Skip to main content

Baptism of Christ

This summer, I took part in the week of guided prayer, which we organised here at St Andrew’s. 2 priests from another diocese came to be with us for a week and each participant committed to praying for half an hour a day as well as meeting their guides for half an hour each day. We were encouraged to pray with scripture, to choose our own passages, or to be given one from our guide. I prayed with the story of the woman at the well. Almost immediately at the beginning of that week I was presented with an image, in prayer, of a plant in the desert that had completely dried up. In my imagination the roots of this plant desired to grow towards the oasis to be fed – they were desperate for water. For me this powerful image perfectly summed up how I felt inside, the state of my spiritual life. I felt that my spirit was drained, that it was literally dying of thirst – I urgently needed my spirit to be renewed with the life-giving water which comes from God: God was there and ready to give me that water.

Water is a very powerful element – parts of the UK have felt and are continuing to feel the overwhelming power of water in the ongoing flooding. Water, a daily essential, a giver and sustainer of life, is also - in too great a quantity - a threat to human existence. The Bible charts these extremes – with the story of Noah and the great flood, along with the fundamental role of baptism in our salvation. Floods can be a metaphor for the need for mass spiritual cleansing – water enacts God’s judgment; whilst at the same time water symbolises our being cleansed and washed from sin. In our baptism, water is the healer and restorer, enacting God’s mercy, his redemption and his grace.

Water plays a key role in Jesus’ ministry – he turns it into wine, for instance, as his first sign or miracle; he is baptised in the river Jordan; he meets the woman at the well and tells her that he gives water that never runs out; he washes the disciples’ feet with water; he is denied water and given vinegar on the Cross; water and blood flow from his side at his crucifixion.

Water takes on a different significance in each of these stories, representing washing and cleansing, healing and restoration, thirst and denial, the old covenant and the new, the giving of eternal life, Jesus’ role as a servant and ultimately the sign of Jesus’ humanity. Water is sacramental –  in our baptism – as well in other liturgies of the church, most importantly the Maundy Thursday liturgy of foot-washing, water is a mediator of God’s grace, a sign of the presence and working of the Holy Spirit, given to us by Jesus himself. Jesus takes the normal stuff of life – water, and through his interaction with it, makes it a means of our salvation.

When we remember Jesus’ baptism as we do today, we also remember our own baptism and in so doing we are reminded that Jesus sanctifies and bestows his grace on each of us, not just once but eternally. We need daily spiritual water that wells up to eternal life. Water in this place is not to quench our thirst but to give us eternal life. The water at the entrance is there to remind us of this, touch it, pray by it – it is a reminder that Jesus came to earth and has redeemed us all.

Comments

Post a Comment

Please be respectful when posting comments

Popular posts from this blog

Rugby

It has been just over three weeks now since we have arrived in Rugby and it feels like a world away from South London. If I was used to being in what is generally thought of and written about as a post-Christian secular world then Rugby looks and feels very different. There are a proliferation of churches across Rugby which are very active in working together for the good of the town. There seems to be a genuine Spirit of God's love working across Rugby in impressive ways that I'm not sure what century I am in! It is surprising to find a town that works so hard in regenerating and reinvigorating all that it is and it feels like an enormous privilege to be here.  Not that South London was any kind of spiritual desert! It was also a great privilege to work there and see how God can still be so central to people's lives in the 21st century. If the image we get from the newspapers and national media is that God is redundant in the modern age it seems that the reality is very ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Identity, belonging and holiness

Sermon for 2nd July Doubting Thomas - Ephesians 2:19-end, John 20:24-29 In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians we see classic Pauline theology in action – Paul is explaining to the Ephesians (Gentiles) that they are fully accepted into the household of God and full members of it. The implication is that they are unsure about their place. Paul is clear that their tradition and history is rooted now not only in the Patriarchs, but also in the Apostles and with Jesus Christ as the corner stone. It is the Apostles in Jesus who invite them to full membership. No longer is holiness and worship centred on the Temple in Jerusalem but, rather, the individual believers are spiritual temples and the group of believers an ‘habitation of God’. Paul, as we know, had been fully committed to his identity as a God-fearing Jew; his life and ritual practice confirmed his sense of superior identity before God. He was saved because of his birth right and due to his strict adherence to the Law. Th...
Post a Comment
Read more

'I know why the caged bird sings'

When I was studying festivals and rituals in Renaissance Venice as a post-graduate, evocative paintings full of religious processions and miracles, one thing that struck me was how the public space was highly ritualised and controlled. Most of the time women were prevented from taking part in the public rituals and had to watch from their windows (see above). When they were out in public space, their appearance was strictly controlled.  'Being part of the governing structure of Venetian life, civic ritual was a male domain. A woman’s world was a distinctly smaller one than a man’s, while men made forays into the political and economic centres of the Piazza San Marco, the Rialto and further a field to the East in merchant galleys and the terraferma , women remained in small communities at home. Dennis Romano argues that a woman’s neighbourhood was the parish of her residence and perhaps one or two adjoining parishes, adding further that ‘generally speaking, men did not want t...
Post a Comment
Read more