You Are God's Beloved by Cheri Holdridge (with an assist by Patti Lusher)

I remember the first Sunday Rock came to The Village. I learned later that he came because his son said, “You’re going to The Village Church today. I heard about it from someone at work and I think you’ll like it.” That first Sunday Rock could not look anyone in the eye. He spoke in a soft, tentative voice, betraying his lack of trust. Rock told me later that he did not think we could be for real. Christians are all fakes. No one could really be this kind and sincere. But that night my mom called Rock. My mom is so sweet; how can you be suspicious of my mom? Rock began to soften.

Fast forward a year.  Rock met Beth. They fell in love. They two of them came to church. They got married. I remember their wedding day. It was such a day of blessing. Rock had become a totally different person: outgoing and happy. Rock can look you in the eye now. Oh sure, they still have their ups and downs. Rock has had some health problems. But this church has changed Rock.

Rock knows one thing because of this church. Rock knows that he is God’s beloved child. And that makes all the difference in the world.

That’s the one message I want to leave with you. This is my last Sunday as your pastor. If there is only one message I can get through to you after eight years of being the pastor of The Village, I want it to be this: “You are God’s Beloved Child.” You are precious. You are unique. God made you and God loves you just the way you are. Period.

Jesus heard that message on his baptism day. He went down to the Jordan River where John was baptizing people. He asked John to baptize him. At first John was hesitant. John said that Jesus should baptize him. But Jesus insisted. So John baptized Jesus. And scripture says: “When Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. ¹⁷ And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’”

         God claimed Jesus as God’s beloved child. And God said, “I’m pleased with you.” So this is the promise that we receive in our baptism too. We are each claimed as a beloved child of God. In our church, we hold baptism as a sacrament, a sacred event. We believe that once you receive the grace of the Holy Spirit in your baptism, nothing can reverse that gift. You can’t do something horrible, and then lose the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is always with you once you are baptized. The grace of God is always at work in your life. You can run away from God, but God never runs away from you. God lives inside of you. I tell children that the water of baptism is like an invisible tattoo, telling you that you are a child of God. 

Henri Nouwen is one of my favorite spiritual writers and he has written a whole book about being beloved children of God, called Life of the Beloved. He wrote the book for a friend of his named Fred who was not a Christian. The friend wanted Henri to write a book for him and his friends about his faith. I want to read to you some sections of that book that I think are the most powerful:

“Fred, all I want to say to you is ‘You are the Beloved,’ and all I hope is that you can hear these words as spoken to you with all the tenderness and force that love can hold. My only desire is to make these words reverberate in every corner of your being – ‘You are the Beloved.’ 

“….Yes there is that voice, the voice that speaks from above and from within and that whispers softly or declares loudly: ‘You are my Beloved, on you my favor rests.’ It certainly is not easy to hear that voice in a world filled with voices that shout: ‘You are no good, you are ugly; you are worthless; you are despicable, you are nobody – unless you can demonstrate the opposite.’

“These negative voices are so loud and so persistent that it is easy to believe them. That’s the great trap. It is the trap of self-rejection. Over the years I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity or power, but self-rejection…. As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone or abandoned, I find myself thinking: ‘Well, that proves once again that I am a nobody.’ Instead of taking a critical look at the circumstances or trying to understand my own and others’ limitations, I tend to blame myself – not just for what I did, but for who I am. My dark side says: ‘I am no good…I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected and abandoned.’ (Life of the Beloved, pp. 26-27)

“That soft, gentle voice that calls me the Beloved has come to me in countless ways. My parents, friends, teachers, students and the many strangers who crossed my path have all sounded that voice in different tones. I have been cared for by many people with much tenderness and gentleness….I have been encouraged to keep going when I was ready to give up and was stimulated to try again when I failed. I have been rewarded and praised for success…but, somehow, all of these signs of love were not sufficient to convince me that I was the Beloved. Beneath all my seemingly strong self-confidence there remained the question: ‘If all those who shower me with so much attention could see me and know me in my innermost self, would they still love me?’ 

“….Well, you and I don’t have to kill ourselves. We are the Beloved. We are intimately loved long before our parents, teachers, spouses, children and friends loved or wounded us. That’s the truth I want you to claim for yourself. That’s the truth spoken by the voice that says, ‘You are my Beloved.’

“Listening to that voice with great inner attentiveness, I hear at my center words that say: ‘I have called you by name, from the very beginning. You are mine and I am yours. You are my Beloved, on you my favor rests. I have molded you in the depths of the earth and knitted you together in your mother’s womb. I have carved you in the palms of my hands and hidden you in the shadow of my embrace …I have counted every hair on your head and guided you at every step. Wherever you go, I go with you, and wherever you rest, I keep watch. . . . I am your father, your mother, your brother, your sister, your lover and your spouse. . . yes, even your child. . . wherever you are I will be. Nothing will ever separate us. We are one.’

“Every time you listen with great attentiveness to the voice that calls you the Beloved, you will discover within yourself a desire to hear that voice longer and more deeply. It is like discovering a well in the desert. Once you have touched wet ground, you want to dig deeper.” (Life of the Beloved, pp. 30-31.)

I wanted to read you so much of Henri Nouwen’s writing about being the beloved because I think he has such insight into how we can claim our belovedness. The great trap really is self-rejection. In my counseling, as a pastor, I see this over and over again. People don’t believe they are loveable. They say, “God can love anyone except me. I just don’t feel worthy.” But here’s the great thing. We don’t have to be worthy. We don’t have to earn God’s love. God just gives it to us. It’s a free gift. That’s why we call it grace. 

So my friends, receive God’s love. Don’t question it. Don’t overthink it. Just be grateful. You are blessed. You are a gift. You are God’s beloved child. Amen.