God Upon the Waters

Baptism of our Lord

Year C--appointed scripture can be found here

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At Como Zoo and Conservatory, there is an indoor play area for young children that includes a water feature. In a miniature lake, little plastic boats bob about--keeping company with rubber fish meant for feeding a fiberglass seal. A wheel, inset into the wall, can be turned to create rain—rain, which feeds the stream that trickles into the lake. As children splash, parents hastily pull up their sweater sleeves in a vain attempt to keep them dry.

Depicted on the wall above this feature is a sun, and arrows tracing the water cycle—water in the lake evaporates, clouds form and rain falls, the rain flows into the stream, and the lake is fed.

Turn the wheel, turn it again…the rain falls, and the water runs.

And children begin to internalize a scientific truth—all water on this planet is interconnected.

The last time I was at Como Zoo, the wheel that caused the rain was broken. Children made futile attempts, turning and turning and turning the wheel, eventually given up in frustration. The stream was dry, and the lake was filled with those fore-mentioned rubber fish, floating on their sides. The scent of the chlorine, overly concentrated in the shallow basin, filled the air.

And, from this another lesson is learned—what happens when the water cycle is interrupted and contaminants find their way into our lakes and oceans.

Climate change, contamination, overfishing, storm run-off from farmlands and cities--our human activities have harmed this essential resource.  But, as we continue to grow in awareness of the harm we’ve done—more and more people are seeking ways to mitigate the damage and heal the earth.

Amongst these peoples, you will find theologians, scientists, farmers, and fisherfolk, children and the aged, indigenous peoples and migrants to these shores—all sharing the purpose and the intent of being active participants in the healing of what one of our liturgies refers to as “this fragile earth, our island home”.

What brings this diverse set of people together is the collective knowledge that water is essential to our survival. But, not just the survival of our bodies—but our very being. Because in water we find the story of our survival and our salvation.

Let the psalmist sing,

The voice of the Lord is upon the waters;

the God of glory thunders; *

the Lord is upon the mighty waters.

We cannot understand God, or our salvation, without understanding the centrality of water. The breath of God over the waters of creation; the flood out of which a new creation was salvaged; the crossing of the Red Sea; water springing forth in the desert; Jesus’ baptism in the river Jordan--when we tell the story of water in scripture, we tell the story of God’s great love for us as part of God’s creation.

When we encounter water, we cannot help but encounter God—hear once again the words from Isaiah, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you”, says the Lord.

This understanding of water as a facilitator of our encounter with God is reflected in the liturgies of the Church,

In the Orthodox tradition, with specifics dictated by geography, the baptism of our Lord is marked by a ritual immersion of a cross,

During the ceremony, the cross is dipped in water, recalling Christ’s immersion in the Jordan River. Blessed oil, or Holy Chrism (Muron), is poured into the water from a dove-shaped container, symbolizing the appearance at the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and the voice of the Father proclaiming to all that Jesus is [God’s] Son. (https://armenianchurch.us/the-lord/nativity-and-theophany-of-our-lord-and-the-feast-of-the-naming-of-jesus/ )

In another, slightly less orthodox tradition, one of my colleagues has introduced a practice of incorporating waters from around the world into baptismal liturgies performed at her church. Whenever members of the congregation travel, they are careful to return with containers of water from wherever they’ve been—Hawai’i, the English Channel, the Ganges, the Cape, the Bering Sea, Lake Michigan, the Jordan River--waters from around the world have found their way into the baptismal font. This serves as a reminder of the interconnectedness of the waters of the earth, and of our human connection to each other and all of creation.

In the baptismal liturgies of the Church, water is the means of initiation into the church and immersion or sprinkling is a ritual of cleansing as we mark our passage from death into new life and are connected to the death and resurrection of Jesus as well as to the household of God which serves as Christ’s body in the world.

In the Anglican Church of Canada the baptismal liturgy includes our commitment to care for creation with the question, “Will you strive to safeguard the integrity of God’s creation, and respect, sustain and renew the life of the Earth?” The congregation responds with the familiar words, “I will, with God’s help.”

And here, in the Episcopal Church in the United States, the process of prayer book revision will pay heed to the recommendation that “understanding, appreciation and care of God’s good creation be explicitly incorporated in the Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation and Ordination liturgies.”

We are baptized with water, sacred water.

Knowing this, is it any wonder that many of our clergy and laity have found a calling to climate activism and the conservation and preservation of water? From Northern Minnesota to Hawai’i; Marrakech to Tokyo; Flint to Standing Rock—members of our tradition have spoken, marched, protested, and lobbied for access to clean water and for climate justice.

For these Episcopalians and Anglicans, advocating for the waters of this Earth is a natural extension of the baptismal covenant—it is advocacy and action grounded in scripture, and rooted in our tradition and understanding of how we live out our baptism. To be clear, baptism, taken seriously, has consequences—for us as individuals and for this world as a whole.

So in celebration of the baptism of our Lord, let us remember the Wwter that is part of the water cycle, water that is taken from the tap, or the stream, water that existed at creation, water through which we’ve come, water that remains with us still.

The voice of the Lord is upon the waters;

the God of glory thunders; *

the Lord is upon the mighty waters.

Amen.