Watering the Garden

A Liturgy for Remembering our Baptism based on The United Methodist Baptismal Covenant.

In our tradition, baptism begins with answering questions, not, I think, with the certainty of belief but with a persistent hope that God is still bringing forth growth in us. I ask you these questions now:

Do those of you gathered here today acknowledge that the soil in which we have been planted has been corrupted by evil and sin, and do you seek to repent of your part in that pollution?

I do.

Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to pull up the weeds of evil, injustice, and oppression that have taken root in so many ways?

I do.

Do you seek to ground yourself in Jesus Christ as your Savior, rooting yourself in his grace, and promising to serve with him in the Great Garden of Creation, in union with the Church which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations, and races?

I do.

Will you nurture one another in Christ's holy Church, that by your teaching and example we may all be guided to blossom and grow in God's grace, professing our faith openly and leading a Christian life?

I will. 

Now let us pray over the water together. The Lord be with you.

And also with you!

Let us pray:

O Great Gardener, you walked in paradise calling forth new life from the soil, even human life! You caused it to rain upon the ground, and sent forth rivers to water your garden, and you set us to till it and keep it. Even when violence entered your world when we watered your garden with the blood of our siblings, still you tended to us, offering us mercy. You led us from the wilderness of slavery into the garden of freedom. Even in days of disobedience and of drought, your love soaked our soil, and you kept us warm with the glow of your compassion.

Let us sing of God’s mercy, that the song might be heard even in the depths of the earth.

You sent us Jesus the Christ, nurtured in the water of a womb. He told stories of gardeners who were abundant in their sowing, creative in their fertilizing, and who raised surprisingly large plants from itsy bitsy seeds. Jesus cared for our bodies as a gardener cares for plants by healing and feeding us. And Jesus tended to our souls like a gardener, coaxing and nurturing us into new life. In his baptism, he invited us to be baptized. In his gardening, he invited us to garden with him. 

May we wait with patience and hope as Christ’s works sprout, take root, and bloom throughout creation. 

Pour out your Holy Spirit, to bless this gift of water and we who receive it. May it nurture us, even if we feel impossibly buried in the earth. As we drink in this water, help us break through our seed coat. Transform us, making the deserts and wilderness within us like Eden, that we might join in Christ’s gardening work, tending to the world around us. 

All praise to you Eternal Gardener, through Jesus Christ who calls us by name in the world when our hearts crack open to hear it, and through the Holy Spirit in whom we take root and through whose encouragement we bloom. Amen.

I will be sprinkling us with this water, rather than anointing each of you individually. As you feel the water, think of it as rain nurturing you and encouraging your growth. 

May we remember our baptism and be thankful! The Holy Spirit is still working within us, that being born through water and the Spirit, we may live into the defiant hope of new life. Amen.