The bible opens and closes with a scenic views of rivers flowing. In Genesis the Edenic word painting speaks that "a river flows out of Eden to water the garden and from there divides into 4 rivers. The first, Pishon; flows where there is gold. The gold there is good (not that sucky gold). .....the second river is named Gihon; it flows through the land of Cush. the 3rd river is named Tigris(Hiddekel) and flows east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates."
What a vivid portrait! Through this breath-taking Garden flows an sparkling, luminous river that takes on the life of multiple (its interesting that in both the opening and closing scenes of the bible Rivers and trees are present. Rivers come from many sources, various streams and lakes and creeks flow into ONE river. And Trees start with many ROOTs and flow into ONE massive Trunk-which is THE TREE- and then branches out into many branches, with many leaves with many seeds. Perhaps this is a picture of the Kingdom of Heaven Community) rivers. (In addition, the opening scene of the bible starts with God's Spirit, or breath, hovering over the watery abyss.......). All that is necessary for life is in this garden. Trees for shade, cooling, comfort, fruitful food- housing for the animals, birds and people to live in. And the river flows through it as a life sustaining source. It's really quite exquisite.
The bible ends with another picturesque work of art: (Revelation 22:1-ff) "Then the angel of the Lord revealed to me the Water-of-Life River, crystal bright. It flowed from the Throne of God and the Lamb, right down the middle of the street. The Tree of Life was planted on each side of the River, producing 12 kinds of fruit, a ripe fruit each month! The nourished Tree Leaves are for the health of the nations."
These are depictions that make one burst into singing: "Oh how marvelous, oh how wonderful is our savior's love for us!"
Life, beauty, community, health, food, (I haven't read about a big big yard to play football, but it must be there- A CCM band wouldn't just make that up!?! would they?)......aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand- A RIVER! (that might make for a good name of a Kingdom Community:) )
A River is a Life Source, even John the disciple writes that it's the Water-of-Life River. A River brings life to trees, their leaves and fruit. A river makes for a good place to cool off. A river is where to be on a sunny (or should I say SONny!!!) day for a swing from a tree into the river! Rivers and water have other biblical and ancient cultural meanings as well.
In Jeremiah God told His people they were living in an Unreality, or NON-Reality, or maybe the best way to say it is- An INSANE reality, for they were forsaking Him, the Fountain of Living Water for broken cisterns that hold no water (Jeremiah 2).
In John 4 Jesus encounters a lonely lady at a well and speaks to her about Water that quenches thirst forever! In John 7 Jesus proclaims that whoever believes and embraces His Way (or Truth or Life) will have Flowing Rivers of Living Water in their life.
When we read Proverbs and especially Song of Solomon- we'll find Watery imagery used as euphemisms for coitus. E.g. "Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. Should your springs (or rivers..) be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets?...Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth.....let her love intoxicate you always in her love...."(Proverbs 5:15-19) or ".....a garden fountain, a well of living water, and flowing streams ....Let my love come to his garden and eat its choicest fruit" (411- the bible is filled with graphic sexual imagery that's meant for our good in many ways. We ought not to shy away from it. It's how we are both culturally relevant and counter-cultural examples, for we take sex to it's ultimate good).
In the Sumerian (which Abram/Abraham is from Sumer and much of our heritage can be traced back to this) culture (as well as others. the Chinese Symphony on "the meaning of water" and it's oral explanation is remarkable and vivacious) creation was seen as a mini-drama acting out the World and Lives of the gods. Rivers were considered the ejaculatory emissions of the gods bringing life to and through their mistresses.
Water, Rivers, streams, fountains, wells=Life! They are pictures of the flow of life and the meaning of life and the source of life!
So when we go into water for baptism-maybe the imagery or metaphor is infinitely deeper in meaning than just- "A Picture of the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus". As wonderful and infinite that is in and of itself- perhaps it means, maybe in it's infinitude- more?! Perhaps the water has meaning of health, forgiveness and cleansing-but MORE! Perhaps the Water is a drawing of the Life Christ lives and gives-but MORE! It could be that the water points to the beauty of Kingdom Life in Christ in more ways than we'll ever conceive in a million millenniums-
Water has so much meaning! Could it be that Baptism was never meant to be reduced to a symbol of just one aspect of the Faith Journey?
Perhaps some of the more to baptism (more than symbolic metaphors, more than identification with Christ and His people, more than ____________) is just the JOY of living in Christ and being filled with the Joy of the Holy Spirit. Often in scriptures when you see the Holy Spirit-you see Joy, excitement, ejaculatory excitement (like in Genesis 1 the Spirit hovering over the waters into the Marvelous manifestation of God's beauty through Light and then the rest of the creative narrative. And John the baptist leaped for joy, filled with the Spirit, as he heard in the womb of Jesus conception).
Water seems to be the ONE, unifying, thing regardless of the mode of Baptism: Maybe, just maybe the Water and it's plethora of meaning should be more our focus and less on the mode of baptism.
thoughts??
On September 28, 2008 we'll celebrate our 1 year anniversary. We already have some who are going to be baptized. It may prove to be monumental moment in the Genesis of The River to have several participate (even many) on this day. We certainly are not advocating that it is necessary to membership, fellowship, or salvation- just throwing it out for thought that this may be a Story day for The River in the years to come.
(Posted by Sam)
3 comments:
Wow, Sam, you could have been an English professor. Despite the grammatical errors, you write quite fluidly (pun intended). Seriously, though, your writing is very eloquent and exciting!
I am still thinking/praying (are they the same thing?) about the baptism thing.
I dont know what to say other then this one really got me thinking. It enlightened me a little, and was awesome to read.Thank you.
Whenever I think of water, I think of the power it has. When I worked at STB one of the job sites had an above ground, all cement pool that was pretty big. The house was right on Escambia Bay. When we went back to the house after hurricane Dennis (I think it was Dennis) the water had moved the pool several feet pushing it into the house. CRAZY. The only thing they could do with the pool was break it apart with jack hammers since it was so big and heavy.
I don't really know that this has anything to do with the topic or how it could be related but I guess you could use your imagination.
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