Water under the bridge
We use this phrase to mean that something has gone for good – it has gone for ever and it will never be the same water that is there.
In a sense the forgiveness of sins is like that. Like water passing under a bridge, when we are forgiven of our sins they pass away. We are washed clean. Baptism is much to do with the process of washing of sins – we call it repentance. Repentance means that we have thought hard about our lives, our attitudes and about God, and we turn to him. Many of the promises are about this ‘turning away from something, and turning to Christ’.
For example, ‘Do you turn to Christ?’
‘Do you repent of your sins?’
‘Do you renounce evil?’
That part of the Baptism service goes by the posh term ‘scrutinies’ ie when you are examined by the priest about your intentions. When you have made your commitments to the questions the priest then goes a step further – an exorcism of sorts, made with the sign of the cross and, in many churches, with holy oil.
Parents and Godparents are turning to Christ on behalf of their child who cannot speak for his or her self. It is a powerful moment leading up to the baptism with water.
Water of course is a powerful sign of cleaning something or someone. It will either be a great joy or a real agony when the bath-time of your child happens. Either they will love it or hate it.
Whichever, it is essential that your child is kept clean. It is an important part of parenting. Not only will baby be washed, so will clothes, utensils etc and even nowadays they have to be sterilised!
A large part of our understanding about baptism then, is about washing away of sin. Water is always used for this. 2 immediate comments:
First, if you think your child has no sin, since the 4th century thanks to the influential teaching of a North African bishop called Augustine, the church has believed that we are born into a sinful nature, because we are born of sinful parents, flawed creatures as we all are. Do you remember the story of Adam and Eve? It also allows us though to think of original innocence and this should be an encouragement to all of us to enjoy rather more the grace and love of God, rather than to wallow in our own selfishness.
Romans 5,12-17
Secondly, from the earliest records of the life of the church water has been used for the act of baptism. The word baptism means, washed for a religious purpose, and many other religions have done this. It was practiced by some Jewish groups at the time of Jesus. There is no baptism into the life of the church, therefore, unless it is done with water.
Last time we were thinking about how God reveals himself by breaking out, and through the brokenness of Jesus. Some examples from the bible involved stories about water, but today we will think in more detail about examples of washing clean with water, and how our former selves pass away, like ‘water under a bridge.’
I spoke about the Spirit of God moving on the waters like a mist hovering on the surface waiting for the eruption of creation to break through. So we begin with our first story that goes back into the mists of time – almost pre-history. It is a story so powerful and vivid that we don’t have to debate whether it happened or not. It is a biblical truth that is revealed through the story.
It is a story that you will all want to tell your children, and they will remember it right into adulthood. It is the story of Noah.
Genesis, 6,7, & 8
It is a long story, but it could be summed up like this-
God saw that all the good things he had made had gone wrong, especially humans, because they were prone to make the wrong decisions and turn away from him. What can God do? He will wash it all clean again with a great flood. He will save a good man and his family, of course, and seven pairs of all the animals etc. How will Noah and the animals survive? They will build a boat and float in safety. When the waters subside humanity has a chance for a new clean start. All the wickedness will be like water under the bridge – in this case the bridge on the Good Ship Noah. So the whole story is about cleansing, and about safety in the ark (we call that salvation). Noah was saved. Do you feel saved? If not, can you do something about it?
There is another story similar to the safety of the ark. It involves the man we spoke about last time, Moses. This time it is about his birth.
Genesis 2, 1-10
All the Jewish boy children were to be put to death by the Egyptian pharaoh, but the parents of Moses made him safe in his little floating basket. Pharoah’s daughter finds him and decides to make him her own and hands her over to her nurse, who happens to be the real mother of Moses anyway. His name in Hebrew means ‘I drew him out of the water.’
Much later in the history of the Jewish people there emerged a group called prophets, who spoke God’s word to the often disobedient and wicked people. One of these was called Ezekiel. He is quite hard on the people, really scolding them for being faithless, but all the time he is really trying to remind them of the love God has for them, that they are really ruining their own lives by not being faithful to God – their lives are somehow diminished and less than full because they turn away from God. Ezekiel says these wonderful words, that are God’s words in Ezekiel’s prophecy,
Ezekiel 36, 24-28
This is an example of what God does for us when we are cleansed by him. When we are washed clean we become his people again – he reclaims us as his own (though he never really leaves us, but he wishes us to want him). Imagine what a wonderful experience it is to have a new heart put within you – so often our hearts are hard; hardened maybe by a difficult upbringing, or hardened because we have suffered a bit when we have tried to show kindness to others, or when we have had to fight for ourselves just to survive, or when we are so obsessed with things that the real human ‘you’ cannot find any freedom or expression. ‘I will remove from your body the heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh’. What a glorious thing it is to be washed clean by God because we come to him and simply say, ‘I am sorry’. Make it water under the bridge.
A very important man in the story of Jesus is a man called John the Baptist. We are now in what we call the New Testament part of the bible, though John was born before Jesus, and in many ways was like a prophet of the Old Testament, because he too was calling people back to have a true living experience of God. To do this he was calling the people to repent (turn away form their sins and turn to God) and washing them in the local river, called the River Jordan. That is why he has become called John the Baptist, though he is really John ‘the baptizer’.
Before I say a bit more about John I would like to tell you a tale of two seas (lakes really). One is called the Sea of Galilee, the other is called the Dead Sea. The two are linked by this famous river, the river Jordan where John was baptizing.
The Sea of Galilee is brimming full of life. It is little wonder that there were so many fishermen living there. The Dead Sea has no life in it at all. Nothing can survive there, it is too salty. It is rightly called the Dead Sea. It is the lowest point on the earth. The two seas highlight a fact that applies to life in general. The Sea of Galilee both receives water into it in the north, and water flows out of it in the south – it receives and gives. The Dead Sea only receives water. It is in that sense selfish and only takes. The lives of humans can be seen in these two examples. Some people are full of life because they share with others the great blessings they have received, other people give nothing to anyone else. They end up sad and withered people, usually ending life in the way they lived it – self centred and alone.
John ‘the baptizer’ in early adulthood was asking his fellow Jews to come to the river Jordan and to renew their lives by confessing the burden of sins, being washed ‘baptized’ in the River Jordan and being rid of the heavy burden of sin. We all sin – to make it liveable with we may find another name for it, but it is sin nonetheless. John’s message should therefore be music to our ears.
Jesus, who is only a few months younger than John, comes to him to be baptised. This seems wrong to John. Surely HE should be baptized by Jesus, whom John’s knows that any baptism by Jesus will not be just a baptism of water, but a baptism in the fire of the Holy Spirit. He is not worthy to baptize Jesus. Jesus insists.
Mark 9, 9-11
As he arises from the water the Holy Spirit is revealed – the picture given is that of a dove – and God proclaims Jesus as his beloved son. This act is the beginning of the ministry of Jesus. When we are each baptized, it is the beginning of our ministry as well, as Christian disciples, followers of Jesus Christ. We repent, we are washed clean, and we are equipped to be the ministers of the gospel.
One final story about water: not only does water cleanse us – it keeps us alive; it revives us. If you feel really thirsty it is remarkable what a difference it makes to have a glass of refreshing water. We cannot live long without it. Christians believe that when we receive the waters of baptism, as we pass through the deep waters of the death of Jesus, to the freedom of the life that knows the risen Jesus, we are refreshed for life. Baptismal waters are the reviving waters that the prophet Ezekiel spoke about – remember ‘I will sprinkle you with water…a new heart I will give you etc…’ So it is that Jesus speaks of himself as being the water of life. We should think and pray hard about his invitation to drink from the waters in that well which is Jesus. When we drink of it, we will never be thirsty again.
Just read this lovely story about a woman from Samaria who meets Jesus at a well, and think about the waters of baptism.
John 4, 7-15.
