After the Water Has Dried:
Remembering our Baptism

Matthew 3: 13-17                                                                                    Nancy Willet
Bethany Presbyterian Church, Dallas                                                  January 9, 2005

Tattooing oneself with reminders seems a rather extreme way to deal with amnesia. It must be very disconcerting not to be able to remember your past or who you really are. But you know there is a type of amnesia different from what this character in the movie experienced. You may not have ever heard of this type of amnesia. It's called spiritual amnesia.

Spiritual amnesia is forgetting the identity given to us by our Creator. We forget what God has done for us and what God has promised for us. We also many times forget what we are called to be and to do as disciples.

But, God in all God's goodness has given the church a gift to help us remember—to counteract this spiritual amnesia from which we suffer from at times. This gift is much less painful than getting a tattoo to remind us of what we have forgotten. However, we are marked for life, tattooed, if you will, forever when we receive this gift. God's gift to us is Baptism.

Baptism is one of the two sacraments of the Presbyterian Church. It is a sacred ritual administered with simple everyday tap water. There is no magical power in the water we use in Baptism. Water from the Jordan River, where we read Jesus was baptized is no more special than the water we have in our font today.  God chooses everyday elements found in nature, such as water, bread, and wine to symbolize deeply spiritual events. Water is the major symbol used in Baptism.

Through the symbol of water, God helps us to remember stories of creation and new beginnings. Remember how God's Spirit hovered over the waters of chaos in the Genesis creation story? God spoke, chaos was arrested, and order was created. Water also reminds us of the waters of the Flood in Genesis, and the Hebrews exodus from Egypt through the Red Sea.

Water is such a significant symbol in the Christian faith; we can bracket the life, ministry, and death of Jesus with water. Jesus began his life in the waters of his mother's womb. Jesus was baptized in the waters of the Jordan River. Jesus called his disciples around the Sea of Galilee, and when Jesus was on the cross, "the centurion's spear pierced his side emptying him of the very substances of life—water and blood" (Baptism: Christ's Act in the Church, Laurence Hull Stookey, 1982. pg.15). 

The water used in Baptism is symbolic of all these things and more. It is also symbolic of rebirth and the washing away of sin, so that we may be cleansed and put on the fresh garment of Jesus Christ.

In God's gift of Baptism, a covenant is established between God and the person baptized.  Later in this hour of worship, we will reaffirm the covenant we entered into in our Baptism. Through covenant, a relationship is established between one who makes a promise and those to whom the promise is given. God made covenants with Noah, with Moses and the Hebrews, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to remind them of who they were and to whom they belonged. Our baptismal covenant is one of the ways in which God reminds us of our identities—our identity as citizens of God's Realm. 

Unfortunately, covenants are not always respected. "The prophet Amos in the Old Testament, amidst the failure of his generation to honor God's covenant, called for justice to roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. There is that symbol of water again, this time symbolizing justice and righteousness.

 Amos and the other prophets "envisioned a fresh expression of God's grace and of creation's goodness for their generation. They envisioned a new covenant accompanied by the sprinkling of cleansing water. This vision of a new covenant was given to us in Jesus Christ. This vision of creation's goodness and God's grace is given to us in our baptisms.

Regrettably, we are no different from Amos and the many prophets and saints that have gone before us. Unlike God, who is faithful to all covenant promises, we human beings do not always hold up our end of the covenant.

 Our Book of Order tells us that "Baptism is only received once," yet there are times when we need to renew our end of the covenant made in our Baptisms. "God's faithfulness needs no renewal. Human faithfulness to God needs repeated renewal" (W-2.3007).

In 1997, several years before I even had a notion I was being called to ordained ministry, I first renewed my baptismal covenant at my home church in Mesquite. I had been experiencing a "spiritual reawakening" in my life, and desired some way in which to recommit myself to God. I felt like I needed a spiritual jolt, a boost, if you will. 

I was baptized as an infant, like I'm sure many of you were. I had also experienced the baptism of my three children, and was deeply touched by the promises I, along with the congregation made in their baptisms. I wanted to experience baptism again as an adult, with an adult understanding of what baptism meant. I wanted that power of the Holy Spirit, descending like a dove to alight on me and renew my life with God. I wanted to be re-baptized.

What I did not understand was what I quoted earlier; God's faithfulness needs no renewal. God's sign and seal of my citizenship in God's Realm were tattooed on my heart when I was baptized as an infant. It was I that needed to renew my promises to God—not God that needed to hold up God's end of the covenant.

My pastor suggested to me a renewal of my baptismal covenant during the regular hour of worship on a Sunday morning. This was something new to the congregation in Mesquite, as it is to many of you here at Bethany. Different from what we will experience today, however, I was the only one that Sunday renewing my baptismal covenant. 

Let me take that statement back. I was the only one standing in front of the congregation making my own public profession of faith, and restating my promises made in the baptismal covenant. However, each time a congregation participates in a Baptism, of an infant, an adult, or even someone renewing their baptismal covenant like I did, it is an occasion for the whole community to renew their own baptismal vows. It is an occasion for remembering that our life in Christ is a continuous experience and that our commitment is to be renewed daily. 

You see, Baptism is a process, not a specific moment in time. Baptism initiates the relationship with God that we can either choose or reject.  The process of living our baptismal identity requires a lifetime, regardless of the age of initiation. When we accept the gift of Baptism and our identity as citizens in God's Realm, we are called to respond to that precious gift with the response of faithfulness and discipleship.

You see, what matters most, is how we live our life after the baptismal water on our heads has dried. In Baptism, God embraced us with the love of Christ and told us, you are my beloved son, you are my beloved daughter. We grow into those promises everyday and keep growing until we can claim those promises for ourselves.

Our lives matter to God. We have been baptized, cleansed by the water, and now God waits. God waits to see how we shall speak, how we will live, after the water has dried.