i got a rock

On this Sunday which celebrated the baptism of Jesus, and in memory of my baptism so very many years ago, i received a rock. Submerged in a bowl of water amidst other mineral-laden stones, i chose it with my eyes closed, letting the universe guide me to it.
It's a very nice rock to represent God's unconditional love of me. So many facets interspersed with smooth surfaces, both with minor pitting. I like the idea of love lodged in the deeper places, providing a refuge when an edge becomes too close.

The email announcing the title of today's sermon had mistakenly given it as "It's Time For Otis Redding". Oops! The correction came moment's later, informing that it would be "Rejoicing In Our Imperfections".
Hahahaha hahaha!
Surely that is an inside joke now for all of us who were present!
(smile)
The focus of the sermon was on how uncomfortable Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John had been about talking of the baptism of Jesus. After all, as the Son of God, why would Jesus have needed to be cleansed of sin? I could tell that some of the congregation was a bit uncomfortable with the cncept, too.
However, as Reverend Billy Hester pointed out, the embarrassment of the apostles about the event actually served to authenticate it.
I have no problem believing that Jesus would want to be baptized to be cleansed of sin. He had lived as a boy and a teen male and a young man and was about thirty years old at the time. So, i ask you to consider the boys and male teens and young men that you have known. Free of sin? Not hardly.
Consider this also: the family of Jesus had encouraged him to be baptized, in particular to be baptized by John the Baptist. Why that man specifically? Well, John the Baptist may have been an uncle of Jesus. He also had been leading a movement of baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin, with those baptized then subsequently living a kinder existence with their fellow man.
Consider this also: Even today, by the thirtieth birthday, most people are generally considered wise. Perhaps his mother (Mary) had chosen that time to tell him the truth about his birth. She might have told him then that Joseph was not his birth father. She may have told him of her immaculate conception, of God's spirit creating Jesus within her uterus. She could have announced that he needed to know the truth so he could now live as the Son of God, not the son of man.
I can very much believe that Jesus would find himself at a moral crossroad, needing to forsake his past and accept his new responsibility. I can very much believe that he would see baptism as the means to shed the mantle of his human foibles and take up the cape for the saving of humanity.

Holy Communion was that much more meaningful today.
i thank You, God.