Readings: Ezekiel 47:9,12, John 7:37-39
The Season of Creation takes place from 1 September (World Day of
Prayer for the Care of Creation) and in Australia Wattle Day to 4 October
(Feast of St. Francis of Assisi) It is an ecumenical observance with growing support as we become aware of the urgency of the task of preserving the creation or else we will not be preserved.
This year’s theme is water – Many of us will have happy childhood memories of summer days on the beach – or lake or river. Restorative recuperative power of oceans, beaches, solitary walks along water. And today in our world access to fresh drinking water reveals great injustices whether we are the fortunate ones where it is possible to
simply turn on a tap or if it involves hours walk to gain water.
Although it is mentioned 722 times in the Bible, we rarely hear a sermon about it – apart from when it is the theme in the Season of Creation. Do you know that the water we drink now is the same water that was around in Jesus ’time? Do you remember back in school when we learned about the water cycle? The water in oceans, rivers and the soil is heated by the sun and evaporates, turning into water vapour. The water vapour forms clouds. As they cool down, they form back into water droplets and we get precipitation which is rain, or snow falling down. This rain flows again into oceans, rivers, lakes. Much of it will soak into the ground and collect as underground water. We talked of the Great Artesian basin under part of Australia last week. No new water is being produced it is the same water through the ages.
Last week we were mainly thinking of fresh water so today lets think a bit of oceans and towards the end of the sermon pivot to water as the symbol used in baptism.
Most of the water on earth is in the oceans. 97% of it.
The ancient Israelites were largely fearful of the ocean – they were not a great sea going people. The ocean was the dwelling place of primordial chaos and awaited the creative and order producing command of God to bring it under control. We moderns still have some work to do to not see the ocean as a monster of chaos that threatens our lives but a huge living organism that originated life and that continues to sustain all life
on earth. It can no longer be treated as God’s enemy that must be subdued, but it must be treated as a part of God’s creation that gave us life and continues to make life possible for us.
Even though we call the Ocean by 5 different names, Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Artic, Southern (Antarctic)there is only one Ocean. I asked at a retirement village where I was leading worship what percentage of the earth’s surface is ocean and one person gave the response, “tiny”. That’s how we think of it isn’t it. We land dwelling creatures have
mentally revised the proportions so the earth is largely… well earth, when it is ocean. Our planet should be called ocean or water, not earth. Covering 71% of the Earth’s surface in one interconnected body.
This one gigantic Ocean contains 97% of the Earth’s water in which somewhere in the neighbourhood of 250,000 different species of life make their home. Only about 5% of the Earth’s Ocean has been explored by humans. The truth is that we humans know very little about the Ocean. We do know that at its deepest point, the Ocean reaches a
depth of 11 kms 6.8 miles. It did occur to me we really barely tinker with the ocean. We swim in it but only on the tiniest fringe where it washes up on the beach. Oh we sail on it on in boats and ships, but only on the very surface. Some brave souls do go into the depths in scuba diving but even then little more than a surface splash.
The ocean is a world of mystery and beauty, of fascinating depth and spectacular life forms. The ocean is that vast domain many of our ancestors crossed to reach all parts of planet Earth. And the waters of the oceans are ultimately the waters of life for all the planet.
I want to finish by pivoting to another use of water. Water is at the absolute heart of Christian symbolism. And this year’s theme of Season of Creation is more than water, it is Immersed in Water. Baptism is a sacrament of the church and, like the other sacrament – Holy Communion – the sacrament releases its power not by being a lump of something – bread, wine, water, but in the action we do upon it. So it is not just bread in Holy Communion, but we BREAK the bread, uttering the words, “The body of Christ, broken for you” and we LIFT the cup of wine, with the words “The blood of Christ, shed for you”. And it is not just water but a person IMMERSED in water. Baptism is the rite of entry into the new life we know in Christ. Plunged under the waters we die to the old self and are raised into the resurrection life.
I have been thinking of this and have been reminded of the underground city in Cappodicia, Turkey, that I once visited. There are caves where Christians fled sometimes when there was trouble on top of the ground. They could live down there for long periods. So long that people would be born, die, go to school and be baptised. And there I saw one of the more stunning baptismal fonts I have ever seen. Well, not so much a baptismal font as a baptismal hole.
A hole you climb into and the waters would be cold and could easily flow over you. It would be dark, just lit by oil lamps. Everything about this experience talks of death but also the hope of new birth. Baptism was about moving to a new way of living, a new way of relating to others and to God in the midst of this life. The association with the experience of death is not to be underrepresented. To leave behind the old way and to
truly to follow Christ is both a deeply painful experience in itself and in
the early days often led to suffering and persecution. But even more than
that is is a profoundly life giving experience.
Baptism plunges us into the life of Jesus and in that life you gradually learn to listen to a voice that says, “You are the beloved and on you my favour rests.” And “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.” Jesus tells those who would follow him to “put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” (Luke 5:4)
In the midst of the turbulence we long for calm clear waters in which to sail. Can we hear Jesus, urging us to go deeper. Deeper, where pretentions having floated to the surface give way to authentic connections. Deeper, where we hone our focus in order to see what really matters. Deeper, where the love that lives in us longs to stir us beyond our fear. Deeper, where mystery dwells, compels, and empowers. Deeper, where darkness gives birth to awakening.