Dear Lakeside,
Last Sunday, we continued our sermon series, Reset, by turning our attention to one of the most familiar yet surprising moments in the life of Jesus: his baptism in the Jordan River (Matthew 3:13–17). On Baptism of the Lord Sunday—the opening of the Epiphany season—we were invited to reset how we imagine God by looking closely at who God reveals himself to be in Jesus.
The sermon named a truth many of us recognize: we all carry mental pictures of God, shaped by childhood, culture, and experience. Sometimes those images are distorted—God as a harsh taskmaster with a checklist, an angry parent waiting to punish, or even a divine vending machine we try to manipulate. Drawing on humor, pop culture, and C. S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, we were reminded that a “small” image of God inevitably leads to a cramped, anxious faith.
Into those distortions steps Jesus at the Jordan. Traveling from Galilee to be baptized by John, Jesus does what honor and common sense say he shouldn’t: the greater submits to the lesser. His first recorded words in Matthew’s Gospel set the tone for his entire ministry—humility, obedience, and trust in the Father. In choosing baptism, Jesus identifies fully with humanity and fulfills the righteousness we cannot achieve on our own.
At the water’s edge, we glimpse the heart of God. The Spirit descends. The Father speaks: “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” What Jesus receives there is not only affirmation, but a foreshadowing of what is offered to us. In Christ, we are clothed in his righteousness and named beloved—not because we’ve earned it, but because he has fulfilled all things on our behalf.
The sermon closed with an invitation: to let go of impoverished images of God and to welcome the humble, incarnate Christ into every broken and hidden place of our lives. From that encounter, we are sent into the world as signs of peace, agents of healing, and bearers of love.
This Sunday, we continue the Reset series by turning the lens inward: Resetting Our Identity. If last week asked Who is God, really?, this week asks the natural follow-up: Who are we, in light of who God is? Join us as we explore how being named “beloved” reshapes how we see ourselves, one another, and the way we live in the world.
Grace and peace,
David Johnson
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