Two rivers cut through the town of New Braunfels, the Guadalupe and the Comal. No wonder the German settlers stopped there and started a city. A new friend told me the great challenge in central Texas is finding enough water to meet the needs of all the people who are moving there these days. It turns out we have to have water to live.
When the eunuch saw water by the road, he said to Philip, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized.” He had come to believe in Jesus Christ with all of his heart. His next step was “believers’ baptism”: baptism after he came to faith. Philip took him down into the water and baptized him.
I read this week that famous British actor Russell Brand is going to be baptized in the River Thames. You may have heard he is facing some challenges from his past libertine behavior. He may also be in legal trouble for some of those actions. I can’t weigh in on that because I don’t know the facts. But I did hear him say, “I’m taking the plunge. I want my sins to be washed away.” As I write this, I pray that Brand’s choice is sincere.
Robert Webber said, “We do the story of the gospel in worship.” In baptism, we are not just telling the story but living it. Plunged under the water, we die to our sin and our old lives and we rise to live a new life. It turns out we need water to show that we have come to life.
