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This week at praxis...Wade in the water

Here is what we are reading and discussing January 7, 2001

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire..."

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."

----Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

 

 
O Lord,
One tiny bit of water rests on the palm of my hand.
I bring it to you and with it I bring the whole ocean.
This tiny drop has the power to ease the burning thirst of men,
when spread on the earth, to give life to the seed and the
future harvest;
when poured on the fire to quench the blaze.
A tiny drop of water
can cleanse the whole of my impurity when blessed by your
forgiveness.

But, O Lord,
more than all this, this tiny drop of water passed over my head
is the symbol of my birth in You.
----Ishpriya R.S.CJ.

 

 

I see, blasted, the bay transfigured below me, the saltwater bay, far down the hill past the road to my house, past the firs and the church and the sheep in the pasture...On the bay’s shore are people among whom I float, real people, gathering of an afternoon, in the cells of whose skin stream thin colored waters in pieces, which give back the general flame. Christ is being baptized. The one who is Christ is there, and the one who is John, and the dim other people standing on cobbles or sitting on beach logs back from the bay...The two men are bare to the waist. The one walks him into the water, and holds him under. His hand is on his neck. Christ is coiled and white under the water, standing on stones. He lifts from the water. Water beads on his shoulders. ----Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm

 

You do not need to try to become special. The Godseed inside makes you already special. "The Greek Orthodox have a spiritual injunction that implores a person to ‘become what you are,’" explains writer Holly Bridges Elliott. "This means by virtue of your creation in the image of God and by your baptism, remember your true humanity, remember that your authentic self is inhabited by God and is a holy creation." ----Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spiritual Literacy

If the baptism of Jesus brings closure to the Christmas cycle and provides the setting upon which the succeeding liturgical season of ordinary time rests, so too our baptisms set the stage for the succeeding drama of our spiritual lives. We pause at the water’s edge. We are marked with a sign of faith, encircled by a cloud of witnesses, immersed in a story, deep and wide in its proportions. We rise out of the waters to a new birth. And we each hear ourselves named – beloved son, beloved daughter, of God. ----Wendy M. Wright, The Time Between

 

Questions:
  • What do you know about your own baptism?
  • What part of the symbolism of water makes the most sense to you?
  • How does baptism claim your connection with your community?
  • How does baptism claim your connection to God?
  • What does baptism mean, or not mean, to you?
  • Why would Jesus need to be baptized?