Sunday, June 27, 2004
life-giving metaphors
I ran a thinking about baptism evening this week. We did a “dry, dummy, run”, then sat around and talked about what baptism means.
I find images of weddings, funerals and baths helpful.
A wedding is an outward statement of inner intent. You’ve been in love for a while, and you gather publicly, with your friends, to outwardly mark a growing inner journey. A funeral, as we participate in the death of Christ, as we go down into the waters, and trust in the “baptiser” to raise us to new life. A bath, a sign of washing and renewal.
Anyway, 9 people turned up. 5 of them are new to the church since we arrived less than 5 months ago. Which is very, very cool.
I love baptism because it is such a life-giving metaphor. There can be a deconstructive, cynical smell around some emerging church discussion. There can be a lot of Easter Friday, Stations of the Cross, woe is the church rants. Rants and cynicism have their place. But so does the celebration of life.
)
A Catholic community in Adelaide build a new place of worship a few years ago, as they built the new building they thought about how the images they use should be used in the building.
Along the walls there are a couple of lines that start as one colour and as they continue along the wall they becoome other colours, images of the beach where the building is placed, the Cross with Jesus on it…
As you walk into the building theres a massive rock pool in the entrance to the worship space. the wall that surrounds the pool has a high bowl and a path that leads to a lower bowl.
The lower bowl is for children who don’t wish to be immersed, the higher one for adults. The water is pumped from the pool into the higher bowl, travels along the path on the wall to the lower one symbolising living, moving water.
The water is alive, moving, not poured from a jug into a bowl, not in a swimming pool…
The idea is that people enter into the community through baptism. This is probably one of the coolest baptism fonts Ive seen…
Comment by Darren — June 27, 2004 @ 11:52 pm
Succinct reflection Steve. Darren..I need to see this church 🙂
Comment by Paul Fromont — June 28, 2004 @ 9:59 am