by Demi Prentiss

For in the water and the Word of baptism, we have been rooted into the very life of Christ.

What a glorious vision of what takes place at every baptism, and even at the four yearly occasions when Episcopalians renew our baptismal covenant (Feast of the Baptism of our Lord, Easter, Pentecost, and All Saints’ Day): “Rooted in the very life of Christ.” Like the tree planted by the water, we recognize that we are sustained by the Word of God (Jesus Christ, especially as revealed in scripture) and the water that represents God’s sustaining love, bathing us at all times and in all places.

The opening quote above was written by Mark S.B. Docken, a 1982 graduate of Luther Seminary, in a reflection on Psalm 1.  To offer more context:

….[T]here was a severe drought when I served in northeast Montana, and the Big Muddy went dry. Nevertheless, the cottonwoods were sustained by the subterranean moisture invisible to the eye. When we encounter the arid times of depression, oppression, loneliness, ill-health, and grief, we trust that God will sustain us even when we cannot sense it. For in the water and the Word of baptism, we have been rooted into the very life of Christ. “It is not I who lives, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). We trust that God is an ever-flowing stream of justice, unconditional love, and blessing.

Each day, each hour, each minute we are immersed in the blessing of being rooted in Christ. Our challenge is to claim and proclaim it, by living into our identity as members of Christ’s Body.