Editor’s Note: We continue to look at alternative texts today for Day 2 of this summer’s “The Water of Life” curriculum.
Prayer: We thank you, Lord, for claiming us in the waters of baptism. Amen. Reading: Matthew 3: 1-17 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: In the cold days of winter, it is delightful to think of the warm and hot days spent by the pool or the creek. The hotter the days, the more magnetic the water seems to become. Even those that don’t really want to swim that day have their feet in and are happy to be splashed by the goofballs and whipper-snappers. The cannonball, belly flop, or biggest splash competitions cannot be spitefully aimed at the dry row of edge sitters. In the heat, they cheer and welcome the splash. Do we see the Baptism of Jesus as a tame thing, with the water barely parting to receive the Creator of all that is aquatic? Or was there a large splash with water droplets flying around. Did a small wave or set of ripples race away from his descent into the Spirit Water? It might be better for us to see this scene as splashing and lively. It would be good to envision that if we were there, we would be in the “splash zone.” Baptism is not only reverent and special, holy and honored. It is also fun and full of life, kooky and weird to the world. It is delightful and refreshing, inspiring and awesome. Who wins the biggest splash competition? God. God is a show-off and always wins (even when playing against our worst enemies). --Andrew Fitch
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