“My Beloved”
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
20100110


What does it really mean for God to call you “God’s Beloved?” …..and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, as a dove, and a voice came from heaven, Thou art my Beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

Often I am asked the question: What is a spiritual life? Or, what does a spiritual life look like?

I would like to say that the spiritual life is a life which you gradually learn to listen to a voice that speaks to you in a different tone and with a different message than the world speaks. It is a still small voice that is saying to you, “You are the beloved and on you my favor rest,”

Jesus heard that voice. He heard that voice when he came out of the River Jordon. I want you to hear that voice, too, “You are my beloved son; you are my beloved daughter.” I love you with an everlasting love. I have made you and molded you into a precious creation. I have knitted you in your mother’s womb. I’ve written your name on the palm of my hand and I hold you safe where I am. Don’t be afraid. Trust that you ARE the beloved. That is who you truly are.

I want you to hear that voice. It is not a loud booming voice because it is an intimate voice. It comes from a very deep place that requires us to learn to listen. It is soft and gentle. I want you to gradually hear that voice. We both have to hear that voice and claim for ourselves that that voice speaks the truth, our truth. It tells us who we are. That, my friends, is where the spiritual life begins – by claiming the very voice that calls us BELOVED.

Henri Nouwen has been a mentor of mine in helping me learn to listen to that voice. The life of Jesus is our model. This morning I would like to share with all of you in general and to our newly elected church officers, specifically how we can live as the Beloved.

At the story of the Multiplication of the loaves and Fishes, at The Last Supper, and on that road to Emmaus you can find four words that were used consistently when the community of faith gathered. Those words are: He Took, He Blessed, He Broke, and He Gave.

The truth is, to be taken, to be blessed, to be broken, and to be given is the summary of the life of the One we seek to follow. But is also, or should be, the summary of our lives as well because just like Jesus, we are the Beloved!

First, We Are Taken. Or to put it a better way is to say that we are chosen. We are chosen by God. To say such a thing means that er are seen by God in our preciousness, in our individuality. We are seen as precious in God’s eyes.

Leaders if we do nothing else in our calling as elders and deacons it must be to affirm that everyone one who comes through these doors, everyone we meet knows that they are the beloved. You see, our being chosen as a family of faith and you leaders being chosen to guide this flock means that we are chosen FOR OTHERS! Being chosen does not mean excluding anyone. In fact, the more we know in our hearts how beloved we are in God’s eyes, the more we realize that our friends and all people are seen by God as precious.

The life of the beloved starts by trusting that we are chosen in our uniqueness, that we are unique in God’s eyes, precious.

The second aspect of the spiritual life, the life of the beloved, is that we are Blessed. I cannot think of anything more important for our well being than to know that we are blessed. You know, the word “BENEDICTION” that closing thing we do in worship, literally means Blessing. Bene = Good…..diction = Saying. You see to bless someone means to say good things about them. Unless we can feel the goodness within it becomes very hard to be a blessing for others.

There are so many in this world that are hungry for a blessing. There own life choices and the worlds expectation of them has condemned them to a life of self-loathing. They…those beloved ones, need to be free from such a self-image because it is counter to God’s view of his creation.

Just this past week when our homeless guest filed into the fellowship hall on Wednesday night one of the ladies said to me, Oh pastor, I am so ashamed. Here I am on the streets. I haven’t bathed in several days and the tables are all set so nicely for dinner. I don’t know what to say. Nearly in tears, I simply responded that we were honored to host her and to offer a warm place to sleep and a filling meal. She couldn’t hold back her tears then. I invited her to the piano concert after supper. She hesitated and said, “You mean I can come to the concert.” Sure, I said, come with me.”

So first to live a spiritual life as the Beloved One we must first come to understand that God has chosen us FOR others and has blessed us to be a blessing.

Then we are Broken. We are a broken people. You and I know that fact. A lot of our brokenness has a lot to do with relationships. We feel most broken when those we love reject us or hurt us or we do the same. I bet each of us can speak to a point of brokenness with our wife, husband, partner, father or mother, with our children, friends, and lovers.

So what are we to do with that brokenness? As the Beloved of God we have to dare to embrace it, to befriend our own brokenness, and not say: Oh, it will go away. That should not be a part of my life. No, it is so important to name and claim our brokenness, to befriend it, and to really look at it, and be able to say, “Yes, I am hurting. Yes, I am wounded. And yes, by God, it hurts.

It is important to acknowledge our brokenness because in that wonderful mysterious way our wounds are often a window on the reality of our lives. If we dare to embrace them then we can place them under the blessing. That is a great challenge for us all, and as leaders will do a much poorer job until we do.

We all have stories about how hard it was to do our job after a big fight with someone we loved. Our brokenness must be put under a blessing and not a curse.

If we live our lives as people who are chosen, blessed and broken, then we can give ourselves. God’s design and our Lord’s life are a witness that we are taken, blessed, and broken for the sole purpose of being given. I have come to believe that Henri Nouwen was right when he once wrote: “I believe our greatest human desire is to give ourselves.” Deep down the greatest fulfillment of the human heart is in the giving, to give ourselves…to let go of ego and the false seduction of getting. The mystery is that as we let go FOR others our life begins to bear fruit. Funny how that works!

Jesus said, “It is good for you that I die because when I die I can GIVE you my spirit and you will bear much fruit in life.” I do believe, very strongly, that this is our final and most important calling – to give ourselves.

My dear elders and deacons, and all gathered here today, when we are chosen by God, blessed, and broken, we can then give ourselves to others. Our life can bear much fruit. You see the people who have lived as God’s beloved; continue to bear fruit generations after they have died.

That is really what I wanted to say to you today. Like the young lad sitting in the midst of 5,000 Jesus chosen him and his few morsels of food…took it…blessed it, broke it and he gave it and it was multiplied for all to eat.

That story says something about our lives and our leadership. If we believe we are chosen and that we are blessed. If we embrace our brokenness we can go on to be given, trusting that our life will bear much fruit.

So as we journey together into this New Year I want it to be a spiritual journey. It will be if we gradually learn to listen to that still small voice……can you hear it…….

“You are my beloved in whom I am well pleased.”



With thanks to Henri Nouwen