the Pursuit of Happyness

from my message on Baptism of the Lord Sunday, Jan. 13, 2013, from Isaiah 43:1-7, Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

(video clip from the Pursuit of Happyness where Chris Gardner tells his son, "If you have a dream, you can't let anybody take it from you; you gotta protect it)

Do you have a dream?  Israel had almost forgotten God's dream for them.  They had been in captivity in a foreign land, not just for days, or years, but decades and generations.  They had almost forgotten their worth in God's eyes.  They had almost forgotten God's movement in their lives.

But now, in this part of Isaiah, they are coming home.  And the passage begins, "But now," as God says, "I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, and you are mine."  God says that they can "Fear not," that God will protect them through fire and water.

Is it because Israel deserves this?  Is it because they have worked hard to earn it?  Or because they are good enough?  No!  God says, and this is the message I want you to take home, "Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you." 

I had read this passage many times.  I had studied it, but I had not really heard it, gotten it in my soul, until many years ago when I heard Cecil Williams preach on it at Ministers' Week at my seminary, Perkins in Dallas.  Cecil is native Texan, from San Angelo.  He went to school here in Austin, at Huston-Tillotson.  He went to Perkins for his theological degree.  He came back here to Austin to be a chaplain at Huston-Tillotson.  But where he made his mark was at Glide Memorial UMC in San Francisco.   Now, this was not a plum appointment.  It was in the Tenderloin District.  It was where if you wanted to buy drugs, you would go there.  Or to sell your body for drugs, you would go there.  If you were homeless, that's where you hung out.  Cecil saw it as a great mission field.  He reached out to all kinds of people and welcomed them at Glide.  He preached good news to the poor.  And they heard it.  He told them about a God, who said, "Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you."  The church grew and grew.  On the same pew, you could find a bank president and a prostitute.  You could find a captain of industry and a homeless person.  Lives were being changed by the gospel.  Cathy and I went to worship there when we were vacationing in California, many years before I heard Cecil at Ministers' Week.

So Cecil was preaching to all of us stuffy preachers at Ministers' Week in the big auditorium at SMU.  He was trying to give us his context for ministry.  He told about a man who came to worship with KKK tatooed on his forehead.  You know what KKK stands for.  I may not have told you that Cecil is African-American.  This man was so full of racism and hatred.  He would spew and vent at Cecil, even during worship.  Can you imagine that here?  Someone shouting insults at me while I was trying to lead worship?
Cecil said, "I preached the KKK right off that man's forehead!"  We forget the kind of power we have.  Now, I believe in psychology.  I often refer people to mental health professionals.  I even believe in politics.  I know that operate in systems of power, that we need to work together to enact laws, and that we need to address problems together.  But Church, we have another kind of power.  We have a God, who says to us, "Because you are precious in my sight and honored, and I love you."  That message changes people's lives.

What does the movie the Pursuit of Happyness have to do with all this?  Chris Gardner came to Cecil Williams and Glide for help.  Cecil has a cameo role in the movie.  Glide was known to provide 3,000 meals a day ( you do the math of how many per year).  They were the primary provider of social services for San Francisco.  They had adult ed. courses, 12 step groups, abuse recovery groups, and housing for the homeless.  That's why Chris came.  He had invested his money in some bone density machines, that were 10% better than x-ray machines, but cost twice as much.  He was trying to sell them, but nobody was buying.  His wife was working double shifts at a laundry.  They got further and further behind in their bills.  The car was towed.  They got evicted from their apartment.  The wife/mother left.  Chris and his son were homeless on the streets of San Francisco.  Chris went to Glide and Cecil.  Glide couldn't help. But Cecil sent Chris to another shelter that could.  Chris got an opportunity to become a stockbroker intern.

You are bothered by that spelling of "Happyness."  In the opening scenes of the movie, Chris is dropping off his son at his daycare.  Right outside is another shop that has the word "Happyness" in the store's name.  It is owned my a person of foreign ancestry who doesn't speak English.  Chris tells the man to correct the spelling.  The shop owner simply replies in a stream of unintelligible words.  At the end of the movie, Chris gets a full time job as a stockbroker.  The bosses ask him if he is happy.  He cries.  He goes to his son's daycare past the shop with "Happyness," and hugs his son. 

Please understand this:  that as much as you may be pursuing "happyness," God is pursuing you and your "happyness" even more.  All God wants to say to you is, "Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you."  God wants you as an individual, of course, but also, all y'all.  God is welcoming people from the north, and south, and east, and west.  Sons and daughters are being drawn from afar.  God's love is fierce, never gives up.  God is pursuing us. God only wants our deepest "happyness."

God's pursuit of us is shown in Jesus' baptism.  Jesus doesn't need to be baptized.  He has no sin that needs to be cleansed.  He is not going the wrong direction and needs to repent, literally, "to turn around."  Jesus is baptized to join us in our sin, our brokenness, our pain.  God meets us where we are in Jesus.  And Jesus needs to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit as he begins his ministry, "You are my son, the beloved one, with whom I am well pleased."  But we may need to hear it even more, "You are my child, the beloved one, with whom I am well pleased."

It is the same message we got from God in Isaiah, "Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you."

Can you accept that about yourself?  Can you claim your identity in your baptism?  If so, then can you see that God has that desire for others, for everyone?  That God only wants our deepest "happyness."  The good news is what God says about us, "Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you."