The Power of Water
Long Island Sound triptych by Kate Norris
People often ask the question, “Are you a mountain person or an ocean person? Which do you prefer?” This line of questioning usually falls in the context of conversations about vacations or dream homes, where you’d want to spend your time if you could be anywhere. Which one is the place where you feel most at home, at peace, where you are rejuvenated? My response is usually, “Well, since we’re dealing with the hypothetical here, I’d have to have both a mountain house and an ocean house.” Yes, I want to have my cake and eat it too. You folks who live in Alaska or Hawaii have it made:). But the truth is while I love the mountains, I am more of an ocean person…which is why we now live on an island. I want to be on the coast. I absolutely love the water. It has always been a restorative place for me.
If you ever come to our home, you will notice that we have a lot of paintings that are water themed. In fact, for one of my birthday presents Kate painted me a triptych (one painting that covers three canvasses - above) of one of my favorite places on earth, the beach at looking out onto the Long Island Sound. It is a place that I go frequently to spend time with God and to essentially reconnect with myself…especially when life feels chaotic. I love the water. It is a healing place for me.
The Bible is full of talk about the water. The sea and the ocean are images that are employed from start to finish. In Genesis you have God hovering over the waters at the beginning of creation and in Revelation you have the sea of glass surrounding the throne of heaven. The ocean and the sea are significant throughout Scripture, but they are not usually the way we think about them. Very often we think of the ocean like my painting of a serene place or like a Corona commercial (the beer, not the virus) somewhere in the Caribbean with aqua blue water and white sandy beaches. But usually in the Bible the image of the ocean or the sea is used to convey something very different. It is often used to convey the idea of chaos, a force that is uncontrollably powerful, that is calm one moment and the next has the potential to sink boats, cause floods, and destroy homes and anything else in its path. In the Bible, and in the Ancient Near East in general, the ocean was more often a force of potential destruction. It was unpredictable at best.
As Kate’s post on grieving over Hurricane Ida highlighted, this is still a reality for us today and only seems to be getting worse thanks to global warming. There have been so many devastating storms in recent years. Ida, Dorian, Maria, Matthew, Harvey, Sandy, Katrina, and on and on. Each of these displayed the enormous destructive power of rain and the ocean. Thousands of people are still without power in New Orleans right now (weeks after the storm) and the loved ones of the 116 people who died across 9 states and Venezuela as a result of Ida are grieving their loss. The Biblical writers understood that the sea was a force of death as much as anything else.
Peter uses the imagery of the ocean and water in his first letter to the Christians who were scattered throughout Asia Minor (1 Peter 3:18-22). He refers to Noah’s flood, the great flood…when all of the waters covered the earth in Genesis 6-9. The water was used for judgment, to put to death those rebellious against God…the destructive power of the water. At the same time, Peter says that Noah and his family were brought safely through water. God had saved them in the ark.
The floating life-sized replica of Noah’s ark built by a Dutch contractor. I don’t think the original had the nice bay windows though.
The thing which was used for judgment, the power of the water, ultimately created the opportunity for redemption and re-creation. Scientifically, we know this to be true about water…it is the source of all life for our planet. Jesus takes it even further when he promises to give us living water that results in eternal life (John 4). This was not lost on Peter and the other Biblical writers. He references Noah and the flood in order to remind his readers and us of baptism. Baptism is God preaching to us through the water. It’s no wonder why I like the water so much. Just like Noah and his family, when you are baptized you are brought safely through the water, but it is not in the wooden ark, rather it is through the wood of the cross of Christ. Our baptism carries all of the judging destructive power associated with the sea. We go under the water symbolizing our death, judgment against our sin…where we are united with Jesus on the cross (as Paul tells us in Romans 5-6). But it also carries all the re-creative power as well…we are brought up out of the water to new life. Resurrected. We are united with Jesus in his resurrection.
This is what Peter means when he says, “not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience” (v. 21). It was not about just making us clean on the outside (the removal of dirt), but rather changing us completely from the inside out—God gives us a good conscience. We are no longer afraid of judgment or constantly trying to prove ourselves or save ourselves because it has already happened. The death that everyone is afraid of in this world has already happened for the Christian. It is behind them in their baptism. We have a good conscience because we have God’s promise that he has recreated us anew through the water. He has done it!
Peter’s goal in this passage is to remind us of the supremacy of Jesus…that he is the ultimate power…he has the final say over you. Life is full of chaos. The ocean imagery is appropriate…whether it be an actual storm that has wreaked havoc in your life or the lives of those you love (as Ida has recently done for so many) or if it is some other kind of storm you’re going through: sickness, injury, job loss, job stress, parenting, a broken relationship, no relationship, etc. Jesus is more powerful than it. He promises you that this storm will not have the final say over you. Even and especially if this storm has you facing death itself. Jesus has conquered death in every way shape or form. Everything has been made subject to him. He is the supreme power. Just as God hovered over the waters in creation and brought order out of chaos, just as he saved Noah and his family through the waters in the ark, and just as he raises the dead out of the chaos of their sin into new life in baptism…so too will Jesus bring you safely through the waters home to God.
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