Wanted: Dead and Alive

Pentecost 2C 06/06/10

Grace and peace to you—from God, our Father, and from Jesus the Christ, our savior and Lord.

The sea birds and the ocean creatures are dying down in the Gulf.  There’s something in the water. The biggest oil rig accident in the history of American oil drilling continues to spew death and destruction into the sea in the form of an untamed plume of crude.

The people of countries like Haiti, China, and others devastated by earthquakes in recent months are getting sick and many are dying of dysentery. There’s something in the water. Damaged water mains and contaminated wells, coupled with vastly overwhelmed disaster relief efforts cause people to take a chance on the cleanliness of the drinking water—with tragic consequences. Bacteria in the water supply.

Nashville residents eager to get back to their homes the day after the city was drowned in the flood waters of the Cumberland River, were encouraged not to until the waters receded. Because there was something in the water. Debris, broken bottles and other potentially harmful trash, not to mention gasoline, oil and industrial solvents, and of course, raw sewage.

Water. For the most part we have a favorable opinion of it, or take it for granted. But water, the element of chaos in biblical literature, can be powerfully dangerous. Attached to disease it rapidly infects entire villages. Attached to wind and current, it takes the lives of those who don’t respect it or are caught unprepared for its fury. Attached to movement of the earth’s crust, it literally wipes out the country side. Even alone and calm it presents a deadly threat to all who breathe air.

There’s something in the water. Be it sharks, pointy rocks, nuclear submarines, rusty nails, ships firing torpedoes, run off from fertilized cropland, humongous oil spills or the tiniest bacteria—it’s there…in the water.

And yet, we need it to live. Our very bodies are over 60 percent water. We cannot survive for long without it. In many ways, even as water is death, water is life.

No wonder that God chose water as the earthly element used to convey grace upon a fallen humanity. No other could ever symbolize so effectively and so simply the radical transformation that occurs when one is baptized. You pass from life to death to new life. In the twinkling of an eye, you are transformed from just another creature roaming the third rock from the sun, to a child of the God who created the universe, and an heir of the Kingdom of Heaven along with God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

Now. Some may prefer the imagery of baptism washing away the sin and making one presentable to God. Especially since we generally baptize infants. It is more pleasant to think of the baptismal font as a baby bathtub, in which the child splashes and blows bubbles, emerging squeaky clean with that powdery baby smell, ready to coo and with a toothless grin take her place in a new extended family that extends throughout time and space. That image is a good one, and it doesn’t require putting the words “die” or “dead” anywhere near the words “child” or “baby.” So that is the way we’ll think of little Rachel’s baptism today. The waters of the baptismal font rinsing off the taint of the human condition we all share, sin.

But the rest of the time I think that it’s best to go with the more violent, but ultimately the more comforting image of baptism being drowning and rising to new life in Christ. It’s a lot more permanent an image. And powerful. Just what you need when the things in our watery-chaos world try to drag you down for the third time. When you experience things in the water such as tremendous loss, gross injustice, or the ravages of sinful behavior. It is then that we are comforted by the dying and rising of baptism.

Why? Because there’s something in the water. The water of baptism. Water is just water without this something (even bottled water). And that something in the water is the Word of God—attached to the water with divine power and permanence. God’s word. God’s word of hope, of forgiveness, of belonging, of worthiness, of freedom, of irrevocable love and relationship. God’s word that says to the world, and more importantly says to me, that no matter what I did to screw up, no matter what the world flings at me in the way of adversity, hardship, or suffering—God’s word says “You are wanted, you are loved, you are mine—forever. Nothing can change that.”

That part which is sinful in us is dead. And we re-entered life restored to the good graces of God. And ready to live that life as people transformed. Not perfect people. Not people immune to sin. Not people devoid of problems. But a people transformed by the knowledge that we are loved by God and freed from the power of death. Transformed from those seeking God’s mercy, to those spreading God’s grace.

Rachel Bergeron will be baptized in just a few minutes now. She will be washed clean and marked with the cross of Christ. She will become a member of God’s family and God’s church. Her parents will promise to teach her about God’s love, about Jesus’ life death and resurrection, about the Spirit who will bestow gifts upon her. And they will promise to bring her into contact with God’s people as they  worship, learn and live together (that’s us!). We will promise to help them. God will promise to love her forever, especially when she needs him most. To give her new life when she feels spiritually dead.

As for all of you. Remember your baptism today by dipping your fingers in the font and tracing the cross. Do it so when chaos closes in you remember who and what to cling to—you are dead to sin and alive in Christ. Wanted – dead and alive!

But you’re not likely to forget anytime soon. There are two baptisms scheduled for next Sunday. Two more reasons to rejoice. Two more reasons to be here next week. Two more children in the family of God. TWO!

Must be something in the water.