You would make me very nervous if you came to me and told me that God told you directly you were literally his Son. I bet I would make you nervous if I told you God told me, that with me he is well pleased. These are things God says to Jesus, the Chosen, the Anointed, the Christ, the Son of God. We can claim only a figurative share in that grandeur, as we can and do claim a figurative sonship. We are God's children, his sons and daughters, not naturally, but by grace. But there is something this morning said from heaven, said aloud by God that does apply to us, and we are probably just as reluctant to apply it to ourselves. Beloved. A voice, the voice of God comes from heaven on the day of our Lord's Baptism by John in the Jordan River, Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased. Natural "Son"? Not really. Naturally "well-pleasing" to God? Unlikely. But beloved, yes, we are beloved of God. While we may modestly demur from that, or self-consciously excuse our own selves, while yet agreeing to think that about others, Scripture gives us an invitation an encouragement -- actually Scripture gives us no other choice but -- to accept that, treasure it, rejoice in it and live our lives by it. We are beloved of God, beloved by God, we are his beloved. Beloved refers to a willful act, not just a haphazard feeling, and chosen -- clearly an act of will, a choosing, not just something that randomly happens. We are not then, beloved by accident or chance, much less, far less, by virtue of what we do or say, how we behave or misbehave, but by virtue of who he is, by virtue of his decision, his judgment. As we are reckoned righteous by him through our baptism, we are reckoned beloved by him through his grace. And this is all of his own free and gracious choosing, This is good news for us, but equally reassuringly good news for al around us, those who will meet us and deal with us and be dealt with by us. For while it is supremely reassuring to know and feel we are beloved by God, it is a bracing challenge to us in how we treat all around us, Those beloved by God, those beloved of God, his chosen , would, it seems to me, do and not do things both undertake and avoid actions that others might feel available to them, that we might have thought of as options for us before we ever noticed how beloved we are. So there must be, it seems, ways of treating others that depend on seeing ourselves as God's beloved. God's beloved do not dismiss or belittle others, or judge or condemn them, or treat shamefully or condescendingly. People who know they are beloved are secure and self-assured and God-assured enough to make room vast room for others failings and shortcomings, to help and assist when asked, to be discreet and soft-spoken or even silent when not asked or welcomed. Knowing feeling accepting and rejoicing that we are beloved should make us ever more expansive and embracing and inclusive, outgoing, generous, open-minded, with unafraid spirits and unthreatened hearts, ready to welcome and adjust and make room and space for others--all of them equally beloved and so as precious to us as they are to God. But a chill little warning as well, when we think of that other one, the first one, beloved by God, his Son, his chosen. Being beloved, beloved of God, beloved by God is not some magic talisman, some charm, some conjuring trick to keep heartache or hurt or even disaster at bay far from us. Beloved does not mean untroubled, untempted, unhurt. We need only to refer back regularly to the life of Jesus, the Beloved, the Chosen, to see something of what can be in store for those who are beloved and be aware of some of what might conceivably happen to us in some fashion. God's Beloved -- people like us -- are graced by the love of Christ, and also marked by the wounds of Christ, his Beloved, his Chosen. Did they know that glorious morning, John and Jesus both, that they would die violent deaths at the hands of the wicked? Jesus said of John: "None born of woman is greater than he", and John referred to Jesus as: "One who is greater than I". Both great, both beloved, the Prophet and the Christ, the fore-runner and the Redeemer, both rejected and executed, murdered really. These then were the Beloved. Is this, then, what it means, may entail, might involve, this being beloved by God? So then, Beloved lives might, must, include cancer, heart disease, and addiction, rejection and humiliation, injustice and oppression, loneliness and sadness, trumped-up trials by corrupt tribunals, and desertion, abandonment by friends, betrayals by those we trusted, chose, maybe even loved. St. Teresa, tossed into the mud as she set out from her convent to do good, famously, if testily, remarked to God: "If this is how you treat your friends, it is small wonder you have so few of them!" Being beloved does not insure us against being tossed in the mud when we seek only to be kind and good and helpful. It means the trust, the confidence, the security that we are noticed by God, regard by God, saved by God, upheld by God, preserved by God, sustained by God ... well, you know, beloved by God. No matter what, that must make it worth it.