The Water's Fine

On this Sunday, the Baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan, a baby was baptized at the church.  The Eucharist was festive, the family lovely, and the little boy cute.  The priest spoke quite appropriately of the welcoming of the child into Christian community.  Adults made the baptismal promises.  Each of us renewed our baptismal covenant.

            I imagine that the baptismal water was at least at room temperature (one of the lessons a first-year priest learns from the rector).  The baby was well-behaved, which may be a danger sign.  Years ago, I concluded that if the baby cries, a good life ahead lies; if the baby is quiet, no doubt he’ll incite a riot.  If we remain a church with a sense of personal spiritual commitment, then this child will chose to be confirmed by a bishop.

            There needs to be a warning, however, when a child or adult is baptized.  Not only are we baptizing into new life and Christian community.  First, we are being baptized into Christ’s suffering and death.  As Thomas Merton so aptly says in No Man Is an Island, baptism is an embracing of the divine  promise in the midst of a broken world.  As we are baptized into Christ, we are clothed first with his death on the Cross as well as his resurrection.

            In other times and traditions, a person desiring to be baptized was immersed in the natural waters of a lake or river or ocean.  The one baptizing immersed the person three times, in the name of the Father, then the Son, and finally, the Holy Spirit.  The experience was, so to speak, death-defying.  But the experience also could bring one, in a symbolic way, near to death.

            The baptismal font is a symbol of the true baptism into death and new life.  In any case, any of us, all of us, needs to know that sometimes the water is fine; sometimes it is rough.  Sometimes the water is calm; sometimes the rip tides threaten to take us under.  At any baptism, each of us must remember that Christ will lead us through these times, all times, if we allow Christ to surround us with grace and mercy in any circumstance.

            Come on in!  The water’s fine.  Christ always stills the waters and calms the seas in life.  That’s a promise.