Trinity Episcopal Church

December 28, 2008

Today we baptized a beautiful baby boy. Babies have their own special…aroma. All babies smell like babies, and they are warm and precious and they cry and smile and coo and sleep and eat and make interesting noises. Jesus was a baby just like babies you see and hold today.
Why didn’t God just appear as a full grown man, sort of walk out from the desert or something---Jesus, with a huge forehead with a great intellect, who would teach the world many marvels and display many powers to persuade people to get their act together? Or why didn’t Jesus merely emerge with profound authority, in the synagogue, or perhaps at the Roman council? He could have given new laws and civil codes and established a new government? Why didn’t he ride in on a silver steed wearing a white hat, with a six gun on his side like the old westerns, and take out all the bad guys and “clean up this one horse town”?
Believe it or not, God is not an authoritarian just waiting to smite someone who messes up (and that includes you and me). The God of the universe came to earth as a baby, and what could be less scary or less threatening than a baby? God said, “I need to do it (come to earth) like all humans do it---I need to start where they start---as a baby.
Jesus was born, raised in a low income home, learned to play, lost his first tooth, went to school, drew pictures that his grandma put on the refrigerator, he laughed, he cried, he asked “Why?” a lot, and he probably didn’t like eating his Brussels sprouts! The whole point is Jesus didn’t skip any of the steps to being human.
I remember hearing one kid in front of the church say “Real love is when your mom reads you a bedtime story…and she doesn’t skip any of the pages.” God wanted to know how to identify with you. He wanted to know how you feel when you’re sad or lonely or frustrated or afraid, so God became a man and experienced all those emotions and more so He, God of the universe, could empathize with you. God didn’t skip any of the pages when it came to being human.
Fr. Rick

Trinity Episcopal Church

Navigation

December 28, 2008