Part of being a pastor is spending a lot of time with people around health care issues.  I have been to a lot of doctor’s offices and chemo floors and a full spectrum of waiting rooms.  I remember holding Lori Jones’s prematurely born twins, each in the palm of a hand, and being overwhelmed with how tiny they were.  (Now they are young adults.) I remember accompanying Barb Mortimer to chemo and hearing the man sitting next to us as he called his wife and told her that the good news was that he was only going to lose part of his leg.  I remember sitting on several occasions in hospital rooms and hearing that there were no choices left, that it was time to live as fully as possible in the time that remained or, simply, that it was time to turn off the machines and wait for the end.

I’m terrible at “selling” religion.  Think about it.  I’ve told you for years that God’s going to love you, whether you come to church or not.  What kind of a marketing strategy is that right?  I’m not going to shame you or guilt you or try to scare you into becoming a member of “my team.” If you don’t want to be here, you don’t have to be here.  When I say that, I’m defying centuries of messaging from organized religion which mostly boils down to, “You better be here…or else!” (It’s the institutional version of “mothering” decades ago when the message was, “You just wait until your father gets home!”  Dad would get home and have no idea why the children looked so terrified!)

Last week, we stood together and looked at this “mountaintop moment” for Jesus.  He heard his calling and responded.  He left what he loved behind and headed to the River Jordan to see John.  He did his “trademark” thing—he went last, waiting until everyone else was baptized to be baptized himself.  He put himself in John’s hands and was baptized in that chilly water, which, interestingly, for Luke is not the culminating moment.  Instead, it is only post-baptism, when Jesus prays, that the fireworks start. Jesus prays, the Spirit descends on him like a dove, and a voice speaks:  “You are my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

One of the biggest challenges in life is dealing with uncertainty.    The old adage is that the only certainties in life are death and taxes.  There’s truth in those words. There is only so much that we can know ahead of time.