Baptismal meditation

Acts 8:36: As Philip and the eunuch went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?

Baptism is God’s work, not mine. The voice you hear will be my voice, and I will be the one to pour water over Andrew’s head. But I’m only an instrument, an authorized agent carrying out something that God Himself is doing. Baptism is God’s work, not mine.

And baptism is God’s work of giving. Baptism is God’s gift, and like all of God’s gifts, it is ultimately a gift of Himself. God so loved the world that He gave His Son, and the Son died, rose, and ascended, so that He might give us the Spirit. Through baptism, we are united to the Risen Christ and made partakers of the Spirit who brings us to the Father. God’s gift in baptism is a gift of Himself.

That’s true, but I want to focus attention on another gift that God gives in baptism, a more obvious and visible gift, the gift of water. What does God give in baptism? He gives water. But what is water?

Water is life. Without water, we could not survive. Without water, nothing could survive. During droughts, the earth dries, plants die, animals have no food. We are made from dust, and without water we would be like a parched wilderness, unproductive and unfruitful, bringing up nothing but thorns and thistles. Baptism gives water, and in so giving gives life.

Water is a boundary. When God created the world, He separated waters above and below, and separated water and land. He created rivers and lakes and seas as boundaries between one land and another. In the baptism of the flood, Noah and his family crossed from the old, condemned world into a new world through water, and at the baptism of the exodus, Israel crossed from oppressive Egypt into the wilderness through water. Through the gift of water in baptism we receive a gift of crossing; we move from Adam to Christ, from the world into the church.

Water is cleansing. There was a laver in the tabernacle filled with water to wash the sacrifices of the Israelites, to make them clean and acceptable to God, and for the priests to wash their hands and feet before approaching Yahweh’s throne. Water cleansed from defilements from the flesh, and from defilements caused by contact with corpses. Through the gift of water in baptism, we receive the gift of cleansing, and are qualified to come near to the Lord in His heavenly temple.

In baptism, God gives Himself, and He gives water, and in giving water, He gives life, a new land, cleansing. As we trust in God, and believe what God says He does in baptism, we walk in newness of life, enjoy the fruits of a new land, and are cleansed to approach God’s. Your duty as parents is to teach Andrew to trust God, the God who gave Himself, and water, in baptism.