The Gift of the Sacraments: Baptism
A few weeks ago, I mentioned in worship the time in May that I spent at Ignatius House in Atlanta. I talked about the grounded place by the waterfall that I take myself to when I feel overwhelmed, or uncertain about where God might be. I close my eyes, and I can hear the bubble of the water, the chirping birds, and the wind in the trees.
The other body of water that I experienced on my retreat was the Chattahoochee River. It isn't a particularly beautiful body of water. Here’s a photo for reference.
I sat at the edge of the river many times during my retreat. During a guided walk that I took with the rest of the participants, we were invited to take as much time as we needed at each spot, including the river bank. I spent the longest moment there listening to the river rush along. I remembered that ordinary water, browned by dirt, leaves, and possibly a little pollution, was a powerful force that shaped this riverbank for hundreds of years. Many humans had stood in the spot that I did, and many more would after me. At that moment, I felt compelled to let a few things go that had been weighing on me. So, I took a piece of a tree branch and I broke it up and tossed the branch into the river, praying for God's release over the situation weighing heavily on me.
As the river powerfully rushed those pieces of branch away, I felt peace. Though the water, and the pieces of wood I tossed into the water, were very ordinary, they represented the power of God’s work in my life to let go, and be cleansed from the pain and hurt those situations had caused me.
Just as I return to the waterfall in my mind, I frequently remind myself of that release on the river. Those situations haven’t gone away. They constantly crop up, frustrating me and causing me to become unmoored from my identity in Christ. I close my eyes and remember in my body the act of throwing away the situation, and not letting it hold me any longer. I have been claimed, beloved. I belong to Christ Jesus.
I am reminded that just as the river has shaped the landscape in Georgia for thousands of years, so too I am shaped by the ordinary water of my baptism each day of my life.
This Sunday in worship, we will remind ourselves of the power of Baptism as we conclude our two-week sermon series on the sacraments. Though water is ordinary, fundamental to life, we will remember that it has the power to shape us in our identity and call throughout our lives. We’ll look at the beginning of Jesus’s ministry on the riverbank in Matthew 3, and Jesus’s commission at the end of his ministry in Matthew 28 as we bookend our theological understanding of Baptism in the United Methodist Church.
If you have been baptized, know that God desires to use that act of grace (even before we understand it!) to transform you from the inside out. If you have not been baptized, know that Christ’s invitation is for all people to experience the transformation of the water. We’d love to walk with you as you consider making that decision for yourself or your child.