Out Of The Water

What these stories of baptism represent for us no matter when we were baptized, is that while our Baptism is significant in our being a part of Christ’s holy church, it is what happens after we come out of the water, that is just as significant. When we hear how Jesus was baptized, and God’s response, we also have a response from Jesus. He was driven into the desert and faced temptations by Satan, and came out stronger and even more powerful than before. Surely it was pleasing to God that Jesus had accepted his mission and ministry, but what was more important was his going and fulfilling the mission and ministry he was sent to do. Likewise it is important for us as Jesus followers to fulfill our mission and ministry that was acknowledged in our baptism. It’s what happens out of the water that makes all the difference.

Unfortunately many times we have focused too many times on what happens before the water and about going into the water. Make your confession, be baptized and you will be saved. That is all true, but then if it only stays there, then we make our baptism about ourselves, and not about what God has done in us and what God wants to do through us. It’s kind of like taking a nice long hot shower. Anybody have a person in their house now or maybe growing up that took those showers and used up all the hot water? Yeah I’ve got two of em’. And sometimes it’s even me! Sometimes we just want to be immersed in the water, for it’s warmth, it’s cleansing, it’s escape from the rest of the world and all that we have to deal with in it. But we know we can’t stay there, eventually the hot water will run out, and we will need get out to face the world again. But we can do so because we have been cleansed, we have been renewed and refreshed. And that is what our baptism is about, as renewed, and refreshed, and people made clean and whole, we can carry the good news of the story of our baptism to the world so that others can be baptized too.