Baptism and the Environment

I closed the last blog post by noting that for Christians worship is a physical act as well as being an inner disposition of praise and adoration for God.  The clearest biblical warrant for this statement is Romans 12:1, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

Holy Baptism is the first step in presenting our bodies to God as living sacrifices.  In Baptism Christians sacramentally die to the self-directed living which consumes creation as a means to satisfy our disordered passions (cf., Romans 6; 1 John 2:15-17).  In Baptism they are raised to a new life that is conformed to the self-giving love Jesus demonstrated on the cross. Offering our entire being in love to God points to the priestly role[1] we play as we offer creation back to God in the Eucharistic celebration.  More will be said of this in future posts.   

If we take a look at the rite contained in the Book of Common Prayer, we see that the baptismal liturgy elevates concern for the created order.  In the traditional threefold renunciation of the world, the flesh, and the devil in the liturgy, candidates are asked: “Do you renounce the evil powers of the world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God?”[2]  This question is intentionally broad enough to include not merely renunciation of the forces that harm humans, but anything that spoils God’s creation.  It logically follows that the corrupting and destroying forces of environmental degradation are included among the “evil powers.”  To follow Christ as a baptized believer is to reject such forces.

Later in the service the “Thanksgiving over Water” is offered.  This prayer traces its lineage back to the first Book of Common Prayer (1549) and incorporates Old Testament typology and a reference to the baptism of Jesus.  This is significant for our discussion because Christ’s baptism in the Jordan has deep theological implications for environmental spirituality. Marion Hatchett, who wrote the definitive commentary on the 1979 prayer book observes, “Early church fathers pointed out that all water has been sanctified for the sacrament of baptism by the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Jordan River.”[3] 

Hatchett probably had in mind St John Chrysostom (among others) who in a homily for Feast of Theophany (January 6) declares: “This present day it is, on which He was baptized and sanctified the nature of water.”[4]  What is significant in these observations is that receiving John’s baptism does not alter Christ.  Rather, when Jesus is baptized the waters of the Jordan (and by extension all creation) are renewed and consecrated again to God. 

Thus, those who are baptized into Christ are in one sense participating in the renewal and hallowing of all creation.   In the baptism of Jesus, God reclaims his material creation and once again calls it good.  All of creation is made a means of grace and pulsates with the energies of God. Moreover, in his baptism the God-Man Jesus Christ is presented as the archetype of the new humanity and thus reveals humanity’s distinct vocation in the physical world.  Christ’s blessing of creation through his baptism becomes the vocation of all the baptized.

I’ll have more to say on the connection between baptism and environmental concern in my next post.

Ben+