Water is a primal force of creation and cleansing. The Old Testament creation story describes the earth as nothing but darkness but with the Spirit of God "hovering over the waters." The story of Noah shows God cleansing the earth with a great flood.
When water comes from taps and faucets, we forget that every drop came from some other place. Our creation itself is patterned on where water is and flows. Creation is made up of watersheds—creeks and streams and aquifers that form a particular ecological region. Unless we learn to see our lives as connected to our watersheds, we will forget that clean water is a gift that we could easily lose through mismanagement, environmental degradation and pollution.
Many people in the world do not have to wonder where water comes from. They know that it comes from this river or that lake. In an age of ecological crisis, they also know that the water is often polluted with everything from pesticides to sewage. In response, scholar Ched Myers suggests that perhaps we should baptize not with the water from the faucet, anonymous in its origin, but rather with water from the nearest river or lake. If that water is polluted, then we can work to change and clean it—and remember that people around the world do not have the choices we do when it comes to clean water
About 70 percent of the earth’s surface is covered by water, but only 3 percent of that is fresh water. These statistics are alarming, but they are a daily reality for the community of Ontong Java in the Solomon Islands, the site of an Episcopal Relief & Development program.
For several years, the nearly 3,000 residents on the remote atoll have struggled to adapt to the rising seawaters and the salinization of their water sources. Believing that everyone should have access to clean water, Episcopal Relief & Development has facilitated the strategic placement of over twenty large rainwater harvesting tanks to supply the community with clean water.
There is the other side of water – drought. As Bishop Goff pointed out in a quiet day in 2013, Holy Scripture is filled with imagery of refreshing waters that restore parched lands and parched souls
Water has a positive side. We toured the Waterways exhibit in Feb., 2018 at the Fredericksburg Museum and brought out the dual role of water. Pictures and description of visit.
In John’s telling of Jesus’ first miracle, Jesus asks the servants to “Fill the jars with water,” and they fill them to the brim. Similarly, the Polynesian residents fill their rainwater harvesting tanks to the brim and experience a similar miracle of transformation from what could be a disastrous situation into one of good news and hope.
Water is very present in Baptism. Baptism means immersion or bath in Greek. The immersion cleanses the person of sin and provides rebirth into Christian life.
The Holy Spirit is the source of all life. It is the Spirit that moves over the waters of chaos, bringing Life. The Spirit’s presence at Jesus’ baptism is the sign that he is truly human – a human being in the image of God filled with the Life of God. Jesus fulfils God’s purposes in creating human beings. In John 3:5 Jesus answered Nicodemus, "No one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and spirit"