= as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and= in all.”[8] This is the sovereign power of God = that gives us the power to live and become a real success.

The film Akeelah and the Bee is the story of a talented South Los Angeles girl who overcomes her fears and all other obstacles to compete at the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. In one scene, Akeelah is in the office of her spelling coach, Mr. Larabee. He = asks Akeelah, "Have you got any goals? What would you like to be when you g= row up? A doctor, a lawyer, a standup comic?"

She responds, "I = don't know. The only thing I'm good at is spelling."

"Go over there.&q= uot; He motions toward a plaque on the wall. "And read the quotation that's= on the wall. Read it aloud, please."

Akeelah walks over and begins to read. "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our d= eepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? We were born to make manifest the g= lory of God that is within us. And= as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same."

"Does that mean anything to you?" Larabee asks. "What does it mean?"

"That I'm not sup= posed to be afraid," she answers.

"Afraid of what?&= quot; he asks.

"Afraid of…me?" she says.

Akeelah chooses not to= be afraid and is inspired to compete in the National Spelling Bee, and you’ll have to rent the movie to see if she wins![9]

Christians, we donR= 17;t have to be afraid of anything. We have a secret weapon. If you = are a baptized Christian today, you have your Christian identity. You are a child of God. You are his servant. You are empowered by his Spirit. When the troubles and tragedies of= life come at you, simply do what the great reformer Martin Luther supposedly did. Whenever he faced a cris= is or a problem or a temptation, he simply touched his forehead and repeated, &qu= ot;I am baptized. I am baptized.&#= 8221;

Today you will have an opportunity to reaffirm your baptismal covenant with God. This is the commitment of faith th= at you made at the very beginning of your spiritual journey. As you agree again to these basic statements of faith, claim again your Christian identity—child, serva= nt, sovereign. This is who you are. This is your secret weap= on.

Amen!