The Rev Canon Melanie Lemburg
St. Barnabas-Foreman, AR
The Last Sunday after the Epiphany-Year A
February 15, 2026
A letter to Kendyl Jo Ellis upon the occasion of her baptism.
Dear Kendyl,
Today is an exciting day in your life and in the life of the Church! Today is the day when you will be baptized, and in and through your baptism, you will become an official member of the body of Christ, an official member of this church. Today is also a day that has profound implications on how you will be raised and how you hopefully choose to live the rest of your life.
In your baptism, your family and godparents are acknowledging a deep truth about who you are. They are recognizing that at your very creation, God knew you, loved you into being, and claimed you as God’s beloved.
There is nothing that you can ever do, sweet Kendyl, to change that. You are and always will be God’s beloved. And today, your family and godparents are saying “yes” to God; they are accepting your status as God’s beloved, your very belovedness, on your behalf.
You might be wondering (in that sweet little head of yours), “What does it mean to be God’s beloved? Your belovedness has echoes and meaning in Jesus’s own life. We see Jesus being claimed as God’s beloved in his own baptism (which we read about way back in January). When he rises up out of the water after his baptism by John, Matthew tells us “a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” And we are reminded of this encounter in our gospel reading again today. Jesus and a few of his closest disciples have gone up the mountain to pray together, when he becomes transfigured, changed and charged in a dazzling light. They see the figures of Moses and Elijah with him, a bright cloud comes and overshadows them all, and a voice speaks from the cloud saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” Jesus reassures his disciples, tells them not to be afraid and not to tell anyone, and then he heads down the mountain where he begins preparing to face his death in Jerusalem.
It is in both Jesus’s life and in his death that we find what it means to be God’s beloved, what it looks like to live life as God’s beloved. Jesus’s life is shaped by prayer and worship, both in solitude and in community; in the reading and study of scripture; in proclaiming the good news, that the Kingdom of God has come near, and doing his part to offer healing and reconciliation as his work in God’s kingdom. He spends time with all different sorts of people, and especially with the people who were the most sick, the most lost, the most forgotten, the most marginalized. And he is not afraid to speak truth to power. Jesus gives up his life in death, in a pure act of self-giving love; and in his death, he proves that God’s love is stronger than absolutely anything, even death. In his death, he opens for us the way for resurrection and new life. And this is what you are being baptized into this day as well. It is an essential part of what it means to be God’s beloved.
Sweet Kendyl, as your family says yes to your belovedness, they are promising to teach you about this way of Jesus and to help you learn how to live your life in similar fashion.
It is demanding work, living this life as God’s beloved. Which is why you have all of us. Each one of us is promising to support you as you live your life as God’s beloved, and you will support us as well. We need each other to do this. Because there will be times when your belovedness overcomes you like a blinding light, and sometimes, your belovedness will shimmer softly, just under the surface. And sometimes you will need our help in holding up a mirror before you so you can see it. We promise we will help you remember your belovedness; just as you will help us remember ours.
Because, sweet Kendyl, every single person God has ever created is also God’s beloved. No matter what. That is also the truth of our baptism. Today, we all will also reaffirm the promises that we will live our lives in a way that reflects our understanding of every person’s belovedness as well. This means loving our neighbors as ourselves; it means seeking and serving Christ in all persons. It means respecting the dignity of every human being, and striving for justice and peace among all people.
Every single day of our lives, we are faced with choices about how we will treat people, how we will recognize and honor each person we encounter as God’s beloved. Sometimes this choice shows up as a clear invitation between right and wrong, and sometimes it shows up in the quiet, daily persistence of being faithful. Each one of us is called to live our lives in a way that reflects the truth of both our own belovedness as well as the belovedness of others, all together in the heart of God.
May you never forget that you are God’s beloved, and may you live your life with joy and hope resting in the knowledge of your belovedness.
Your sister in Christ,
Melanie+
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