Not radical enough

 ‘…let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven ....’ (Matt 5:16)

Matthew 5:13-20 (Year A: 4^th Sunday before Lent Sunday 5^th February 2017)

Have you ever wondered? Have you ever wondered how some people you have met lit up your way for you?  They were like ships that pass in the night – lit up and showing forth light for another and then moving on. 

Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing,
Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness;
So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another,
Only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence.

(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Tales of a Wayside Inn, part 3, section 4)

We, too, can be lights for each other in a generally dark world not by compelling or even suggesting to others where they should point their ships and how they should steer them. Rather, the light which we sometimes give can show up a path for others. That’s all. 

So much for the personal metaphor. What about the political and social world in which we all live?

On the eve of World War I in 1914, a British politician remarked:

The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time.

A sense of gloom and foreboding hung over Europe that August even if a frenzy of patriotism and nationalism was being whipped up among the populations of Europe. Ireland was no exception, at that time, and both of the major political traditions on this island shared in this orgy of nationalism in varying ways.

Today, there is a widespread pessimism and foreboding across Europe and much of the world. Even if there can be no meaningful direct comparison between 1914 and 2017 there are, at least, some possible common trends: a type of nationalism that excludes others as much as asserting national or ethnic sovereignty, constant rivalry, distrust and provocation among the ‘super powers’ and not so super powers, uncertain economic conditions as the world enters into an entirely uncharted and unprecedented shock to the institutional arrangements for trade, investment and movements of people. When people become frightened they batten down the hatches and group together as ‘we alone’ or, worse still, ‘we above and over all others’. What is it that leads people and their elected and non-elected ‘leaders’ to behave in ways that are, ultimately, self-destructive?  Why do some people hate so much? For some reason I am greatly encouraged, inspired and struck by the lyrics of Where is the love? sung by the musicians of Black Eyed Peas [or watch and listen here]. Though long, it is worth reproducing the entire lyrics here. They contain much wisdom and insight (yes, I will get back to Matthew 5:13-16 in this blog and all of this is linked!):

What's wrong with the world, mama
People livin' like they ain't got no mamas
I think the whole world addicted to the drama
Only attracted to things that'll bring you trauma
Overseas, yeah, we try to stop terrorism
But we still got terrorists here livin'
In the USA, the big CIA
The Bloods and The Crips and the KKK
But if you only have love for your own race
Then you only leave space to discriminate
And to discriminate only generates hate
And when you hate then you're bound to get irate, yeah
Madness is what you demonstrate
And that's exactly how anger works and operates
Man, you gotta have love just to set it straight
Take control of your mind and meditate
Let your soul gravitate to the love, y'all, y'all
People killin', people dyin'
Children hurt and you hear them cryin'
Can you practice what you preach?
Or would you turn the other cheek?
Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love (Love)
Where is the love (The love) [2x]
Where is the love, the love, the love
It just ain't the same, old ways have changed
New days are strange, is the world insane?
If love and peace are so strong
Why are there pieces of love that don't belong?
Nations droppin' bombs
Chemical gasses fillin' lungs of little ones
With ongoin' sufferin' as the youth die young
So ask yourself is the lovin' really gone
So I could ask myself really what is goin' wrong
In this world that we livin' in people keep on givin' in
Makin' wrong decisions, only visions of them dividends
Not respectin' each other, deny thy brother
A war is goin' on but the reason's undercover
The truth is kept secret, it's swept under the rug
If you never know truth then you never know love
Where's the love, y'all, come on (I don't know)
Where's the truth, y'all, come on (I don't know)
Where's the love, y'all
People killin', people dyin'
Children hurt and you hear them cryin'
Can you practice what you preach?
Or would you turn the other cheek?
Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love (Love)
Where is the love (The love)? [6x]
Where is the love, the love, the love?
I feel the weight of the world on my shoulder
As I'm gettin' older, y'all, people gets colder
Most of us only care about money makin'
Selfishness got us followin' the wrong direction
Wrong information always shown by the media
Negative images is the main criteria
Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria
Kids wanna act like what they see in the cinema
Yo', whatever happened to the values of humanity
Whatever happened to the fairness and equality
Instead of spreading love we're spreading animosity
Lack of understanding, leading us away from unity
That's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin' under
That's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin' down
There's no wonder why sometimes I'm feelin' under
Gotta keep my faith alive 'til love is found
Now ask yourself
Where is the love? [4x]
Father, Father, Father, help us
Send some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love?
Sing with me y'all:
One world, one world (We only got)
One world, one world (That's all we got)
One world, one world
And something's wrong with it (Yeah)
Something's wrong with it (Yeah)
Something's wrong with the wo-wo-world, yeah
We only got
(One world, one world)
That's all we got
(One world, one world)

What has any of this to do with this Sunday’s short passage from the fifth chapter of the Gospel of St Matthew following on from the eight Beatitudes which opened the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ in Matthew?

In the end of our lives we can look back and say that we were helped by the light of others – or the light of God shining through others like stain glass windows. If we have been a light to others it was not because we strived or worked at it so much as we allowed the light within to shine by removing obstacles and blinkers and shutters. To be ourselves as children of light – that is the point of it all.  It is one thing to pay lip service to the Beatitudes. It Is another thing to live them wholly and faithfully.  This is a gift we can only be open to. But, a blessing is a blessing and beatitude means beatitude. Living blessedly is the way to more blessings of life, happiness and fullness. Why settle for anything less?

Rejoice and be glad

 ‘…Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you....’ (Matt 5:12)

Matthew 5:1-2 (Year A: 4^th Sunday after Epiphany Sunday 29^th January 2017)

Religion sometimes gets a bad name for allegedly spreading gloom, fear and a spirit of killjoy. In fact, many nowadays juxtapose the terms ‘religion’ and ‘spirituality’ as if they were entirely different concepts and as if ‘religion’=bad while ‘spirituality’=good. We can all fall into this way of thinking as the world around us shapes our conversations and thinking no matter how adept we think we may be at resisting the pressures of group thinking and group post-thinking to misuse a hyphenated prefix .  How often one hears the expression ‘I’m not religious but I am spiritual’.  Sometimes it is said by persons who affect humility since being ‘religious’ is deemed to be a somewhat old-fashioned, possibly reactionary or haughty state of being.

However, the word ‘religion’ has its roots in the Latin word religare meaning ‘to bind together’. Now if the essence of religion is to be in a relationship of I / thou so that there is a binding together then what is ‘spirituality’? ‘Spirituality’ is also about relationship. According to Wikipedia: ‘German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (a famous atheist) regarded self-transcendence, asceticism and the recognition of one's connection to all as a key to ethical living’. Key to a modern (or dare I say postmodern) approach to ‘spirituality’ is the search for inner happiness or, to use a somewhat religious expression, blessing.

In the Gospel of St Matthew Jesus is reported as declaring a charter for happy and blessed living.  As with so many other sayings of Jesus, the ‘beatitudes’ can become a routine and unremarkable set of over-familiar words inscribed on some Church stain glass window or read out on the fourth Sunday after Epiphany in the year of Matthew.  We might listen again this Sunday.

Line by line

‘When Jesus saw the crowds’ (v1) indicates that Jesus saw beyond the normal and the superficial. He saw into the human heart and the deepest needs of ordinary people. This is why he ‘went up the mountain’ (v. 1) in a very prophetic way as the great figures of the Old Testament did (e.g. Moses). There, on a mountain side he ‘began to speak’ to people about the things of life and the things of God as both are interwoven. This is what he ‘taught them’:

(1) ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ (v. 3).  The poor have a special place in the heart of God throughout the scriptures. ‘Poverty’ is, however, a blessing in another sense.  It would be easy to confuse matters by suggesting that the poor – those without resources or income – should be happy with their lot because the kingdom of heaven will be theirs at the end of their miserable life. Not so. To be poor because of oppression, denial, neglect or theft is not a blessing.  Rather, those who empty themselves of an attachment to power, to material wealth and to spiritual goods are blessed because these attachments block their way to the garden of peace and contentedness.

(2) ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted’. Some see in this verse a reference to the ‘tears of compunction’ that arise when we recognise our sins and the full impact of these on others as well as ourselves.  It is only right that we should mourn thus (but it is good to mourn in the healing knowledge of God’s love and forgiveness. An ‘Anam-chara’ might help if we are lucky enough to find one in a million). However, many are those afflicted by poverty, ill-health and oppression for reasons other than ‘tears of compunction’. The Gospel, which is Good News, holds out a hope and a pledge that these will be comforted – if not now later (Matthew draws much on Isaiah including, in this case, chapter 61 where a previous blog touched on this in People with a Mission).  Saying that those going through various agonies and sufferings will be comforted ‘later’ is all too easy for those who are comforted and comfortable.  What about the now?  None of us can change the world on our own. None of us remove suffering and oppression entirely from this world and this life. But, opportunities do arise every day and in every way for us to recognise suffering in ourselves and in others. Through recognition of suffering we can become more compassionate towards others and towards ourselves (indeed the two most go together of necessity).  In the capacity to embrace suffering in this way we are led to a realisation of an enormous gentleness that accompanies kindness for:

(3) ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.’ (v. 5).  Being meek and gentle does not imply submission or docility in the face of oppression or injustice.  The really gentle know how to stand up and fight but to do with the utter respect for the other even when subject to what is patently unfair treatment and abuse. In this way, the gentle inherit a place of strength and of blessing knowing that they have followed the path of justice and mercy which makes them stronger than their enemies. Even in the most desperate of circumstances the gentle are victorious because they stand in a place of moral strength and thus inherit what is truly precious and valuable and besides which social honour, power, privilege and money do not compare.  For them what matters is to do the right thing as Micah 6:8 urges us (‘He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God’).  It does not matter what others think or not or what the ‘world’ and all of its trappings of power and prejudice regards as right:

(4) ‘‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.’ (v. 6). To yearn and strive for what is right – no matter what the cost – is the greatest prize.  Many a person who has had to ‘walk the plank’ not out of choice but out of compulsion. Blessed are those who have had ‘walk the plank’ because, in their hearts, they knew what was right and what was, therefore, essential for them to do. Having been shown mercy by God hidden in their hearts they learned the hard lesson of mercy themselves for:

(5) ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.’ (v. 7)

A sense of overwhelming compassion overwhelms us in the depths of such anguish and leads – if we are open to this gift – to a purity of intention and vision for:

(6) ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.’ (v. 8). Religious language using the word ‘purity’ is typically associated with one dimension of purity. A singular, focussed, and compassionate glance of the heart sees beyond the image or the outward impression to the person in whom God resides. What we do to others – especially those in most need – is done to God in our brother Jesus.  Such purity is the source of peace in ourselves and a channel of peace for others for:

(7) ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.’ (v. 9)

We bring peace to others when we are open to the gift of peace within us. When we make our peace with God – our past sins our anxieties about the future and our current preoccupations dissolve in the peace of the Now. But not everyone is open to the gift of peace and some will refuse it on all accounts. Then, we are reminded that:

(8) ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’   To face bullying, threats, put-downs and various forms of controlling behaviour is not uncommon in the school yard. However, it may also be found in the workplace, in the market square and even in our own very own families under one guise or another. To be falsely accused and to be represented as bad to others is a source of great suffering in our world. We must stand in solidarity with all those undergoing persecution whether for their faith, the colour of the skin, their social class, their sexual orientation or for simply who they are. We can be a source of blessing and a cause of joy for others by living peace, embracing purity of heart and gentleness of compassion.

Ultimately, the Beatitudes or ‘Blessings’ are for every Christian disciple and not just for those with some special ministry or calling. We are, each and all, called to be poor in spirit, contrite, gentle, hungry for justice, merciful, pure in heart and peacemakers and faithful in persecution.  Once again the prophet Micah puts it thus:

‘to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God’

To have a heart of compassion, humility and fairness is to change our world. This can spill over into the world of others.  This is the way to a social revolution based on love.

Time for a real reformation?

 ‘…The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned....’ (Matt 4:16)

Matthew 4:12-23 (Year A: 3^rd Sunday after Epiphany Sunday 22^nd January 2017)

This extract from the Gospel of St Matthew comprises three key parts:

• A setting of the scene by reference to the prophecy of Isaiah and directly applying it to Jesus (v.12-16)
• A clarification of what it was and what it is that Jesus came to proclaim and do: repentance and healing. (v. 17,23).-
• A call directed to specially chosen persons to become followers of Jesus and the response of those called. (v. 18-22)

Setting the scene

Matthew was addressing, among others, a Jewish Christian audience.  Many who heard and read his testimony understood the Hebrew narrative about a messiah and the promise of a new reign of God.  Matthew probably drew on multiple oral sources many of which were shared by all four evangelists who made into the official church-approved canon some centuries later. Citation of the prophet Isaiah in the initial verses of this extract would have carried deep significance and insight for those hearing it again.

What is it that Jesus came to proclaim and do?

Jesus came to proclaim the in-breaking of God’s kingdom here and now and beyond.  But, that on its own, was not enough. Jesus came to effect salvation and liberation in the here and now.  So, healing or liberation goes hand in hand with proclaiming. The two are different sides of one and the same coin. By ‘teaching’, ‘proclaiming’ and ‘healing’ Jesus was showing the freshly called disciples what discipleship for the new kingdom looks like and what it involves.  The first disciples were, indeed, a type of ‘discipulus’ or pupil in Latin. We have no chance of being a light for others if, we do not learn and continue to learn from the Word made flesh amongst us.  Likewise a ‘teaching’ church is a ‘learning’ church learning from its own members living and past. It also learns from those outside the fold who may not share the same understanding, experience or language.

A call to the first disciples

Those initially called were very ordinary people. Certainly, they were not Temple officials or learned scribes and teachers.  If anything, God’s choice – in Jesus – was leaning towards the low to middle end of the socio-economic profile of Palestine.  Fishing was a way of life for those living by the Sea of Galilee and since Jesus grew up in this region and settled in Capernaum by the lake (he ‘made his home’ there). He probably had closely observed people like James, John, Andrew and Simon to be later called ‘Rock’ or Peter and decided that these were the right persons for the right mission at the right time which was now. Perhaps uncouth, headstrong, opinionated, given to rivalries at times and untrained in the finesse of Jerusalem court life these country bumpkins would be just right though in time they would run away and abandon Jesus for a while. The first key point is that the first disciples were called as they were. 

Matthew relates that they Simon and Andrew ‘left their nets and followed him’ while James and John ‘immediately…left the boat and their father, and followed him.’ In other words, those called left all at least for now. They left parent or parents and occupation. They did so in trust not knowing where this would lead. Why did they do this? How were they motivated to leave their families and to abandon their occupation or livelihoods?  There is no Gospel evidence that they ever returned to their families or livelihoods.  We might assume that something very powerful moved within the minds and hearts of the first called. Perhaps they had heard or even known Jesus to some degree beforehand. Perhaps the teaching of John the Baptist had ‘cleared the way’ for a strong experience such as they had.  Whatever happened it is clear that they answered Jesus’ call ‘immediately’.  There was no procrastination or years of trial.  There was no time for that. After all, the kingdom of heaven was at hand.  While the historical record is not certain it is reasonable to assume that most of the initial disciples met persecution and death as a result of their following of Jesus.  The second key point is that the first disciples answered the call in the here and now. This sets a pattern for all future disciples (and not just those who may be called to a special ministry). The call is in the here and now and not in some hypothetical future or in some set of conditionalities. Today. Now.

Seven questions to consider

1. Where is the ‘good news’ (gospel) being proclaimed today in a way that is convincing and relevant to the questions and needs of people today? 
2. How is this ‘good news’ being communicated and in what terms and language (primarily as a threat or as an invitation to something even greater and better)?
3. Are those proclaiming credible witnesses living according to what they proclaim?
4. What does discipleship mean today and how does it relates to the many different expressions of ministry in the church (or churches)?
5. If, as it seems, a rising proportion of people are ‘walking away’ (or never walked there in the first place) from traditional, organised and formal ‘religion’ how do they understand and seek spiritual meaning, identity, connection, truth and values?
6. Are the current ‘parish’ or ‘congregation’ models fit for purpose? (put another way, are liturgy, ministry and church fit for purpose?)
7. What do we do about it?

Might we, all, one day witness the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy and cited by Matthew:

The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned. (Matthew 4:16)

That would be real reformation making a real difference in people’s lives.

How will others see and testify?

 ‘…And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God....’ (John 1:34)

                                                                                         http://bit.ly/2joDX8w

John 1:29-34 Year A: 2^nd Sunday after Epiphany Sunday 15^th January 2017)

Offices of newspapers and broadcast media are known to have a special filing cabinet with prepared obituaries for former Taoisigh, Monarchs, famous singers, business leaders, politicians (usually men), church men (usually men) and all sorts of notable persons near and far.  Now, it would be a preposterous idea for you or me to be somewhere in that filing cabinet. However, some day and somehow our time will come. The three certainties of life are, as we know only too well since the age of reason: ageing, illness and death. That’s life. But, what sort of memory and legacy will we leave to those closest and dearest?  We will continue to live in the minds of those closest to us (for all the right reasons one hopes!). But, more importantly, our actions will have made a positive difference to at least the next seven generations. Our actions, words and decisions, today, will ripple out in a thousand ways across the generations just as, without realising it, our great great grandparents made decisions and acted in particular ways that helped shape who we are today (including the obvious point that we would not exist today were it not for our great great grandparents and theirs and so on back along the tree of humanity). Much is stored in our awareness and in who we are that is inherited ‘material’. Yet, we have an extraordinary and blessed freedom to choose and to decide and to act.

In the chaos of our lives the Spirit hovers over us and comes down upon us in many ways such as in the small and in the great events of our mundane lives.  In hovering over us the Spirit recreates our world and helps make us into new creatures.  The image of the Easter (Paschal) lamb who was sacrificed (1 Corinthians 5:7-8) meets the Spirit who re-news and re-creates the face of the earth (Genesis 1:2).

The title of ‘Lamb of God’ invoked by John the Baptist sounds strange to our ears. Biblical commentator, William Barclay, talks of the lamb of God in the following way:

In one word it sums up the love, the sacrifice, the suffering and the triumph of Christ.

This image should not be lost. It complements the image of Jesus, the Son of God, as the Shepherd who is prepared to lay down his life for his sheep. Now, the image switches to Jesus as lamb who is led to the slaughter in a way that saves us and brings us home.

Who is this ‘Son of God’? The term ‘Son of God’ is difficult to unpack for many of us inhabiting a very different culture and associated terminology in the 21^st century. One way to express the point of John’s witness at the Jordan is to say that, like John, we too can say in all honesty at the end of our lives that we have seen and have testified that God-in-Jesus is:

• The ground of my being
• The soul of my soul
• The lover of my soul
• The reason and purpose of my life.

To date, in the course of the last 15 years I have accompanied three close persons in the very final moments of their life journey.  Two were my parents and one was an uncle. Truly I can say that I have seen and can now testify that I met three remarkable souls surely touched by the grace of God. But, as some of us are in the front line now, what of the next line behind us? Will we witness in truth and love to these who write our obituaries? Will the flame be passed on?

This wonderful world

 ‘…This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased....’ (Matt 3:17)

Matthew 3:13-17 (Year A: Baptism of our Lord Sunday 8^th January 2017)

I have a childhood memory of watching up at wall murals by the famous Irish artist, teacher, broadcaster and public commentator, Seán Keating, in the Church of the Holy Spirit in Ballroan, in south Country Dublin. I recall my later mother telling me, once, that the same Seán Keating (who died in 1977) would spend time gazing at one or other of the murals from the pews beneath. Not only is this a beautiful work of art but the artist, so it is claimed, saw himself in the person of John the Baptist who resembled him in the painting. They are extraordinarily beautiful works of art in an extraordinarily beautiful church.  Perhaps the artist was gazing as much at the truth and beauty in and under and beyond the physical composition mounted on the transept walls as he was at the artistic beauty he had conceived and brought to life.  There is a mystery about the things of the Holy Spirit and the earthy world in which we have been planted that invites us to stop and gaze, to pause and wonder, to ask and remain awhile. In those moments we might sense an inner feeling or even voice that speaks ‘This is a wonderful world – immerse in it’ or ‘I saw the Spirit coming down from Heaven like a dove and resting on him’ (John 1:32 BBE version).

Today is a very special day in many of the eastern orthodox churches. The feast of the Lord’s Baptism is a high point of the Eastern churches celebration and brings together the birth of Jesus, the visit of the Magi, the wedding feast of Cana and the baptism of Jesus.  Less concerned about historical sequence the Eastern approach is to celebrate the glory of God made one of us and yet powerful to transform water into wine, old ritual into the new, fallen humanity into risen humanity and sadness into joy.

Still, the story of Jesus’ baptism at the river Jordan is a bit of a puzzle to us. As Jesus’ cousin, John (the baptiser and not of course the evangelist John) pointed out – why would Jesus come to him looking for baptism? That John even asked this question says a lot about what Jesus meant to him. Clearly, John had some inkling of Jesus as a person apart and different.  But, nothing could have prepared John or those present with him in the area of the river for what would happen next.  Whatever, the precise historical detail of the events described in this rather terse passage, we sense that an important threshold was cross in the life of Jesus and that from now an entirely new phase had opened up and one which would carry on from where John had arrived. In a cruel way the fate of these two cousins was intertwined even from their lives in the wombs of their respective mothers. Joy was the first response of John to Jesus (Luke 1:40-44).

Just imagine

Picture John clad in rough attire standing at the meandering river of the Jordan surrounded by pious and sometimes troubled pilgrims searching for healing, for forgiveness, for renewal. We are there too in the midst of the crowd wanting to press forward but hesitating. A lot is at stake. Then, there is a commotion. That cousin of John appears from nowhere along with a small band of companions including – according to some reports – his mothers and close family. There is a conversation between John and Jesus. There was something of a lively conversation between the two of them that might have suggested someone was going to walk away.  Rumours are spreading through the crowd about what was heard. There is confusion. Then silence. Peering from a height many can plainly see Jesus going down into the waters followed by John. What happened next might be disputed. Many eyewitnesses came forward to say that they saw something extraordinary happen involving a very bright light. Among these many claimed a vision of something resembling a dove though others not present said that it was merely reported that Jesus saw a dove by witnesses who heard and saw nothing.  Some even said that they heard, themselves, a voice or voices calling out the name of Jesus. Others heard and saw nothing while others hesitated.

What is certain is that something stirred that day in the hearts and minds of those present and among the crowd where witnesses who would tell and retell this story for many decades before the episode was written down and preserved by small bands of followers of the Christ scattered around the eastern Mediterranean sea. Many remember it as the beginning of the Jesus movement proper. From now on Jesus would travel about in the territory of Galilee and beyond preaching, healing and proclaiming about a new kingdom that was already here and, at the same time, had not fully arrived. Many were confused by it all but all agreed, including those hostile to Jesus, that he spoke with extraordinary wisdom, insight and authority. His words matched his life and his life match his word. This was no fly-by prophet or political conspirator to rid Israel of the Roman occupiers.

So, what’s the story here? Jesus goes down, immerses and passes through the waters of human tribulation and fleshly reality. Our God has become one of us and is in a river with others up to their necks in water. He didn’t need to do this. He didn’t even need to become one of us. And he didn’t need to create human beings. That’s how this God of ours works. Messy, in your face and utterly compassionate. The closing line of this week’s passage is ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’ (v. 17).  The Father looks intently at each one of us in our current predicament and circumstances of life. The Father’s gaze is on all of us including that which his Son has planted in us at our Christian baptism. Truly, it is a wonderful world and we are all the more wonderful for being part of it.

Postscript

For anyone interested a series of short video clips is available on youtube [Uncovering Bethany beyond the Jordan].  The claimed site of Jesus’ baptism is on the eastern side of the Jordan in modern day Jordan (see John 1:28).

Passing through the river Jordan in this locality has deep significance which would have not been lost on Jewish readers of the 4^th gospel (see Joshua 3).