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Pilgrimage West |
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Week Eight Ramblings and Pictures |
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I grew up with a love for “water”. My family had a small place beside a lake when I was very young, and from my earliest memories I was swimming and diving and skiing, delighting in being in the water. I was never particularly good at any of those things – crude swimming strokes, always skiing on two skis, no graceful dives here – it was always recreational / relaxing, never competitive like all the sports I participated in. I never took any lessons – our family was a kind of throw the dog in and see if he could swim kind! The love of water has always been with me. This past week has reminded me of that love – from the pastoral beauty of the San Juan Islands, where long golden meadows flow down to touch the rocky cliffs that nestle up to the mighty Pacific Ocean, to calming waterfalls, to the beautiful, even stunning beaches of Cape Flattery and Shi Shi (part of the 73 mile rugged coastline of Olympic National Park). Low tidal pools teeming with starfish and abundant marine life, my feet growing numb in seconds with the rushing frigid water of the Pacific - I feel this strange affinity with water once again – certainly a respectful affinity, for the dangers of the deep were ever apparent, with strong tides and water colder than our mountain streams in the summer… Our Scriptures have an affinity / respect for water too - embedded in the stories of creation / flood / exodus, sung in the creativity of the Psalms, lifted up as Living Water by Jesus…we enter into the community of God through the waters of baptism…
In
Baptism, the Holy Spirit binds the Church in
covenant to its Creator and Lord. The water of
Baptism symbolizes the waters of Creation, of the
Flood, and of the Exodus from Egypt. Thus, the water
of Baptism links us to the goodness of God’s
creation and to the grace of God’s covenants with
Noah and Israel. Prophets of Israel, amidst the
failure of their own generation to honor God’s
covenant, called for justice to roll down like
waters and righteousness like an everflowing stream.
(Amos 5:24) They envisioned a fresh expression of
God’s grace and of creation’s goodness—a new
covenant accompanied by the sprinkling of cleansing
water. In his
ministry, Jesus
offered the gift of living water. So, Baptism is the
sign and seal of God’s grace and covenant in
Christ. I have been reminded once again that we are linked together with all of God’s bountiful creation in ways we can barely imagine, that we are blessed with creation’s goodness… May our journeys be made sacred by a fresh expression of God’s grace, pouring out as Living Water in our lives, an outpouring so abundant that we are saturated, we are soaked, we are immersed in its bounty, so that we might love, and live, and hope as God intends us to… Thanks be to God… |
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