Last week, I sat beside Reverend Dave Stewart as he shared what he remembered as significant in his life. I heard him articulate that it wasn’t necessarily what he did as a pastor in the church, but it was what he did alongside people outside the church who lived lives on the margins. He considered those were the things that really mattered.

Dave knew what was at stake for people. I heard several of you tell the story that everywhere Dave went he knew people’s names and recognized everyone as a person of worth.

Today we read the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel that doesn't begin with a birth story.

There are no angels, no shepherds, no Magi. Mark introduces Jesus not as a vulnerable baby but coming into the world as an adult ready for ministry and ready to be linked with people of all stripes.

John the Baptizer was on edge of town in a wilderness of sorts, preaching a baptism of repentance. Jesus showed up and stood in line with those from the Judean countryside. The scripture says they were going to John to be baptized, confessing their sins. Jesus had no public reputation yet. He stood among the people, many of whom were of questionable reputations that came in the hope that being baptised by John would turn their lives around.

Mark’s account doesn’t have the details of the other baptism stories. John does say that he is not worthy of baptising Jesus, indicating he knew who Jesus was. The details of the baptism only describe the aftereffects: the heavens opening, the spirit descending like a dove, and the voice that said, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

I see something radically different today than what I’ve seen before. It is significant that Jesus stood beside people we might say he had nothing in common with. In Jesus’ baptism, he wasn’t baptised as an act of repentance. He was baptised alongside others in unity with them as partners in the work he would begin.

As Jesus stood on the bank of the Jordan, he heard God’s affirming call that he was indeed God’s Son, the Beloved. All those who entered the waters of baptism that day heard for themselves that God was present for them as well. Like Jesus, they were being summoned into a partnership of belonging.

On this day of remembering our baptism, the fact is most of us don’t remember our baptism. Might it be more significant for us to see baptism as God’s invitation to join in His risky venture? Jesus knew the risk of the challenges he would face in his ministry. We know from accounts of Jesus’ life following his baptism that he challenged those who wanted to maintain the status quo and protect tradition as they interpreted it.

Jesus calls those who follow him to face the same challenge to leave our comfort zones and give up our certainties about faith and the church. Have we in the church forgotten what is most important and what is most at stake. Have we forgotten what we have been called to be in partnership about?

In Acts, the Apostle Paul encounters new disciples. He asked them if they received the Holy Spirit when they became believers. They replied they didn’t know anything about the Holy Spirit.

He asked them, well, why were you baptised? We were baptised because we wanted to follow John the Baptist. It was because of his reputation and his charisma that we were baptised.

And Paul said, “John baptised with the baptism of repentance, telling them to believe in the one who would come after him.” Then the people were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus and after that the Holy Spirit came upon them.

Our partnership with God is marked by God’s Presence with us at our own baptism which clearly states, “You indeed are MY BELOVED CHILDREN.” You are not alone in the muddle of ministry, when we are not able to articulate what we are called to do. We are called and challenged not to know all the answers but to trust God’s guidance. We are reminded when our hearts are broken, the Holy Spirit’s blanket covers us and says, you are My Beloved and you are not alone.

It doesn’t matter that I don’t remember my baptism in detail. What is significant is the image of God coming and entering my life in a pivotal moment and saying I want to partner with you. I’m not an adjunct, I’m not a dangling participle, I am a partner. I know that has changed my perspective this week. as I sat by Dave Stewart, hearing his stories told by him, hearing the stories of his family, and the stories told by people of St.

Andrew’s of the things he did and said and the lives that he influenced. He is a living example for me of God moving along beside him and saying these are risky ventures, these are things that count and that really matter.

Our baptism calls us to risky ventures with the assurance that in all we are partners with God and not majority owners in this life we live.