Last weekend, I traveled to Great Falls, Montana to help lead a gathering of Episcopal and Lutheran clergy in thinking about their preaching. It was a great conference, but one of the most surprising things about Great Falls was the way their airport introduces arriving passengers to an important feature of the area. When you get off the plane, instead of walking on some abstractly patterned carpet as in most airports, you find yourself ambling down a brown and blue mosaic, clearly marked with the name of one of the rivers that flow into Great Falls. As you and your fellow travelers flow towards baggage claim, the rivers also flow, merging one to the other, until the great Missouri River appears and tumbles down a waterfall as your escalator slowly descends to the lower level.
When I got home, and read the news on Monday, NASA had announced that they believe there is flowing water on Mars. As a bit of pure science, this is amazing, since we had known about frozen water at the pole, but liquid water is one of the most encouraging signs that there may be (or may have been, or one day could be) some kind of recognizable life on the Red Planet. As an armchair sociologist, I was even more excited, since I know the role that flowing water has played in developing human culture. Many times we describe flowing water as “living” water, precisely because it is so very important to our thriving.
And of course, as a Christian and a theologian, the possibility of flowing water immediately brings to mind not only the roiling waters of creation, but also the living water of baptism. Last year, Pope Francis was asked if he would baptize a Martian. He said he would, so long as the Martian expressed the desire to be baptized. This week’s revelation of flowing water on Mars made me think that perhaps one day those Martians wouldn’t have to travel all the way to Earth, for just as the Ethiopian said to Philip, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” (Acts 8:36)
The flowing of the water in the river, or in baptism, reminds us that all life is movement and change. We are made and kept alive, by that which flows around us.
How can you see the “changes and chances” of your life and think of them as a life-giving waterfall? What parts of your life could use a thaw?
Micah Jackson (@Micah_SSW) is the Bishop John Hines Associate Professor of Preaching at Seminary of the Southwest. Micah’s interests include homiletic form, the spiritual discipline of preaching, and the postmodern relationship between the preacher and the congregation.