Another year has begun.  Kids are back to school.  We are back to work.  As you go through the regular routine once again, does it get you down?  All the excitement of Christmas is over, and now it seems there’s nothing to look forward to anymore.  Kind of depressing.  Have you ever wondered if it’s possible to find joy in the regular tasks you do day in and day out?

Well, Christmas was “over” for Jesus too.  In fact, the excitement of his birth and trip to Egypt and growing up had all gone, and He was 30 years old.  I imagine there was some daily routine for Him as well.  Now He makes a long journey to John the Baptist to be baptized.  Now, why would someone who is sinless seek baptism which was specifically designed for repentance and forgiveness?  Jesus told John it was to “fulfill all righteousness.”  In other words, it was simply something Jesus had to do to be one of us.  Sure, it was below Him.  Sure, He didn’t need it.  But it was part of doing what He came to do.  And that would make his Father happy.

Today we remember Jesus’ baptism, the beginning of his ministry.  We also begin a message series about our life with Christ.  For Me to Live is Christ.  Today, we will focus on how we live for Christ In Our Daily Tasks.  How can we please God in our normal, everyday tasks?  How can we find happiness in the everyday normal routine of life? 

That isn’t where the world teaches us to look for happiness… A week before Christmas, a man in his sixties went into a toy shop and began looking around at the various displays.  He returned several times to a counter that featured a little train set.  He was fascinated by the great-sounding whistle that came from the engine as the train scurried around the track.  Finally, he said to the clerk: “I’ll take one.”  The clerk responded, “Your grandson will love it.”  “Then I’ll take two,” the man replied.  It’s one thing to take two.  But it’s quite another thing to take toys, whether little-boy train sets or big-boy Hummers, as the measure of happiness.

Every commercial, in one form or another, seduces us with the notion that money can buy happiness.  You want to be happy?  Buy that car, wear those jeans.  Consumption brings happiness.  The advertising world works around the clock to figure out how they can evangelize us with the message that money buys happiness.

And nice things bring happiness.  Did you hear that India’s richest man, 50-year-old Mukesh Ambani, is building a house for his family in Mumbai?  It’s only 60 stories high.  Of course, it does include accommodations for his servants and staff… all 600 of them.

Or have you seen pictures of the Burg Al Arab?  It perches like a huge glass sail off the coast of Jumeirah Beach in Dubai.  This seven-star hotel rises out of the sea, constructed on an entirely man-made island over 900 feet from shore.  A “cheap” room will run you about $2000/night –eating in the restaurant where you arrive in a simulated submarine will cost another $1500 or so.  The Burg Al Arab is obviously a playground for the super-rich.  But since there are now almost a thousand billionaires in the world, millions of millionaires in the US (3 million to be exact!) and about 10 million millionaires in the world, it might start to get a little crowded! 

Then where will the super-rich go? Does more always make you happier?  Is more always better?  Is the most expensive always the “best” you can get?  Here is a sign of our time: those who keep track of “luxury trends” are finding that as more and more people can afford plasma TVs and designer clothes, “luxury stuff” doesn’t get you the biggest bang for your buck any more.  Why?  Because “luxury” has become the new norm!  A few years ago, having a video player in the car was only for the very rich.  But the Boxing Day sales this year had car dealers “throwing in” DVD entertainment systems in all their cars at no extra charge!

Check out some of the magazines for the super rich.  What the super-rich now need to feel super-special is not “stuff,” but one-of-a-kind uncommon experiences.  Some examples of things offered in these magazines:  **Being coached on how to be a rock-and-roll singer by Roger Daltry of “The Who” – complete with a finished CD, a live performance, and a movie-DVD you can send to all your friends as a Christmas greeting.  Another one:  ** Blasting out into space and seeing the world from a never-before perspective on one of the new “spaceliners” being developed by British Richard Branson and his Virgin Group Voyagers.  After all, how many people can claim to have seen the sunrise 15 times in a day, or felt the freedom of weightlessness?  Or this one:  **Buying your own heaven.  Computer-generated virtual worlds programmed to offer us “virtual heaven,” a place where we can experience “God’s presence” or at least a virtual god – without having any ethical mandates to bother with!

Friends, purchased experiences, no matter how glamorous, no matter how dream-fulfilling they may be, can never measure up to the reality of what brings true happiness, true joy, true bliss, into our lives!  Neither money nor the one-of-a-kind experiences that money can buy, do NOT, I repeat, NOT bring happiness!

Think about this:  when was the first time you felt happy?  As a baby, it was when your mother fed you, when your father held you.  In their arms you felt loved and safe and nurtured.  But as infants grow to toddlers, there is a new kind of happiness children experience:  the joy of pleasing those parents.  How many times have you seen a grubby little hand hold out to Mom or Dad a bedraggled flower, a half-eaten cookie, a slightly smushed bug?  As the parents exclaim pleasure over the treasure they have been offered, the child grins.  That is true happiness.  Pleasing those whom we love and feeling their love and appreciation.

Today, we witness Jesus’ baptism.  And we wonder: why did Jesus have to be baptized?  We were baptized because we need the forgiveness of sins, and to be brought into God’s family!  Jesus didn’t need that.  The baptism of Jesus is, in a basic sense, about happiness.  Jesus travels a long way to John to be baptized by him in order to “fulfill all righteousness.”  In other words, Jesus wanted to do what was right in the eyes of his Father.  Jesus does not need forgiveness of sins.  Jesus does not need to re-establish a right relationship with God or be brought into his family.  He is already part of that family and enjoys a perfect relationship with the Father.

But here, in the opening scene of Jesus’ public ministry, Jesus performs a simple act of obedience that would bring pleasure and happiness to both Father and Son.  God does not declare that Jesus is the one whom He is well pleased with because Jesus aced his bar mitzvah or mastered the craft of carpentry!  God is “well pleased” because Jesus did what He wanted Him to do!  He obeyed his Father.  He showed that He is his Father’s Son.  The Beloved.  Willing to do whatever task his Father asks Him to carry out, even a mundane one.

We are children of God!  We are sons and daughters of the awesome God!  We have a divine Parent watching and guiding us and loving us with an overflowing love!  God sent Jesus here in the first place to forgive us, to set us at peace with Him, to make us part of his family.  So since we are part of this family, it is really when we please our Heavenly Parent, our Eternal Father, that we gain ultimate happiness in our life!  He has given us eternal happiness in Jesus!

So you want to be happy?  You don’t need a night at the Burg Al Arab.  Experience the joy of pleasing God!  This is the happiness for which you and I were created!  This is the happiness beyond any price tag, an experience of happiness that cannot be purchased or squeezed into a “once-in-a-lifetime” event.  You want to be happy?  Serve God by carrying out your every day, routine tasks in a faithful, loving way that honours Him! 

That’s right!  Go to school and be happy.  Because what you are doing pleases God.  Go to work on Monday morning and find joy in it.  Because you are making God happy.  Clean up the mess your toddler made and smile.  Because God is smiling too, when He sees your love in action.  Help your neighbour shovel his driveway.  God is pleased with you, his beloved child!  Help that person at work.  When you know how happy that makes your heavenly Father, you will find joy in that too!  Others might wonder how you can be happy with your old TV and broken down car, but you will find happiness when you simply carry out your daily tasks to say thank you to Him.  Wanna be happy?  Please God!  Try it!

Sometimes we feel nothing is really special in our lives.  What is our purpose?  We get up, eat, go to work, come home, sleep.  Maybe you run the kids from one place to another or deal with the constant barrage of unexpected demands.  What are you getting out of it?  Where is it going?  Who even cares?  God does.  It pleases Him!  Let that make you happy!

Our purpose is lived out in the tasks God gives us.  Genesis 2:15 says: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work and care for it.”  Everything Adam and Eve did in caring for the garden was part of their calling.  But today, when we think about “jobs” or “work,” it doesn’t seem so spiritual or lofty, does it?  Just the mention of “Monday morning” probably makes you cringe.  It’s the day we have to return to work after a weekend of freedom.  Back to doing the same old same old.  What was meant to be a joy now seems like a struggle!  Adam and Eve’s disobedient actions in Eden set off this negative chain reaction.  That’s our problem: Starting with Adam and Eve, we haven’t wanted to do what God wants us to do!  And now, our tasks are laced with pain and weariness.  That isn’t the way it is supposed to be.

But God gave us a second chance through Jesus.  Isn’t it comforting to know that our standing with God isn’t based on how faithful we have been in carrying out our daily tasks?  It is based on how faithful Jesus was in carrying out his daily tasks – from his Baptism to suffering on the cross!  He did all that for us.  And how can we thank Him?  By doing what He asks us to do.  Serving Him.  Carrying out our daily tasks.  Serving our family members, our neighbours, our community, and our church.  Whether setting up chairs or witnessing Christ to someone or teaching Bible study.  All are pleasing to God and carry out his purpose!

Here, in study and worship, we grow in understanding what God has made us to be in the world.  Then at the closing blessing, the church commissions her priests – each one of us – into the frenzy of the customer sales, the crunch of office cubicles, the sweat of manufacturing, classrooms and grocery stores, barns and doctor’s offices.  Every one of us is valuable for doing the tasks that God has prepared in advance for us to do – no matter how small or insignificant they may seem.

Life makes sense when we accept our valuable place in his plan.  Our daily tasks aren’t about our success or comfort, but about something bigger – displaying his grace to others so they too might believe.  Ephesians 2:7: “In order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”  With that big picture in mind, we have really one job description no matter what the task: “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.” (1 Pet.2:12).  Did your tasks do that this past week?  In the morning, before all of life rushes at you, spend some time in quiet prayer grasping your calling in the daily tasks ahead of you.  Throughout your day in everything you do at home, work, church, and community, let this be in the prayer of your heart: “Let this task be lived for You, Jesus.”   Amen.