Baptism of the Lord, Year C, 13-01-12

Is 40:1-5, 9-11/ Tit 2:11-14, 3:4-7/ Lk 3:15-16, 21-22                              

Everyday about 366,000 copies of The Straits Times are printed, distributed and of course read by Singaporeans.

Although the circulation is only 366,000 copies, yet The Straits Times has the highest readership in Singapore.

But whether it is The Straits Times or just newspapers in general, they contain more than just news.

There are articles of interest, pictures, comic strips, announcements, obituaries and of course there are advertisements.

Especially during this festive period of Christmas, followed by Chinese New Year, there are more than the usual advertisements of sales and offers.

Advertising is a big business. Not only the presentation of the product is slick, the models that accompany the product are also glamourous, good-looking and always smiling.

And with Chinese New Year coming up, one advertisement that we will certainly see in newspapers and in other forms of media will be “bak kua” (BBQ sweet meat).

How can there be Chinese New Year without bak kua. Bak Kua is a must for Chinese New Year!

In the bak kua advertisement, there will be a model holding a piece of bak kua. Of course, she is pretty, fair with long hair and smiling away.

The impression that is given is that if you eat this brand of bak kua, you will be like the model, looking pretty and looking happy too.

Yes, that is the impression that the advertisement gives. Anyway, advertisements is about impressions, isn’t it.

In order to sell a product, the advertisements will impress upon us that we need it, and need it badly and desperately.

So, they will tell us that we need this latest smart phone or this latest gadget or we will be out of touch with the world around us.

They will tell us to take this brand of supplement or we will not be healthy or even get afflicted with some disease.

They will tell us to go for this diet or beauty program because we are fat and out of shape.

They will tell us to use this facial cream because we are not good-looking enough or even downright ugly.

And about the bak kua advertisement, if we eat enough of it, we will be happy and even pretty like the model in the advertisement.

But sadly enough, no matter how much bak kua we eat, we won’t be that happy, because we will get a sore throat.

And we won’t be looking pretty either, because pimples will begin to sprout out on the face.

Yet, we will fall into the enticement of these advertisements, because they stir the envy that is lurking within us.

Envy makes us unhappy. We feel that we are not good enough, not pretty enough, not clever enough, not rich enough.

In short, we feel we are just “not enough”. And so we give in to the impressions that the advertisement create.

Today, as we celebrate the baptism of the Lord, we are reminded that Jesus was baptized, not because He has to be cleansed of some sin.

In fact, Jesus was baptized so that He can become like us in all things but sin!

And at His baptism, a great revelation was proclaimed by the voice from heaven: You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rest on you.

And that was enough for Jesus. To know that the Father loves Him, that He is God’s beloved, that was enough.

And for us who are baptized, we are called Christians because we are baptized into the person of Christ.

And in Christ, we too are God’s beloved and God’s favour rest on us too. And that should be enough.

Yes, that should be enough. Yet, the sin of envy comes along and tells us that we need more, that we don’t have enough.

And that becomes more obvious when we are aware that we are lacking in something, whether materially or physically or emotionally.

There is this true story of an 8-year old Katrina Simpkins, who was born with PFFD (proximal femoral focal deficiency), which is a rare birth defect that affects the pelvis and the hip-bone.

The defect may affect one side or both, with the hip being deformed and the leg shortened.

For Katrina, one of her legs was deformed so she had to hobble around with an artificial leg.

Being physically handicapped, she was also made fun of in school, and as a result she was emotionally withdrawn and became depressed.

All that changed when she met a dolphin by the name of Winter when she visited the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida.

Winter was a special dolphin. As a baby, she lost her tail when she was rescued from a fishing trap.

She was used as an object lesson by the aquarium to create awareness of how humans can harm the wildlife.

Then a Dr. Dan from a prosthetic clinic decided to design an artificial tail for Winter, although it had never been done before.

It was that prosthetic tail that made an impact on Katrina. She and Winter began to bond, and she began to believe that she had a place in this world.

Katrina went from being an introverted little girl to a bubbly advocate for Winter. She was quoted as saying, “I felt good that a dolphin was just like me.”

And in 2008, the same Dr. Dan also designed Winter’s prosthetic tail, who designed a new prosthetic leg for Katrina.

An amazing story of how a handicapped dolphin helped a handicapped girl find her place in this world.

They were lacking in something yet eventually they found everything.

Most of us have almost everything but the media and the world around us give us that impression that we are lacking in something, that we are not good enough, not pretty enough, not clever enough, not rich enough.

Jesus came among us and He went about doing good and caring for all who had fallen into the power of the devil and to restore the image of God in us.

And through His baptism, Jesus is also telling us this, “You are God’s beloved, His favour rests on you.”

Just as God loves Jesus, God also loves us so that there is nothing lacking in us.

Yes, God loves us with an everlasting love, and that is enough for us, more than enough for us.

And just as Jesus went about doing good and sharing God’s love with others, let us also do likewise.