Word and Water

Lenten Vespers, Week Four

Reading: Matthew 3:13-17

Homily:

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

In all religious traditions, water contains deep spiritual significance. It is the element of life and of death, of chaos and creation. We are born in the waters of the womb; we drown in the waters of the Flood. Water brings life to the earth, fruit to the field, fish to the net. But it also brings storms and waves and monsters from the deep. Little wonder that ancient myths portrayed water as a dragon.

In the Old Testament, water represents cleansing, bathing, washing. Ritual ablutions prepared an Israelite to stand before the presence of God in the Temple. For some groups, immersion in running water marked entry into the Jewish community. For others, baptism was a daily ritual, a constant cleansing, washing away impurities and sin. John the Baptist offered a baptism of repentance in the Jordan River, turning hearts to prepare for the imminent arrival of God’s Kingdom.

For Christians, Baptism is all this and more: it is our entry into the community of God’s promise; it is the turning of our hearts toward His Kingdom; and it is the Font of forgiveness to which we may daily return for Confession and Absolution. But Christian Baptism is not primarily a bath. It is, in fact, a drowning.

When our Lord came to the Jordan to be baptized by John, it wasn’t the waters that changed Jesus; it was Jesus who changed the waters. Our Gospel accounts report the rending of the heavens, the voice of the Almighty Father, the descent of the Holy Spirit as a dove. In other words, the entire Trinity, the very Being of God, meets us in those baptismal waters, and we are joined to God in Christ.

Baptism doesn’t just wash away our sins. It drowns us in our sins and raises us up to new life in Christ! We are baptized into Christ’s own death, already died for us, and into Christ’s own eternal life, already begun! The old creature, the old Adam, our old fallen humanity, dies in those waters. And the New Creation, the New Adam, the Risen Christ, rises up from them—so that it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us. Baptism is death and Resurrection; it is the waters of the Flood and of new birth. What a mystery is here unto us revealed!

The word “sacrament” means mystery, and indeed Baptism is a Sacrament, one of the Holy Mysteries of the Church. But what do we mean by that? Ask a Catholic and he will tell you that a Sacrament is a sign containing the very thing that it signifies: Baptism signifies drowning and rising, and it really is our drowning and rising; Baptism signifies the cleansing of sin, and it really is the forgiveness of our sins.

A Lutheran will give you a somewhat longer answer. For us, a Sacrament must have three components: (1) the promise of grace; (2) some physical element; (3) and Jesus’ command to go and do likewise. In this case, we are promised that Baptism grants us forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life; the physical element would be the water, of course, but also the words of the promise added unto it; and we are commanded in the Scriptures to go forth and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Three for three.

I think both the Catholic and the Lutheran definitions are good and true. But I have an even simpler definition: a Sacrament is a promise made solid.

As Christians, we believe that God Himself became flesh, became one of us, in Jesus Christ. He walked beside us, working, sweating, healing, preaching, teaching, forgiving, suffering, mourning, laughing, rejoicing. And then He poured out for us the Holy Spirit, the very life and breath of God, so that we might not just know Jesus but actually become one with Jesus, one in His Spirit, one in His Body and Blood.

Likewise, the promises of God are so strong, so sure, so powerful to save, that God has made them into physical things, promises that we can see and touch and taste and hold. How do we know that Baptism forgives us our sins and raises us to life and makes us one in Christ Jesus? Well, is the water wet? Then the Word is true! If you have been baptized, then you have been claimed by God and bought with a price—no doubts, no wonders, no questioning as to whether or not God loves and chooses you. God met you in the Word and water, period. God has claimed you for His own, period. And as sure as that water is wet, the promise of God is true.

Chaos and Creation, Flood and Fountain, Crucifixion and Resurrection—that is what awaits us whenever we turn to the promise of God made thick in Baptism. For God has promised to meet us in these waters. And God does not break promises.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.