Sermon, Sun 7 Jan: 'Water: powerful, wet stuff'

On Sunday morning we thought about baptism:
the baptism of Jesus, and our own.
The baptismal font had been prepared, as if for a baptism, with the jug of water at the ready.

In our 'thinking about' time after the first hymn, we had the following meditation:

In the beginning: darkness and chaos;
and the Spirit of God,
hovers over the water...
[some water is poured into baptismal font]
Morning breaks: a new day begins –
a world is created:
light and order;
a garden, in which God
walks companionably
with a man and woman created in love,
and made in God’s image.
But the humans get caught up
with other things;
the light is less bright...
and death enters the world.
[some water is poured into baptismal font]

A baby wails: a new life for all;
the darkness is shattered by
the light of a great and shining star;
is shattered by hope
found in a manger.
[some water is poured into baptismal font]
Water flows: and days turn to years...
The baby becomes a man,
who watches the river run:
who washes in the river –
a ministry, begun.
Who speaks of the living water:
bubbling, overflowing –
cleansing, refreshing:
the water of the river of life...
Who says that he
is the living water:
the way, the truth –
the love of God revealed
in a new, and living way,
and who calls:
‘Come, follow me’.
[some water is poured into baptismal font]
Water is poured: a fresh start is offered,
as it has been down through the generations;
a sign of God’s grace,
a symbol of God’s love –
showing that God never gives up on us...
for He made us with love
to be his people.

This morning, as you came in, I hope you were each given a wee heart.
That represents you.
And on that heart, are the words, ‘made in love’ for that is true for each one of us.
Baptism is the beginning of our journey of faith:
and so this morning, in a short time of quiet reflection, let’s think about baptism –
*what does that mean to you?
*How do you live out Jesus’ call to follow –
as someone who has been forgiven,
and who is loved and claimed as God’s own?
*How has living into the promises of your baptism
changed you, changed others, and changed your small corner of the world?
(time of quiet reflection, then stewards gather up hearts, bring them forward)

I place these symbols of ourselves, and of our baptism, into the water –
reminding us of our baptism
and that each of us is a beloved son or daughter of God...
(hearts poured into the font - where 'we' stayed in the waters of our baptism throughout
the rest of the service: the hearts were given back during the closing hymn, with the charge 
to live into our baptism by going out into the world)

Thereafter, the service followed its general pattern...
Our readings were -
Ps 29;  Gen 1:1-5;  Mark 1:4-11

SERMON
Let’s pray: May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all our hearts,
be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

There’s a scene in C. S. Lewis’s book ‘The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’ 
that features a band of tiny dwarfs. They are not the brightest of wee souls,
and their chief has a gift of stating the blindingly obvious.
Each time he does, he’s meet with a rousing chorus of approval:
‘That’s right, Chief! No truer word was ever spoken,’ and suchlike.
At one point, he proclaims very grandly:
‘Water: it’s powerful wet stuff, ain’t it?’
‘Aye, Chief’, say his clan, to a man...or, to a dwarf.

‘Water: it’s powerful wet stuff, ain’t it?’
Well, yes, it is wet.
And yes, it’s pretty straightforward:
a non-controversial statement that’s... well, blindingly obvious.
Water is wet.
But, there’s something deeper, more profound –
maybe the wee Dwarf chief is smarter than we give him credit for...
Water is wet, yes,
....powerfully.

Water is there, in our story of beginnings:
it’s there, right at the beginning –
‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.’
Water.
And the Spirit.
Connected.
Connected since the beginning of creation.
Water and the Spirit
as part of the movement of God,
bringing order out of chaos.

Water: it’s powerful wet stuff.
Every time we touch it, drink it, bathe in it –
just think, it’s been there since time began –
without it, there can be no life.
Basic survival teaches the ‘law of threes’:
one of which is that, as a rule of thumb,
you won’t really survive much beyond three days without drinkable water.
Water refreshes, and sustains life...
it’s powerful, that wet stuff.
So powerful, that beyond its mere physical properties,
water has been used for millennia to point to spiritual truths;
which is what we see when we find ourselves at the banks of the River Jordan.
There in the Judean countryside, in the back of beyond,
crowds come flocking to see God’s stern prophet, John.
They come, and hear his words about another more powerful than he:
‘I baptise you with water, he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.’
Water...and the Spirit...
connected once more.
The people come, hearing his call to repent –
to turn away from putting everything else first
and to turn back to God:
to put God at the centre of their lives.
They come for baptism:
washing off the old stuff,
washing off the layers of things that have come between them and God,
washing off the mask,
becoming again who God made them to be,
living into what God created them for:
to be his,
to be real,
to be whole –
to be remade again in God’s own image,
remade... in God’s love.

They come to the Jordan, somehow knowing that, water, that powerful wet stuff,
will get rid of the gunk, and the junk,
will wash them clean.
That baptism offers the chance to start afresh:
a new beginning...
blessed by God,
claimed by God.
Water...and the Spirit...
once more bringing order out of chaos.

And there, on the banks of the muddy Jordan,
among the many compelled to make a new start,
to find a new way forward,
there... stands Jesus.
The One who understands just how powerful water is,
who will later say of himself:
'I am the Living Water...those who believe and are baptised will be saved.'
And, showing humanity the way,
Jesus is baptised:
here, demonstrating new beginnings –
the baptism is the launchpad for his public ministry.
And again, we see water and the Spirit connected:
as Jesus comes up, out of the water, the Spirit once again hovers...
and God’s voice proclaims:
‘You are my Son whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’
Heavenly affirmation,
and a blessing as Jesus begins this new stage of his life,
a life that will shake the world as powerfully as that wet stuff, water.

‘Water: it’s powerful wet stuff, ain’t it?’
In baptism, we see the water symbolising a change:
demonstrating the power of God to transform lives.
In our own tradition where we baptise infants,
there’s a deep and profound acknowledgment of God’s grace and
of just how powerful that combination of water and the Spirit can be.
Having recently baptised wee Jenson and Nairn in the weeks
leading up to Christmas, we heard the words:
‘all this God did for you, even though you don’t know it yet...’
God at work in ways we can’t fathom,
God at work, even before we’re able to ask for anything, or do anything in return –
the spiritually life-giving water of baptism -
given freely, unconditionally.
A demonstration that there is absolutely nothing we can do to buy God’s love;
God’s love is.

Some of us here may remember our own baptism, some, not.
And whether we feel it, or not, God’s Spirit is at work in our lives,
working on transforming us in ways to better reflect the One who made us.
We are works in process:
we mess up, that’s part of what it is to be human.
And when we do, we take it to God:
we lay it at God’s feet,
we remember our baptism –
and remember we have a lifetime’s guarantee of beginning again, and again and again.

Water...and the Spirit:
it’s a powerful combination.
And as we live into our baptism,
and grow into God,
that combination should lead us from looking inward, to looking outward:
to seeing others –
others created in the image of God.
It might lead us to look below the surface
and ask what might really be going on down in the depths of a person’s life –
to try and walk in their shoes a while.
And in doing so, might transform the way we approach that person,
might inspire us to acts of kindness and compassion –
acts of kindness that move out in ever-spreading circles:
from family, friends, neighbours, to those we don’t know
but whose plight we may have seen on social media...
acts of kindness that can be challenging, hard,
might cost us time, effort,
occasionally other things.
The powerful combination of water and the Spirit -
of living into our baptism
and into our calling as God’s people,
is where we may also see, close at hand,
God in our small corner of the world,
bringing order out of chaos,
and, if we listen carefully,
we may even hear those words from heaven, saying to us:
‘You are my beloved one, with you, I am well pleased.’

Let’s pray:
Loving Father,
you anointed Jesus at his baptism with the Holy Spirit,
and revealed him as your dear Son.
Thank you for making us your children by water and the Spirit.
Keep us faithful to you throughout our lives.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen

HYMN 502 Take my life, Lord, let it be