Voices of faith understandings deeper
THE WATERS OF BAPTISM God is immersed in, with and under the waters of our own baptism
Behind St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Beaverton, Ore., a beautiful stand of majestic Douglas fi rs towers over the parking lot. Through a narrow opening in the tree line and down a wooded path is a small clearing known as “The Sanctuary of the Firs.” This intimate space has been the site of many sacred gatherings, chief among them fi ve baptisms, including two of my grandchildren.
People have brought water for these baptisms from all over Oregon and the United States— even the Mediterranean Sea. My son, an avid fl y-fi sherman, has brought water from his favorite trout streams for his children’s baptisms, connecting the waters that mean so much to him to this sacred rite. For my family and the people of St. Andrew, this baptismal practice has highlighted how water connects us with one another and with the Earth and all its inhabitants.
God’s presence in these collected baptismal waters, poured out among magnifi cent trees, has been palpable. The “Litany of Water” in the order for baptism in Evangelical Lutheran Worship further testifi es to this presence. It assures us that in the beginning the Spirit moved over the face of the waters and brought forth new life, that God delivered Noah and his family from the waters of the fl ood, that God led the people of Israel through the Red Sea out of slavery into freedom, and that God was present in the baptism of Jesus by John in the waters of the Jordan River.
Referencing these stories of promise and covenant roots us in our belief that God is really present, that God is immersed in, with and under the waters of our own baptism. Knowing God in the waters of baptism helps us know God in the stuff of ordinary life. God is as near as the water we drink and bathe in, the water that makes up a majority of our body and covers more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, the water that falls on the land and helps produce the food we eat.
Water is, in some ways, such a basic thing. In much of the Pacifi c Northwest water is so plentiful that we almost take it for granted. Martin Luther once said, “If you really examined a kernel of grain thoroughly, you would die of wonder.” Surely the same could be said of a drop of water. Given what God has invested in water, it’s fi tting to be fi lled with gratitude and wonder as we ponder the gift of water in baptism and in the course of our daily lives.
The waters around us While wading into the clear, swiftly moving waters of the Deschutes River and casting my fl y-fi shing line just above the surface, it’s hard to imagine that in some places water is something other than life-giving. The Deschutes drains into the Columbia River. Despite its beauty and importance, parts of the Columbia River aren’t thriving.
42 APRIL 2016
By Mark Brocker and Rachel Brocker Langford
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