Isaiah 42:1-9, Acts 10:34-43, Matthew 3:13-17
The people along the sand
All turn and look one way.
They turn their back on the land.
They look at the sea all day.
As long as it takes to pass
A ship keeps raising its hull;
The wetter ground like glass
Reflects a standing gull.
The land may vary more;
But wherever the truth may be--
The water comes ashore,
And the people look at the sea.
They cannot look out far.
They cannot look in deep.
But when was that ever a bar
To any watch they keep?
This poem by Robert Frost (Neither Out Far Nor In Deep) rings so true. There is something about water, something that draws us in. How many of us have sat on a shore and gazed out on the lake, or the ocean, or the sea? Water is mesmerizing in a storm, it is calming in the repetition of the tide, it is peaceful in its stillness. Its vastness suggests possibility. Its vastness suggests a greatness beyond ourselves.
Today, at our 9:00 service, we will baptize Phoebe Louise Knoer. We will welcome Phoebe into the community of Christ. We will baptize Phoebe with water, an element so encompassing in our lives that it takes on theological significance. Consider the integral nature of water in our lives. We bathe in water. We cook with water. We play in water, swimming and sailing. We use water for transportation, and power, and manufacturing. Water destroys in a flood. Water nourishes and is essential to life. In fact, 60% of the human body is water. 70% of our brain is water, 83% of our blood is water, and 90% of our lungs is water (www.ga.water.usgs.gov/edu). The all-encompassing nature of water makes it a powerful theological symbol.
In the time of John the Baptist, washing with water was performed ritually as an outward sign of cleansing the inward self. John the Baptist gave new meaning to this practice when he linked the need for spiritual cleansing or repentance with the coming of Jesus Christ: “‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near’” (Matt 3:2). “‘I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me’” (Matt 3:11). Jesus was baptized and later sent the disciples out to baptize people of all nations (Matt 28:19) marking Baptism as a dynamic process. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, Christians adopted this practice as a way of incorporating new Christians into the Church. So, through Baptism, through this cleansing with water, we are forgiven our sins, we are given new life in Christ. Baptism is a gift from God, and yet, more than a gift. Baptism is our response to God’s gift. Baptism enters us into a life-long process of growing into Christ, of “striv(ing) for the realization of the will of God in all realms of life” (Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, World Council of Churches, 1982, pg. 4).
Our Gospel lesson today from Matthew emphasizes this notion of response. “Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness’” – to fulfill the will of God. Jesus is both the Son of God and a servant. He submits to baptism by John. He is obedient to the will of God. Through our Baptism, we are cleansed, we are forgiven our sins, we are brought into a community of faith, and we are called to live our life in Christ.
A wonderful movie was released in the United States in 2006 entitled Water. This film, directed by Deepa Mehta, is set in India in the 1930s. The film is based on a custom, drawn from a patriarchal reading of the Hindu Gospel, and still in practice today to some degree, of separating women from their families upon the death of their husbands. The women are sent to a widow’s colony to live in poverty for the rest of their lives. The idea is that if they live in purity, they will die in purity – this simple life is their path to heaven. According to the ancient document, if they are unfaithful to their dead husbands, they will be reborn in the womb of a jackal. The startling nature of this custom becomes disturbing in that in the 1930s, and continuing today, though outlawed, young children are given in marriage. Water is the story of Chuyia, a seven-year-old girl whose husband dies, and she is sent to live out her life in poverty among strangers in a widow’s colony. She is befriended by a young woman in the colony named Kalyani. Kalyani is a bit of a rebel, who grows her hair long rather than keeping her head shaved as is the practice. Kalyani catches the eye of Narayan, a young man who lives in the village where the widow’s colony is located. He is a liberal, a follower of Ghandi, and is opposed to this custom for widows. He wants to be with Kalyani, and so this film, at times challenging to watch, is an achingly beautiful love story.
But, at its heart, it is a story about water, about this powerful resource, about this powerful symbol. This widow’s colony is located on the river, Ganga. The river is central to the lives of the widows’ and to the lives of the people in the surrounding village. We see people bathing in the water and being refreshed by the water. We see the water being used for sacred purification. We see water being used to grow food and vegetation, for cooking and for cleaning clothes. We see water being used for transportation and for recreation. We see a storm brewing, and we hear talk of throwing the young Chuyia in the water when she is bad. And we see dead bodies being prepared for burial in the water. In the context of Hinduism and a religious belief in reincarnation, this water burial is all about rebirth, about new life. Without giving away the entire plot, this film is about a life saved, about new life. The weaving of the plot, of love and death and new life, with the images of water impresses upon us the great power that water holds over our lives, impresses upon us the theological significance of water.
Baptism in water – we are welcomed into the community of Christ, we are cleansed, we are nourished, we are forgiven our sins and given new life in Christ. We are given perfect freedom, a gracious, magnificent gift. We are given perfect freedom, not to be carefree or careless, but to trust. I marvel how a young child can fall asleep in her parents’ arms anywhere, in a noisy mall, in a busy restaurant, anywhere. Young children perfectly trust that they will be cared for. They do not fear being hurt or being abandoned while they are asleep out in public. This trust is more than ignorance, more than a lack of understanding about life. This is a deep-seeded trust. “Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs’” (Matt 19:14). Life might get in the way of this trust, the way we have fashioned our lives might obscure this trust, but the gift is always there, to trust in God’s care, to trust in God’s perfect love, to trust in God’s will. We are given perfect freedom, not to be carefree or careless, but to be all that we can be, to live into God’s will, to grow into the full stature of Christ, to hone our gifts and talents for the service of others, to hone our gifts and talents to share with others. Perfect freedom. Water, powerful in its elemental and comprehensive nature, raises us to this new life.
The land may vary more;
But wherever the truth may be--
The water comes ashore,
And the people look at the sea.
