Ever watch those news stories about the groups of people who line the shoreline on New Year’s Day to take the Polar Bear Plunge? No matter what the temperature is outside, as long as the water is in a liquid state, they think it’s a great idea to start the year diving into frigid water! Of course, I’m saying “they”, assuming that the people reading this have not done this, and I could be very wrong – please reach out to me if you have done it. I’d love to hear your experience.
As someone who is growing in his appreciation of being warm more and more each day the temperature dips below freezing, it would take a great deal of convincing to get me to try something like this. Even when it’s warm outside, I have to dip my big toe in the water before I’m ready take the plunge into a body of water. And of course, once I’m in and someone asks me how the water is, my response is usually something along the lines of “come on in, the water’s fine!”
This Sunday, we celebrate the Baptism of Christ – a day in which we remember Jesus coming to John the Baptist to be baptized and when we affirm the ongoing epiphany of the Spirit of God alighting on him like a dove, affirming him that this was God’s Son with whom he was well pleased. This was God’s way of inviting all of us into the Baptismal waters, stating emphatically that “the water’s fine.”
How have you received this invitation? Are you still sitting on the shore with your big toe in the water, or have you taken the plunge? This Sunday at 10 a.m., we will all have the opportunity to reaffirm our faith as we come to the font and consider how Jesus is inviting us to live out our faith in the coming year.