Sunday, October 11, 2009

Come to the Waters!!!

I recently had the honor of conducting the sacrament of baptism. It is the initiation rite into the Christian community. It is always joyous and exciting. Faith Community Church always makes it an event to remember for the participants and their guests.

This one was special, though.

The candidates were a brother and sister.

They are teens.

They recently declared their interest in faith and the act of baptism.

But what made it a truly transcendent moment was the sacred moment in which we co-mingled water from a gallon jug into the baptistry.

That water had been fetched from the Cranberry River by a team of blessed conspiriators to supply the dying request of the mother of these precious teens. D.H. had made plans with me to conduct her baptism in the Cranberry after her cancer had returned. But her health declined rapidly. So in her hospital bed, she consented to be baptised by sprinkling. My dear brother Terry coordinated the conspiracy and supplied our bed-side baptism with Cranberry River water.

Lisa stood at my side, her husband held her hand and I baptized D.H. in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit with cool, clear water from the Cranberry. D.H. passed away a short time later. Her husband saved the jug of sacred water.

He brought that same water to the ceremony for his children. I poured it in the sign of the cross. And before the teens stepped in, as I read their personal statements of faith, I told everyone about the water. And as I baptized each one in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit I felt the cloud of witnesses settle in on our act. I understood in vivid clarity the line from the Apostles' Creed "...the communion of saints..." Time and eternity blended, the church victorious touched the church vigilent.

Every baptism calls the baptized back to their initial commitment to the Lord, His church and the Faith. But this one mystically affirmed it all to me in such clarity I will always think of it when I come to the waters...

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