One summer, the boys decide to go sailing. There is a terrible storm. The waves surge and the boat capsizes. Conrad manages to hold onto the capsized boat, but Buck drowns.
When Conrad returns, he is changed. He does not want to live. He feels that he doesn't deserve to be alive. He is depressed, despondent. After three months in the hospital, he goes back to high school. But all the things that he loved, he no longer cares about. Nothing means anything anymore. In a last ditch attempt to find help, he agrees to see a therapist.
The therapist is a Jewish man who works out of a small, dark office. He rarely speaks but mostly just listens to Conrad. For months, Conrad talks about how bad he is, how he doesn't care about anything. He is not interested in choir or sports or friends, nothing. He is lost. He believes that he is bad and deserves to die.
Late one evening, Conrad has a panic attack. In tears, shaking, he phones the therapist. "I need to see you now!" he cries. The therapist is smart enough to know that Conrad is at a pivotal moment. He puts his coat on over his pajamas and meets Conrad at his office. Conrad paces the office and finally gets to talking about the events of the accident itself. He describes how the boat capsized and how he held on. "I should have let go and looked for Buck, but I didn't! I didn't!" In response, the therapist says something very simple: "Conrad, you are a good person....have you ever thought that you might have been stronger?"
With those words, Conrad begins to believe in himself again. Slowly, his life returns.
Stories of Jesus began to fly about after his resurrection, and it became so important for the people who saw Him, who knew him, to write their stories down. Mark was the first one to respond to that need.
The Gospel of Mark is the shortest of the four gospels. It is also considered to be the first gospel, the gospel that was written down the earliest.
Mark wrote his gospel with speed and precision. He only told the parts that he thought were most important. There is no story of Jesus' birth in the Gospel of Mark. No, Mark, the shortest of the gospels, gets right to the point. Mark does not consider how or where Jesus was born to be of importance. The first thing that Mark wanted to tell us was about Jesus' baptism, not his birth. For Mark, Jesus became Jesus at his baptism. It was baptism that began Jesus' life as the Son of God. The years before Jesus' baptism were just preparation for his ministry. Those years were important but they were preparatory. Jesus becomes fully himself, fully awake and aware, when he is baptized. Jesus was named by God at his baptism. And the words that God speaks aloud at Jesus' baptism are vital words; they are the words of life. Mark records only God's words, not Jesus' or John's, but only God's words.
We translate God's words into English in the following way: "You are My Son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased." I have never really liked the translation "well pleased." It reminds me of my grandmother, who would tell us that she was "pleased" with our grades over dinner. So I went back to the ancient language of the New Testament. And I discovered something wonderful. The words that God spoke really mean not so much "With you I am well pleased'" but instead what God said was more like:
"I call you good."
Or
"I name you good."
When God created the world, God said that it was good. God saw the light, separated it from the darkness, and identified its goodness. All the parts of God's creation were good. Part of the act of the creation was the declaration that each part was good. It was created and it was good.
But when we fell from God, we separated ourselves from that One who calls us good. And we no longer knew who we were.
This happens all the time in our world. Children are abandoned and no longer consider themselves good. Parents divorce and the child wonders why, was it because she was bad? A parent hands over a child to be adopted and the child wonders if he was just not good enough. He wonders for a lifetime.
We have been hosting leadership breakfasts on the plight of the child in Jacksonville. The roots of so much of the crime in this country stem back to parents who abandon their children, hit their children or neglect them so badly that the child begins to believe he is bad, that he is capable of violence, that there is no compassion left in him. And it is a short walk from there to hatred and fear. It is as if the parents are telling the child, in ways deeper than words, that they are not good, that no one wants them. And once a child thinks he or she is not good, their life is hard to retrieve.
I know a woman who counsels men who have abused women. Her great gift that is from God is this - she is able to search for the goodness that lies deep inside the man. She is able to see beneath all the pain and violence and hurt to something more, some hint of goodness. And in her eyes, they can begin to see themselves as good. Healing occurs when they believe that they are good.
What happens in baptism is so simple, so primal, and so vital. God declares what was once true before the fall of mankind. God says that in Jesus, we are given names, we are claimed by God and we are good.
Today we baptize Hunter, Owen and Kristen. Today God declares them good. And all of you, every single one of you, is now called to see their goodness. Witness to it, call them to it. As they live their lives, as they make their choices, remind them of who they already are, who God calls them to be. Good.
Remember who you are. Any voices that tell you you are not good are not of God. God created you good and names you good in your baptism. Never forget that.
