Baptism of the Lord, Year B
Lectionary Scripture: Genesis 1:1-5 (NRSV)
I love water as it comes in its many forms. Since we've been suspending in-person worship lately, I've even been able to enjoy snowfall on a Sunday morning for the first time in many years (I'm usually too worried about attendance to appreciate it).
As a very young child, I remember the fun of playing in the ocean waves - you learn the rhythm of the waves and then find out that a surprise big wave can always turn you upside-down! It's only fun until it washes your sand pail away! I remember standing in clear salt water up to my shoulders and peering with wonder at little fish nibbling on me.
Our neighbors had a pool and I almost drowned in it. I was almost six years old and had gone next door to admire it. My neighbor was younger and smaller than me. When I told him I couldn't swim, he couldn't believe it because he knew how. So he pushed this obvious liar into the deep end. There were no other adults present. I can remember looking at the surface and thrashing with panic. Fortunately, he reached out and was able to grab my hand and pull me out. My mother enrolled me in swimming lessons after hearing what happened.
I didn't mind and loved to swim. I would do it at every opportunity. I can remember swimming as a kid in motel pools even when it was cold outside. Once in particular, we were in Wichita and I was swimming and shivering and my mother was not in the water but was watching me, fully clothed. It was kind of windy and she was chilly too. She kept asking me if I wanted to go inside. "Are you done, yet?"
My dad always used to love to float on his back in the ocean. It was very Zen for him and I enjoy doing it today when I get the chance. It often allows me to feel connected to God in a way that connects me to the entire created order.
Water is a part of who we are. We are made of water. As an adult male, about 60% of my body consists of water. It's kind of mundane, really. Water is the free option at restaurants and many see it as meh.
But there is a sense of the sacred about water. We've been washing our hands more than usual this last year with an effort to clean ourselves of deadly germs. The washing for cleanliness is done symbolically within baptism. Within the Christian Year, the more liturgical congregations will observe the Baptism of Jesus this Sunday (known as the Baptism of the Lord Sunday if you speak church geek). The second verse in the whole Bible gives us the marvelous phrase, "a wind from God swept over the face of the waters." Within Hebrew (the original language of Genesis), wind can also be translated as breath or spirit.
As we remember our baptisms, we see that this takes us back to the very beginning of creation. In a sense, when we are baptized, it allows us to start a new life, as if we were starting from the very beginning ourselves. The waters of baptism are sacred because in this moment, we recognize that God is the one blessing us. We are not blessed because we have earned our place. We are blessed because God loves life. This is evident in the resurrection which defines us as Christians.
This blessing connects us. It allows us to see water, at least in the moment, not as mundane but as sacred. And this connects us to God and to the entire created order.
Join us on Sunday (or sometime after) for our online worship service as we remember our baptism together. I hope that it will be powerful for you.
In Christ,
Sam
The picture is of Smith Falls State Park in Nebraska. I love to hike to water falls and took this picture over the summer. I thought it captured a sense of the sacred.
All scripture quoted is from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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