Water: Dangerous and Life Giving

Luke 3 15-22

2-10-16

Water is a necessity of all life on earth.

Some things like cactus need just a little,

some things have to live in the water

but every living thing on the earth needs some water to survive.

We all need it.

Baptism of the Christ #2Daniel Bonnell 2012

Causing some to say, Water is life.

But, as we see on the banks of

the Mississippi river this week

and in Indonesia in 2004

and New Orleans in 2005

and in New Jersey in 2012

and in the time of Noah and other countless

times around the world.

Water can be dangerous.

Water can be death too.

That is why water is a fitting

metaphor for our baptism.

It is both life and death.

In Jesus baptism he was called

the Son of God and the beloved.

It was the start of his ministry,

it showed us who he really was.

But Jesus baptism also called him

to live with the outcast, to suffer and to die.

And with our baptism,

we are forgiven, we are cleaned and washed,

we are given new life,

We are called Children of God,

We are called God’s beloved too.

We are given a new life.

But we are also asked

to follow the same path that Jesus did.

We’re asked to not only think about

our cares and needs,

but to put those things aside and follow Jesus’s way.

To defend the helpless, to care for the outcast,

to love, to help, to speak out,

We are asked to die to ourselves.

This life giving-water can be dangerous too.

But with this death,

comes a promise of new life in Christ.

We are given the same resurrection

that Jesus was given,

the same inheritance, the same life.

Like Paul writes in Romans:

if we have been united with Jesus in a death like his,

we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Our baptism promises us this.

That means when we feel like we can’t go on.
When we face struggles and pain.

when we make ourselves

vulnerable to the pain of the world,

when we suffer for the gospel,

When we are sick, and

when we draw our last breaths,

then we can remember our baptism.

We can remember that we are God’s children,

the beloved and God is well pleased with us.

And we will rise with again, in this life or the next.

And the more we remember our baptism,

the more our eyes are open.

Our baptism is like one of those UV

lights that they use so they can

see things that we can’t see with the naked eye.

The more we remember our baptism,

and the more we answer it’s call,

the more we can see God’s work in the world,

the more we see Christ in others, the clearer things are.

Our baptism is like the star that lead the magi to Jesus,

it guides us and helps us

and shows us the world with the lens of God.

Our baptism opens our eyes

to God and to the world around us.

Still dangerous, but life giving.

So We thank God for the water

that saves us and washes us.

We thank God for the dangerous water that calls us into

danger and suffering for the sake of others.

And we thank God for the gift of water that unites us

that shows us Jesus and calls us out of ourselves

and into new life.