Memories!  They are part of the very fabric of our lives. Memories shape us-mold us-into the beings that we are as we travel from moment to moment in our worldly existence.   All that we have done, and all of which we have been a part in the past is with us now.  Blessing or tragedy, the experiences of our lives are with us.  Our sufferings and our joys shape us into who we are and what we are becoming.

Some of my earliest memories include crawling around under the dining room table in my family's two story rented apartment that seemed as big as a house--although it probably wasn't.   My world looked different under that table. a new, expanded view had opened up, in some way. With no central heating system, just a "Hot Boy" stove in the middle of the house, my sisters and I would hover around that stove in the cold Pennsylvania winter mornings after hurriedly leaving our way-too-cold bedrooms where we could create designs with our fingers in the frost that formed inside the windows. With a great deal of effort involved in just getting warmly dressed, we'd some time later head out to climb the hill to school, tightly bundled in our boots, snowpants, hats, mittens and warm coats, to the point we were in real trouble if we ever lost our balance or had to reach down to pick something up from the ground!

There are so many more of those simple memories as my world further expanded-going to my grandmother's house where her table always had a small glass dish of Canada mints that she would offer to us (we didn't get candy at home!),  opening special Christmas gifts every year from cousins who were so nice to always think of us, sharing the bathtub-and the same water-with my two sisters, water that had been heated by my mother in a tea kettle on the stove.

Then there were those special summer day trips to Lake Erie for swimming on the peninsula, renting a cabin for a week at Canadohta Lake from a man who would eventually become my high school math teacher, hiking to a favorite old swimming hole-called the Snake Pit--from a friend's farm where a group of girlfriends and I picked cherries every summer to earn money, packing our whole family of five into a small car for a driving trip to Panama City, Florida to look at property purchased for a possible future move-I had never even been to New England, let alone Florida-and then being overwhelmed by the bugs and tropical storms.  My world kept getting larger!

I now have my grandmother's old covered china dish with the pink flowers on the sides, my great Aunt Bessie's inlaid wooden tray with the glass bottom, and a dish my mother got on a trip to Ireland, to remind me of more special moments, while my cousin still owns the old pump organ that my sisters and I would play when we visited my dad's parents-Grandma Grace and Grandpa Will--in their nearby small rural town.   Until. at this present time, we're at the point where Jerry and I have vast and varied memories of the special family we have created-and been gifted with--together-all that our own children and we have been, and done and become-a lifetime of remembrances that are a part of us today. and always will be.

You have your experiences, your stories, your past that is a part of you, for situations and people have touched each of us in unique ways, and both the old and the new continue to weave together as we travel on this earthly journey of our lives.

Some of those moments of our past are treasured spiritual and church family memories.  My family used to gather 'round that old pump organ at my grandparents on Sunday afternoons and sing the familiar old-time hymns until we just couldn't sing any more, one of us pumping and the other one playing, as you did those old organs.  Then I'd read a portion of the Holy Bible to my mother each evening-because she "needed" me to. besides walking the several blocks to Sunday School each week, getting perfect attendance awards.  I remember my navy blue shiny, full taffeta skirt and white, lace-trimmed sheer blouse, with patent leather shoes and white socks,  that I wore week after week, rain or shine, because they were my Sunday clothes.

Yet there's more to our world than what even just these kinds of experiences and recollections would indicate, isn't there?  For we have all that we have accumulated in knowledge and awareness of the world around us-our view and insight on such things as the people-constructed world of buildings, metal and concrete, transportation facilities, manufactured and created products, artistic structures and objects of all kinds, flowers, mountains, valleys, trees and plants, birds of every kind, the animal kingdom-all species-and the whole natural world of the elements-wind, sunshine, soil, minerals, rocks-and water in all its forms:  ice, hail, sleet, snow, rain-mild showers to violent thunderstorms with lightning and more--water, in all its changing habitats, from swamps, mudholes, ponds and lakes to the sea and oceans, tide pools, streams, creeks, waterfalls and rivers.  Water for drinking, for watering,  for swimming, for bathing, for washing clothes, for cooling technology, water for baptism and more.

As we realize the vital and relevant, even life-giving, quality of water in our lives, the memories of each of us merge with all the memories of our faith, and we are taken back to the earliest beginnings of our world as we know it, when in Genesis, the wind swept across a world of chaos and the rains came.

Indeed, the whole universe was water to begin with! Rivers watered the Garden of Eden.   And then the floods came, yet water saved the people as it carried the ark.   The Israelites escaped through the Red Sea, while the River Jordan opened up for Joshua, and Elijah, and Elisha-and they crossed over.   The prophet Ezekiel tells us how water flowed down, from the altar and out of the temple.

A divine/human man named Jesus, born of water, was to become the Savior of the world.  He was to wash a blind man's eyes from the pool at Siloam, and turn the water into wedding wine at Cana.  He would choose his disciple, Andrew, the fisherman, from the banks of the Sea of Galilee, and he would preach and teach along its shores, walk on it like it was pavement, and take fish from there into his nets.  The Sea of Galilee flows into the Jordan River and it was here, today's scripture in Luke tells us, that humble Jesus, the servant leader, was baptized by John the Baptist.

Yes, Jesus came to the River Jordan to be baptized in its waters by his cousin, John the Baptist, as he was known.  John had been preaching for repentance and baptizing people long before Jesus came along.  Yet John lets everyone know that his cousin is more powerful than he is, for John admits that he is not worthy to even carry his cousin's sandals.  For Jesus, John says, will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Friends, this is life-changing, world-changing news. That same Jesus Christ died and rose again to redeem us, and because He did that, and because we are united with Christ in baptism, the Holy Spirit is likewise upon each of us-as a dove--when we, too, are baptized.  As Christians, we have an ever-developing relationship with our Savior that lasts through our lifetime and beyond.  We're a part of that community of faith that is eternal, serving in justice and love as did Christ.

Now, we only do baptism once in the United Methodist Church, and we accept the baptism of other denominations as valid.  The gift of the Holy Spirit is for each of us-and for the whole dry and thirsty world.

So today we are going to revisit our baptism-or simply reflect on the sacrament, if you have not yet been baptized-remembering that in baptism, we follow Christ into the water, and rise with Christ out of the water.  We experience the Holy Spirit being poured upon us and filling us, remembering that life and refreshment are offered to all who would draw near to the water.

Come to the water.  Come follow Jesus.

(Sermon was followed by a Reaffirmation of the Baptismal Covenant)