Lent (Day 11): Water in the Desert

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From Rwth's sermon on Sunday (video at the bottom) . . .

The most precious gift in the desert is water.  Water keeps you alive.  Without it, there’s suffering and then death.  The same is true for the deserts of our lives.  We need water.  Water removes our suffering, rescues us from certain death, and revives us.  For Christians, this life-giving water is Baptism. 

The life-giving waters of our Baptism need to be a daily reality, especially in our desert times.  It’s the only way we’ll make it through our journey of faith.  But how can this happen since Baptism is a once-in-a-lifetime sacrament?

Our appreciation for Baptism tends to be far too small.  We often consider Baptism as an isolated event that happens in our past.  But it’s much more than that: Baptism is an identity that we live.  The new birth that is our Baptism is better described as our Baptismal life—and it’s a life that God continues to birth in us throughout our lives and to our last day.  Our new birth by water and the Spirit is really a new birthing.  The whole purpose and power of Baptism is at work in our lives every day—if we accept it and work with it. 

Baptism is our daily wellspring.  Every day each one of us has the opportunity to deepen our union with Jesus’ life.  We can die a little more to sin and receive a greater share in his resurrection.  Every day he can rescue us from the evil one.  And bit by bit, Jesus’ victory over the sickness of sin and endless death can become ours.  Each day we can be grafted more securely into his Body, the Church.  We’re not only adopted as children of God, but we can find ourselves ever more deeply loved within God’s household.  The divine life that belongs to Jesus by nature can become a daily gift to us by grace.  In little and big ways, our old self and its brokenness can be cleansed and healed.  Each day we can practice living our new identity as Christians. We can tap into the freedom and power to resist evil and repent of sin.  We can continue to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit to live lives well-pleasing to God.  Baptism truly is a “new birth by water and the Holy Spirit” into the kingdom of God—and it happens day by day in our ordinary lives.

Jesus tells Nicodemus, I assure you, unless someone is born anew, it’s not possible to see God’s kingdom. . . .unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom.

Through our Baptism, every barren desert in our lives can become a vibrant garden.  Our new birth is what revives us and keeps us going toward paradise, God’s kingdom, no matter what trials and temptations we face.

We can’t let our Baptism get trapped in the past as an event.  Baptism opens the door to salvation and eternal life.  Living this new birth requires that we walk through the door and keep moving toward God’s kingdom.



  

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