Isaiah 43:1-7 Psalm 29 Acts 8:14-17 Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Other Readings: Gen. 1:1-13; 8:15-17; Ex. 14:29-31; Josh. 4:21-24; Rom. 6:1-4; 2 Cor. 5:17; Col. 2:11-12
A Renewing Creation
I think most people will agree with me when I say that water is essential to life. According to an article written by Molly Sargen and Daniel Utter for Harvard University, “Water makes up 60-75% of human body weight. A loss of just 4% of total body water leads to dehydration, and a loss of 15% can be fatal. Likewise, a person could survive a month without food but wouldn’t survive 3 days without water.” About 71 % of the Earth's surface is covered with water. The oceans hold about 96.5 percent of that 71 %, but water also exists in the air as water vapor, in rivers and lakes, in icecaps and glaciers, in the ground as soil moisture and in aquifers and it is stored in dams and other man-made retainers and containers. Water is also used to wash and keep things clean, and the movement of water can be used to create electricity among other things. So, I think we can safely conclude that water is both useful and necessary.
However, water can also be extremely destructive. Riptides can sweep even the strongest swimmers out to sea. Flash floods can roll boulders, tear out trees, destroy buildings and bridges, scour out new channels (even canyons!) and can also trigger catastrophic mud slides. Then think about the devastating effects of Tsunamis. Storms can create waves and currents at sea and in lakes that sink boats and ships. And finally, according to the World Health Organisation, “Drowning is the 3rd leading cause of unintentional injury death worldwide, accounting for 7% of all injury-related deaths. There are an estimated 236 000 annual drowning deaths worldwide.”
Water. Both life-giving and life-taking. As such it is an image that is often used in Scripture to illustrate the awesome power of God. God is greater than the waters…the floods, the rivers, the seas and the waves…and He is also greater than the destruction caused by too much water. Out from the depths, God can bring forth life.
This imagery begins in the beginning. When we read Genesis 1 we are told that darkness was over the surface of the deep. The Holy Spirit of God was hovering over that primeval body of water when the first creative words of God were spoken. “Let there be light!” But it is not the light or the sky that I wish to focus on this morning. It is the gathering of the waters into seas, lakes, and rivers that I want to bring to your attention. What is important to notice here is that it is only once the water recedes that dry land appears…land that can now, for the first time, sustain life…vegetation, seed-bearing plants, fruit-bearing trees, animals, and humans. It is only once the dry land emerged from out of the waters that life on earth as we know it began.
We see this again in the time of Noah. It is only once the flood waters receded that life could begin again. Once the dry land reappeared, Noah was given the same instructions as Adam and Eve. To be fruitful and multiply. Noah, his family and the animals with them on the Ark were at once both saved by water and saved from water. As such, this is a story of a new beginning, or, dare I say, a new creation.
Later, this idea of re-creation is illustrated quite dramatically once again at the Red Sea when God delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt. Here too water served as both a tool of deliverance as well as a tool of destruction, but the important thing to note here is that when Israel emerged from the waters, they were, essentially, a new creation. Once not considered a people, now they were the people of Almighty God. God had triumphed over their enemy so that they might be constituted a nation before Him. There is a new creation here.
And then again, after the forty years of wandering in the wilderness were over, Israel once more went through the waters of a flooding Jordan River, to inherit the Promised Land where they were to be fruitful, to multiply and to exercise dominion over the land. Once wandering nomads, now landowners. A new creation.
The same can be said of when Israel returned from exile in Babylon, only this time they remained under the yoke of the successive dominant empires. By the time Jesus was born, the nation of Israel was still in bondage, this time under Rome.
Imagine then the excitement when a voice was heard, crying out in the same general vicinity of where Joshua crossed the river Jorden to conquer the land. “Prepare the way for the Lord!” It was a clarion call for the nation to consecrate themselves…just like at Mount Sinai with Moses…just like at the Jordan with Joshua. God was about to show up and they needed to be ready!
Of course, people flocked to be baptised by John…they had to be ready to meet their saviour! Some even thought John might be the Saviour! But the Baptiser kept alluding to another figure to come after him…a figure that would not baptise with water, but with the life-giving Spirit. You see, amid all this preaching and teaching and baptising, God had informed John that the Messiah was about to be revealed to Israel (that he was about to begin his earthly ministry) and that he would be able to recognise the Coming One, the Messiah, by the bodily descent of the Holy Spirit upon him as he emerged from the waters.
Now, let’s stop here for a minute. Does any of this sound familiar to you? The Spirit hovering over the waters? It should. I believe that the Gospel writers, especially John, wanted us to make the connection between creation and the baptism of Jesus. The coming of Jesus was the beginning of the new creation.
This is why I believe baptism into Jesus replaced circumcision as the sign of entry into the new covenant people of God. Circumcision was a promise that one day in the future sin (often represented in Scripture as the flesh) would be removed through the shedding of blood. But baptism is a sign of the present, indicating that the promise depicted in the sign of circumcision has been fulfilled.
Paul spoke about us being baptised into the death of Jesus in Colossians where he clearly connected the two signs of entrance into the Covenant, the one being the fulfilment of the other. “In him,” Paul said, “you were also circumcised in the putting off (or cutting off) of the sinful nature (or the flesh), not with a circumcision done by the hands of men, but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.”
Baptism is the sign of a new creation. Just as life could only begin after the dry land came up out of the water…just as life could only resume after the dry land reappeared once the floodwaters receded…just as Israel could only be free after they had gone through the Red Sea…just as Israel could only inherit the Promised Land once they had gone through the Jordan river…so too we can only be raised to new life…we can only become new creations once we have been symbolically buried with Jesus and resurrected with Jesus. Baptism in the name of Jesus is the sign of entry into the new covenant through his blood. It is only once we have been buried and resurrected with Jesus that we receive the life-giving Spirit. And only then can life really begin. We were once dead in our trespasses and sins, but now we have been made alive in Jesus.
This is why baptism was so important in the Early Church as we see in the book of Acts. For them it represented the message of the Gospel. It was a symbol or a sign of the beginning of new life. The beginning of a new creation. It represented liberation from bondage. Once dead, now alive. Once not a people, now God’s people. Having been buried and resurrected with Jesus sacramentally in Baptism, we are now free to live as God intended us to live and to do what God has commanded us to do in the first place…to exercise dominion over the whole earth. That we might serve the world in his name…make disciples of all nations.
For the Early Church, the message of the Gospel was not a pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die-by-and-by message. No, it was a message of rebirth…of re-creation – of a restoration of the whole of creation with God’s reborn and resurrected people ruling as his vice-regents, slowly but surely bringing about the renewal of the world. That is why Jesus chose the image of baptism to illustrate the reality that is ours as his new creatures…his new creations. The old things have passed away – have been washed away in the deluge of his death – the new has come in the resurrection – the re-emergence of Jesus and those in him from the depths – and new life can now begin once more.
Water. Both life-giving and life-taking. A powerful image of both destruction and deliverance. Out of water, the earth was once born and once reborn. Out of water, Israel was once born and reborn. The Baptism of Jesus is firmly rooted in Old Testament creation and re-creation imagery. The Trinity are active participants in both creation and re-creation. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The sacrament of Baptism is therefore one of the most powerful images of God’s triumph over death and devastation. It is a testimony to his grace, his forgiveness, and his love.
But baptism is only the beginning of life…as at the time of creation and the time of Noah, there must be growth and regrowth. As with Israel there must be obedience and submission. And so, as we look forward to a new year that lies ahead, let us remember that we – we the baptised have a race to run, a battle to fight, and an earth to win. We are new creations…and because we are new creations, we have been given the message and the ministry of reconciliation. It is through us – God’s new creatures that creation itself is being renewed.
Let us pray.
© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2022
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