February 15, 2018
Water.
Basis of life.
Fundamental need.
Water covers most
of our planet.
We are made up of
it, in our hearts, our brains, even our bones contain this true elixir of life.
A person can go
for a few weeks without food, but only a few days without water.
Water.
Jesus came out of
the waters of the Jordan River and heard the voice of
God.
From the waters of
baptism, Jesus rose to his call.
From the waters of
baptism, Jesus went to the wilderness and made ready for his ministry, for his
work, his life, his death.
Water is precious
in the arid land of Jesus Jordan
was a source of life. The people gathered at its bank could not have understood
that when Jesus rose up out of the Jordan ’s
waters, he would teach them what life could actually be.
He would declare
to them that the kingdom of God
It was the ground
they walked on.
It was the air
that they breathed.
It was in the
water they drank. It was in the water that filled them. It was in the water,
their source of life.
Jesus went to the Jordan
to be baptized by John.
From the waters of
baptism, he rose to his full calling, his purpose, his ministry, his life, his
death and new life in the resurrection.
From the waters of
baptism, we rise.
Some of us may
have been baptized in a pool, whole bodies lowered and raised, dying and rising
with Christ.
Some of us may
have been baptized at a font, head and hair wet from the water falling on them.
However we were
baptized, pool or font, we were baptized into … something.
We were baptized
into our salvation.
We were baptized
into a community of faith.
We were baptized
into the Church Universal, adopted into the family of God, grafted onto the
true vine.
We were baptized
into grace.
We were baptized
into hope.
However we were
baptized, rising from the waters or feeling them on our foreheads, we were
baptized into … something.
Our baptisms were
not the end. They were the beginning.
The beginning of a
life of faith.
The beginning of a
call to ministry, a call that is issued to each of u.
The beginning of a
life’s work.
The beginning of
God’s purpose for us.
From the River
Jordan, from the waters of baptism, Jesus rose to his calling from God.
Jesus rose to his
true identity as the Son.
Jesus rose to give
the blind their sight,
the lame, healed
limbs,
the lepers,
cleansing
the deaf their
hearing
the dead, new life
the poor good
news.
From the waters of
baptism we are raised to see God in others,
to follow as
disciples,
bathed in grace
and forgiveness
to hear God’s call
to trust in the
new life promised
to serve the poor,
the hungry, the sick, the forgotten.
From the waters of
baptism, we are called.
From the waters of
baptism, we are sent.
Children of God,
remember your baptisms.
Amen and amen.
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