You are My Beloved Child
Have you ever heard of the “Island of Misfit Toys?” In the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Christmas movie and sequel, this is where toys go that are unwanted or unloved or just created a little differently - “like a spotted elephant or a lion with wings, a train with square wheels or a water pistol that shot jelly.” And if you remember the movie, they didn’t feel so good about themselves. They wanted to belong, to be loved and to be valued just for who they are.
And so do we. And yet we spend far too much time feeling not “good enough.”
It was a beautiful day and the teacher let my class out early as a reward to play kickball on the playground. Except it wasn’t a reward for me. That’s because, whenever we played a game-- unless it was a spelling bee -- the team captains were chosen from the most athletic kids in the class and they “picked sides” while the rest of us had to wait to be chosen. The athletes were chosen first, then the popular kids. I was not very interested in athletics and tended to kick the ball straight at the pitcher for an easy out… every time. I wasn’t very confident in my abilities either and yet I remember praying that I wouldn’t be the very last to be chosen. Like all the other kids, I wanted to belong. And yet… I felt more like a misfit toy than a part of the team.
Have you ever felt like a misfit toy? Maybe you are great at sports… but you didn’t get the grades that you wanted for school and so other doors were closed. Or maybe you have felt like you could never measure up to the expectations or demands of your mom, or dad or coach or boss or even yourself.
From her research, Dr. Brene Brown has discovered that we all want to belong. She says that it is part of the “innate human desire to part of something larger than us... [and so] we often try to acquire it by fitting in and by seeking approval.” The problem is that we do that, we end up tying our feelings of self-worth, happiness and success to goals that are not in our control. For example - if only I lose pounds, then I’ll be accepted. Or, if only I make the team, then I’ll belong. Or, if only I win the lottery, then my troubles will be over. These “if only” goals set us up for failure and get in the way of being our own authentic self.
Last week, many people made New Years Resolutions. There’s nothing wrong with that. A new year can be a good time to take a look back and reflect on who we have been and an opportunity to reassess plans and goals and consider ways that we want to live better and to be the people we most want to be in the upcoming year. Maybe you want to eat better, exercise more or improve your strength, weight or break a bad habit or two. Good for you!
Unfortunately, people are often overly ambitious in their goals and less ambitious in developing a plan to accomplish these goals. But change is hard, and so, for whatever reason, most of us fail to keep our resolutions, our promises to ourselves - as well intentioned and even good for us as they may be.
In our lesson from Isaiah, God speaks to a people who have failed to keep their promises. But their failure was not just a New Year’s resolution. They failed to keep their promises to God. God had made a covenant with Abraham and Sarah, and with all of their descendants, all of the people of Israel, to be their God. And they promised to be God’s people and to follow God’s commandments.
But again and again, the people sinned and broke the covenant and even sometimes forgot all about God. This did not please God. But God did not destroy them. God did not shame them or tell them that they were unworthy or unredeemable. Instead, God told them that even though they did not keep their end of the deal, even though they broke the covenant, God would keep that covenant. And, God would not only keep God’s promise, but God would send them a Servant Leader, a light to the nations, to keep their side of the promise as well.
So God chose to send a servant leader who in Isaiah, God calls “my chosen in whom my soul delights,” to keep the covenant with the people of Israel and to extend that covenant to all people, to be a light to the nations.
As Christians, we understand that servant leader to be Jesus. After Jesus’ baptism, God proclaims, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Or as the Message translation says, “This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life.”
When my children were little, I liked to sneak into their room after they were sleeping just check in on them. And regardless of whether it had been a good day or a more challenging day, as I looked at them sleeping peacefully in their beds, and I delighted in them. I think that that is what God is saying about Jesus – and how God feels about us. God looks at us – not only when we are sleeping – and delights in you.
God delights in you because at YOUR baptism, you were proclaimed a child of God, sealed by the Holy Spirit, and marked with the cross of Christ forever. At your baptism and every day afterwards, God says, you belong. YOU are my beloved child. I love you. I delight in you and there is NOTHING that you can do that will make me love you any less.
On the day that you were baptized, God sealed the deal… and today you have an opportunity – we ALL have an opportunity to say no to the devil, the forces of evil and everything that would tell us that we are not good enough…and to say yes to God who has already said yes to you. We can say yes to the one who says, “You belong.” Thanks be to God who makes it so. Amen.