This coming Sunday, the first Sunday after the Epiphany, we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus. Katharine and I have recently returned from Austin. During our stay there we celebrated Elliott’s first birthday, our granddaughter, and James, our son’s birthday as well. Elliott being one year old knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that the world revolves around her; and why not, she is adorable, smart, perpetually happy; all those things one says about babies. Indeed in whatever room she occupies she is the center of attention. When she was baptized the priest allowed her father James to hold her over the font while the priest baptized her with water. It was a poignant image for me that I still think about.
Baptism is the outward and visible sign that in fact we are not the center of the world; but that we as humans are initiated into a community which vows to serve the world in which they live; that we live not for ourselves, but for others. Water is the operative symbol. In water we are drowned to sin and reborn into a new life, a life that bears life to others. Water is the source of life, and it can also be destructive and dangerous as well, like the world we inhabit… Water, an ambiguous symbol to be sure. As the baptized it is for us to stand in such ambiguity bearing God’s life giving love to our world. Seeing James holding Elliott over the font seemed an apt image of the church; that we hold each other up in our vocations as the baptized, for there are times when we can’t make it alone. We are all meant to be there for each other, to steady each other as we work towards God’s vision of the world made right.
Elliott, like the rest of us, will grow into her baptismal life. Indeed baptism is a life long process. She will learn, as we are learning, that she is not the center of the world, but that the center of the world is God’s self giving love, into which we are called to live. It is a process that is both joyful and painful, a process of dark and light. It is a life bathed in ambiguity. Ours is to stand amid the ambiguity of life and proclaim that amid God’s love life has a mysterious beauty, and that it is worth living; and in so standing we find the joy that comes with serving the greater good. May she find that joy, the ambiguity notwithstanding; may she find it sooner than later, and may we find it as well, and let us hold each other up along the journey, so that as God’s community in earth we might discover enlightenment enough to proclaim this ambiguously beautiful life so very good.
