Water

Baptism of the Lord 2013


Water changes everything.

We know that here in the Northwest. The rains of Fall bring lots of changes to our roof if it is not watertight. The water falling shows us rapidly whether or not we have cleaned our gutters anytime lately. The earth receives the water to make the passionate green growth that we take for granted until we fly to the Midwest and see how brown everything is. The rain can also overwhelm the earth and turn it to brown goo, even making nice big houses in the West Hills slide down into gullies.

Water is the strongest force on this planet. Each great storm, like the vast hurricane on the East Coast, demonstrates its power. We need water to live day to day. We love water when it is gentle and kindly, poetic streams making music on the stones, the surf sighing and calming our souls as we walk on the beach. We fear water when leaky roofs or surging seas threaten our fragile houses and our very lives.

Water changes everything.

Today God changes everything with water.

We have waited for God’s promised One through Advent. We have rejoiced in the mystery and wonder of his birth. At Epiphany we are lost in wonder, love, and praise as the Christ-light shines forth in the world. And now, we fast-forward through a childhood and a youth and find a man by the side of a river. Jesus has come, as have so many, down to the river to pray, there to find that good old way as the old-timey song says. And here God changes everything, with water.

Water is death and life. Water is ending and beginning. “Every new beginning is some other beginning’s end.” As his wild cousin preached and as the river water closed over his head, what did Jesus think was ending, what old way of life? As he rose gasping in the Palestinian sunlight, what new life was he expecting, how did Jesus think his own life was beginning again?

The Bible doesn’t say. The Bible almost never gets into anyone’s head that way. I think that’s good. In that open space left because in the Bible we don’t hear anyone’s inner monologue, we are left to wonder and to ask “What is my place in this story? What does God through water do in my life?”

Today the heavens open and we are led to a space we have never seen before. And one word spoken, God says one word that changes everything, that rushes into Jesus and rushes into us like the waters of a flood. “Beloved”

It seems fragile, that word. But “beloved” changes everything. “Beloved” is the water-word, the word that overwhelms Jesus and will drive him first into the desert to understand what it means, and then will lead him out of the desert singing, the waters of Baptism dry on his skin but ever-flowing in his soul. That water-word “beloved” will continue to shape his life and make his life a wondrous, upsetting, astounding gift to the world, a life that will disturb the proud and comfortable but will give hope to the poor. That water-word “Beloved” will follow him through his ministry and through betrayal and trial. One priest I knew said he believed that at the moment of his death on the cross, God the Father shouted that word “Beloved” in Jesus’ ears. In the tomb did he whisper the word “Beloved” as he raised Jesus from a cold stone slab? I wonder.

That very same water-word “Beloved” is spoken to us in Baptism. It is our word today. How has the Baptism water-word changed our lives?

Water can be very patient. A Desert Father said that the word of God is like water on a stone—very gentle and fragile, but with time a deep groove is worn. How has Baptism-water shaped our lives? As the waters say each day “Beloved” like a stream laughing over stones, how have we been shaped, changed, and empowered? How do we wish to be? How do we long to open our arms and heart to God’s Baptism-rush of water, to God’s Baptism-word “Beloved”, and be shaped, changed, and transformed?

God is patient, and Baptism-water is patient. But today is a good day to break down a levee, open a flood-gate, or maybe just crack the water-tap a little and let God’s water work. As people called, as a church-community, today we let Baptism-water do its work. In a brief moment we felt the waters on our skin. Invisibly, powerfully, the waters still flow. They laugh and say “Beloved”, and shape us to be the Beloved of God, to be the Beloved community, to be a God-shaped presence in a dry and parched world.

Today water changes everything.