Water is precious and life giving. Holiness is too. So the question is, what do we do with the precious, holy water remaining in the baptismal font after a baptismal service?
On Pentecost Sunday we confirmed three young ladies, baptizing two of them. The water is still
in the baptismal font, though the second Sunday in Kingdomtide has come and gone. I don't want to waste this precious holy water in any mindless act - like pouring it down the drain or turfing it out on the lawn. For it is still precious. It is still holy. And so it is still there...potentially life giving, capable of nurturing soil and soul, needing an appropriate place to go.Soil and soul! Why not? Why not let the holy water continue as "outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace?" Why not?
And so we, the three confirmands and I - Kaylee, Kelsey, Emily and Pastor Roger - will gather soon to
water devotion, worship, compassion and justice, as these are represented by the four herbs planted in the four little crosses of the Jerusalem Cross Garden. Perhaps this use of the holy, baptismal water, will help us watch the herbs grow with a special interest. And as we watch them yield their fragrant leaves, perhaps we will "remember our baptisms" and be grateful, even as we reflect on how our Christian lives, rooted in acts of devotion and worship, engage in kingdom actions of compassion and justice. Or do not!And there is more as we potentially connect garden with CommonGround Cafe. Harvesting and using these herbs at church meals to flavor our food, perhaps we will "taste and see that the Lord is good," helping the outward and visible and "tastable" to nurture the inward and invisible within our souls - that we might be fed both of soil and soul.
Definition: Sacrament - An outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace.
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