The Pearl without Price

PROPERS:          1 EPIPHANY, YEAR C

TEXT:                LUKE 3:15-17, 21-22             

PREACHED AT ST. PAUL’S CHAPEL, MAGNOLIA SPRINGS, ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 9, 2022.

Preached at 8:30 a.m. only. The Blessing of a Civil Marriage

was done at 10:30 a.m.

 

ONE SENTENCE:        Baptism is a gift, lying nascent in one’s life until it flowers into the gift of faith later in life.

 

            What is your reaction when you receive a completely unexpected gift?

 

            That was the question that was raised by the Golden Age of television’s CBS series named The Millionaire.  Some of you will recall it.  I am told it is available even today in syndication.

 

            The storyline revolved around an ultra-wealthy recluse named J. Beresford Tipton. The wealthy man would secretly dispatch his special assistant, Michael Anthony, to deliver an anonymous tax-free gift of $1 million to an unsuspecting, random person each week.  In today’s dollars, that would have been a tax-free gift of $9.2 million.

 

            The only requirement was that the beneficiary had to agree never try to identify the giver, and to never contact him.

 

            The dramatic tension in the series was how the gift was received (or not), and the impact of the gift on the life of the recipient.  And the recipient was always someone who could benefit from such a generous, anonymous gift.

 

            The consistent theme in The Millionaire was the utter surprise the recipients felt at the gift.  The gift of $1 million, tax-free, was astounding to all of them – some even to the point of disbelief.  That sum transformed many lives… except those who would not accept it.

 

+ + + 

 

            It’s not a precise analogy, but it’s close enough.

 

            Today is the First Sunday after the Epiphany, also known as the Baptism of Jesus.  This is one of the greatest and most appropriate days for baptism.  We are acknowledging that fact with the Renewal of our baptismal vows in just a few moments.

 

            But baptism can be like that cashier’s check from J. Beresford Tipton.  In a very real sense, the magnitude of the grace and love which we receive at our baptisms is breathtaking.  In gospel language, it is a pearl without price.

 

            But many of us do not know how to receive it. We are not aware of its value.  And even when we are old enough to understand – on some level – the gift we have received, we do not accept it.  Life goes on unchanged.  The riches of the gift are there, but we allow them to lay nascent in the recesses of our spirit.

 

            Here’s the good news.

 

            Just like the Prodigal Son, we may wander to figurative foreign lands.  We may squander the riches we have inherited. We may reach the point where we yearn for home and for stability – and to be embraced by something greater than ourselves.

 

            That’s the point at which we can “cash the check.” The riches which have laid nascent for so long… the gift that we did not know how to receive… becomes available to us. And like the theologian Paul Tillich wrote many years ago, we hear the grace-filled words, “You are accepted.”

 

            Like the prodigal son, the wealth of baptism and our joining with the saints, comes cascading down on us and we come to grasp the wonderful gift we have received.

 

            We don’t have to await the arrival of J. Beresford Tipton’s agent at our door. The riches are awaiting you now.