Pouring the Water
I
visited a Presbyterian Church which began their service by “Pouring the Water.”
A young girl in her early teens stood in front of the congregation with a pitcher
of water. My view was blocked by the podium, but she poured a portion of the
water into some type receptacle. Because no explanation was offered, I was left
to my own imagination as to the meaning of the ritual. At the time I thought
the symbolism might be connected to washing the disciple’s feet; then when I
got home I went online and found a reference to the Holy Spirit being poured
out. Finally I called Steve, who is a member of the congregation, to ask for
the meaning. When he told me it was for baptism it cracked me up because that particular
symbolism was not on my radar.
I’m
now wonder if something similar happened in the Corinthian church. The
intention was for the Corinthians to come together for the Lord’s Supper, but
the meaning was lost because the people were eating and drinking without
waiting for one another.
Paul
had to remind them not only of the symbolism attached to the elements of the Lord’s
Supper, but also the purpose. “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this
cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Therefore,
whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will
be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Cor 11:26-27
NIV).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Rituals. What are these oddities? Why are they? And do they serve any purpose? Let’s maybe further distinguish that last question; do they serve any good purpose? If you’ve read much of my bloviating, you’ve probably pondered with me how enormously complicated the mind is. I haven’t yet bloviated on how vast information is. John said this better than I could, “But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” (John 21:25)
-----Select one word from John’s brilliant sentence, say maybe “written”. Imagine this word did not exist. What would John have said instead? Would he have had to write an entire sentence, or even a paragraph in place of that word, addressing the papyrus then, paper now, parchment if you want it to last from then till now, the quill, the ink, the letters indicating bits of mutual understanding used to form words, and all the rules thereof, and the rules of interrelating words unto sentences. And then repeat it all over again because he twice used the word representing this concept. Thankfully there is the word “write”.
-----A ritual is much like a word. It carries a certain volume of meaning into a cultural situation like a word transports a burden of meaning into a sentence. Rituals are not without tangible significance. Sometimes a handshake is extremely important to whether events following it go one direction or the other. At 5PM of any weekday, stopping at the Main and Townsend red-light is a law keeping everyone safe. Stopping at the same red-light 3AM any morning is a ritual for respecting the law. “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” (I Pet 3:21) Peter says it’s the “word” by which God understands your appeal. If you don’t “speak” it, then have you really appealed? And having not appealed by the word God expects, should you yet be saved? Maybe not, according to Peter (forget Hoyle.)
-----Ritual is as important to communication as are paragraphs. But honestly, what two minds will land perfectly upon the identical meaning of “dog”, or any other word? Moreover, what two minds will read a paragraph and understand it exactly the same? Then does, “I hain’t gonna reckon same as y’all,” match “I will consider your thoughts, but I will draw my own conclusion?” These Presbyterian’s baptismal sits a yard in the air upon a tripod as a two gallon glass bowl. Now, if’n the Negro spiritual, “I’ll fly away,” holds any water, then I suppose one could be immersed therein after having become a birdie. Until then, I guess the Presbyterian baptism ritual is spoken in a dialect quite different than yours and mine, because we don‘t fit in that bowl for immersion. But God love them, I am rather convinced, it is the appeal that counts, not the dialect.
-----Now. About a ritual of my own. Only once has my name ever appeared on the roster of any church membership. That was when I had some far-flung idea I might be able to help XYZ Church’s consternation over serving without favoritism. But they had no inclination whatsoever to consider even the slightest possibility of lending even toe-room in their eldership for my participation. Other than that mistake, my name being in the Book of Life suffices for me to be a member of all those appealing to Him. It’s kind of my unique dialect.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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