Sermon - The Rev. Leah D. Schade
Reformation Lutheran Church, Media, PA
April 22, 2007
Texts:  Genesis 2:4-8;  Isaiah 55:1-3, 10-13; John 9:1-11

A few weeks ago we were in our staff meeting and looking ahead to today’s worship service, talking over everything that is going on today.  First of all, it’s Earth Day when we celebrate our Eco-ministry and our stewardship of the earth this congregation with a special Eco-Fair between the worship services.  It’s also Sekuco Sunday when we lend our support to the building of Sebastian Kolowa University College in Tanzania, the only institution of higher learning that will train teachers, lawyers and business leaders to help people with special needs.  And (at the 11:00 service) we have the baptism of Benjamin Rummel Schade.  For those of you visiting with us today, this may seem to be a bit much to fit all into one Sunday.  However, I can assure you that this is just a typical Sunday at Reformation!

When I first began thinking about the sermon for today, it seemed a daunting task to weave all these seemingly disparate threads into some kind of coherent theme.  But look closely at the texts we have for today, and you’ll find the common theme that will pull all of this together.  And that theme is:  water! 

Let’s begin with our first reading from the book of Genesis.  In this creation story, we watch as God creates the first human being.  “There went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.   Then the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

Now, listen to the sixth verse of the passage in Hebrew:
ve.ed ya.a.le min-ha.a.rets ve.hish.ka et-kol-pe.nei ha.a.da.ma:

When we studied this text with Mark Wallace our Scholar-in-Residence last year, we noted the connection between the earth, “adama” and the mist or water coming up from the ground, “a-le”.  What happens when you mix dirt and water together?  What do you get?  Mud!  And it is out of this primordial substance that Adam is formed.  It’s as if God was a child playing in a mud puddle, making a mud or clay doll, breathing into it, and gave it life. 

Now, let’s jump to our gospel lesson from John.  When Jesus encounters the blind man, what does he do?  He spits into the dirt and makes . . . mud!  He mixes water and dirt together into a kind of healing slurry which he then spreads on the man’s eyes.  Now this may sound kind of gross to us, but there is deep symbolism to Jesus actions.  Just as God made a new creation out of water and dirt, Jesus makes a new creation with this same substance.  This young man, who was blind from birth, has become a new man!  A new Adamah, if you will.  So new, in fact, that his neighbors don’t even recognize him! 

And then Jesus sends the man to wash in the Pool of Siloam.  Why this particular body of water?  Well, Siloam is a rock-hewn basin fed by a spring Jerusalem.  The Hebrew root of the word Siloam is shalach (shaw-lakh), which as the text indicates, means “sent.”  It can mean “to send away”, “send for” and “send out.”

This word, “sent” plays a key role in what happens next.  After sending the man to wash in the Pool of Siloam, his eyes are opened.  And then the man is sent to the Pharisees who are infuriated that Jesus has healed him.  And then the man is driven out, sent away by the Pharisees, where he encounters Jesus again, and is finally sent out into the world to tell about his encounter with the Son of Man. 

Now, how does all of this connect to baptism?  Well, the process of conception and birth is a lot like this mixing of water and dirt.  I remember looking at ultrasound pictures of Benjamin - it was like seeing a primordial life form replicated from that first being made of water and dirt.  Here God was again fashioning a new creation inside of me using the most basic of elements.  And as Benjamin descended through the birth canal, like all other children before him, he was washed in the birth waters, his own little Pool of Siloam, and then sent out as a new being in the world.  His very existance proclaims the awesome wonder of God’s hands, and creates faith within me.

That symbolism of being washed and then sent out by the water is re-created in the baptism ritual.  Our bodies are symbolically submerged in the waters of creation - the same water that rose up as a mist in the Garden of Eden, the same water in which the Jesus was baptized in Jordan, the same water in which the blind man bathed at the Pool of Siloam. 

The drops of water on Benjamin’s skin will connect him to the water that was poured on his sister, Rachel, at her baptism, and to their parents, Jim and me, and to each of our families in their baptisms.  That same water also connects him to all the Christians in this church and in every church around the world.

And it goes to an even broader level.  Water becomes a metaphor for the work of Christians and the Church.  We, like all baptized Christians, are being sent to the water to have our eyes opened and, in turn, offer our life-giving water to others.  Then, we are able to be poured out as a blessing to others.  As the prophet Isaiah writes:

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
   and do not return there until they have watered the earth . . .
 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
   it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
   and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

There is that word again: “sent”; in Hebrew “shalach” (shaw-lakh).  There is a definite purpose to God’s word, which, like water, is sent from above, nourishes all the earth, giving it life, and then returns again to the heavens as  . . . vapor, mist.  Like the mist enshrouding the earth at the beginning of Creation.  Are you seeing the connections here? 

We are each part of the astonishing, interconnected cycle of life.  And we, too, are being poured out like water to nourish the earth.  That’s why we do the work of ecological cleansing through our recycling program, and our eco-ministry which looks for ways that we can care for the earth that is in our charge. 

It’s why we reach out, far across the globe, to a place like Tanzania to extend our ministry to that place.  From what I understand, Tanzania is a dry place.  There is not much there but dirt and poor families.  But the assistance we are sending there is like water for a healing slurry.  Sekuco will be a new creation, rising up out of the ground, helping to introduce Special Education to Tanzania.  And Sekuco will open people’s eyes to the potential that lies within special needs individuals – people who would have been previously hidden away, just like that blind man in the story.   Those educated at Sekuco will be sent out to help the helpless, and, in turn, make a new creation for those with special needs.

Yes, today it’s all about the water.  The water that rains down to earth.  The water that fills this baptismal font.  The water that washed the blind man at Siloam.  The water that will wash Benjamin and all baptized Christians.  The water that will lift us up and send us out into the world to serve and pour forth our life for others. 

“Wash, O God, our sons and daughters, where your cleansing waters flow.  Number them among your people; bless as Christ blessed long ago.  We your people stand before you, water-washed and Spirit-born.  By your grace, our lives we offer.  Recreate us; God, transform.”

God has made us the people of Siloam, shalach. 

Go forth as The Washed Ones; The Sent Ones.  Amen.