What’s the Point of Holy Sacraments? Receive Your Baptism of Fire and Spirit
There will be a live audio Reflection & Prayer Service with community text chat in connection with this Multimedia Service this Sunday evening at 9 pm ET. Catch the audio and chat at the bottom of this page or on our Worship page. Video is posted there later.
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OPENING SONGS
Wash Away
Joe Purdy
Baptized In Fire
Kid CuDi
Mhm
Easy, back up, back up, back up, back up
Turn your radio, turn your radio, off
Watch me now, baby, baby
Uh uh, uh uh
[Verse 1: Kid Cudi]
B****es in my ear, they saying they love me
Uh, you don't love Scott, you love the Kid Cudi
I ain't no f***ing slouch, show you what I'm 'bout
My energy is a bit too precious, too drenched in them blessings
Transitioning to my inner, I'm hearing their voice
Tell me stay in focus, keep focusing, boy
Feeling like a trilli billi
The man everywhere I go, in any city
I mean, damn, the girls, girls, girls galore
I mean, damn, the girls, girls, girls adore
Mixing fluorescent to the core of the accoutrement
Off the tippy titty, setting off my groupie radar
Sipping Hen', dapping hands off the roof of my Porsche
A fresh n**** at large, a fresh n**** go hard
All my youngins say "keep it going"
All my youngins, they dumb and repping, they always knowing
[Pre-Hook: Kid Cudi]
Got some pride in your town, I'm spotting 'em lately
Three-piece suit and I'm looking so cute
Sexy mama, send her way, you doing it honey
Them hating f***s sideline and question what you do
Not this, my nigga, you be here (be here)
Not this, my nigga, you ain't here (ain't here)
Big boss, I made your heart heavy (Uh-uh)
Can't stop me, can't carry me, baby
[Hook: Travis Scott]
Life ain't easy sober, we live so geeky (yah)
Did just what you taught us, kept peace, no drama (yah)
Phoned home to the moon, did you change your number?
If and when you get this message, need you back home
Big bro, big bro, big bro, big bro - back home
Big bro, we need you, come home - back home
Big bro, big bro, s***'s f***ed, come home
High-igh-igher, high-igh, high-igh-igher
High-igh-igher, high-igh, high-igh-igher
High-igh-igher, high-igh, high-igh-igher
High-igh-igher, high-igh, high-igh-igher
[Verse 2: Kid Cudi]
Aye, aye, nightmares kept a n**** from closing his lids
Since a kid, I've been haunted by visions of death
Such a trip, now it's normal, I customed the grip
Think they gone, nah, they just dormant the haunted ain't left
Now tell me what's a young n***** to do
When the zombies are coming for you?
Load up them Daryl Dixons
Survived the rage, turn the page, relaxing, I'm whippin'
Last week I almost weaved right off of Mulholland
Chiefing good like I should, alone in my thoughts
All the awesome places I've gone to and witnessed
Is it worth the paranoia, betrayal, or loss?
Nah nah, heroes can't simply have it all
Sacrifice, but see heroes don't sleep, we hear the call
My nieces know Uncle Scottie is so rock 'n' roll
My princess Vada know rock 'n' roll daddy got the glow
[Pre-Hook: Kid Cudi & Travis Scott]
Got some pride in your town, I'm spotting 'em lately
Three-piece suit and I'm looking so cute (yah)
Sexy mama, send her way, you doing it honey
Them hating f***s sideline and question what you do
Not this, my n****, you be here (be here)
Not this, my n****, you ain't here (ain't here)
Big boss, I made your heart heavy (Uh-uh)
Can't stop me, can't carry me, baby
[Hook: Travis Scott]
Life ain't easy sober, we live so geeky (yah)
Did just what you taught us, kept peace, no drama
Phoned home to the moon, did you change your number?
If and when you get this message, need you back home
Big bro, big bro, big bro, big bro - back home
Big bro, we need you, come home - back home
Big bro, big bro, s***'s f***ed, come home
High-igh-igher, high-igh, high-igh-igher
High-igh-igher, high-igh, high-igh-igher
High-igh-igher, high-igh, high-igh-igher
High-igh-igher, high-igh, high-igh-igher
READINGS
670 [1] The Washing Called Baptism Means a Spiritual Washing, Which Is the Process of Being Purified from Evils and Falsities and Therefore the Process of Being Regenerated
As we know from the statutes given through Moses, the children of Israel were commanded to wash. For example, Aaron had to wash before putting on his ministerial clothes (Leviticus 16:4, 24), and also before performing rituals at the altar (Exodus 30:18-21; 40:30-32). The Levites were commanded to do the same (Numbers 8:6-7), and so were people whose sins had made them unclean. They were said to be sanctified by washing (Exodus 29:1, 4; 40:12; Leviticus 8:6). Therefore to give people a place to wash, there was a "sea" made of bronze and many washbasins placed around the Temple (1 Kings 7:23-39). People were also told to wash their vessels, furniture, and household items such as tables, saddles, beds, plates, and cups (Leviticus 11:32; 14:8-9; 15:5-12; 17:15-16; Matthew 23:25-26).
671. It is clear from the following passages that the washings just mentioned prefigured and foreshadowed, that is, symbolized, spiritual washings that purify us from evils and falsities.
When the Lord has washed excrement from the daughters of Zion, and has washed away blood, in the spirit of judgment and the spirit of cleansing . . . (Isaiah 4:4)
Even if you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stains of your wickedness will remain. (Jeremiah 2:22; Job 9:30-31)
Wash me from my wickedness and I will be whiter than snow. (Psalms 51:7, 9)
O Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil so that you will be saved. (Jeremiah 4:14)
Wash yourselves; purify yourselves. Remove the evil of your actions from before my eyes. Stop doing evil. (Isaiah 1:16)
What's the Point of Holy Sacraments? Receive Your Baptism of Fire and Spirit
By REV. cory Bradford-watts
We all know what baptism is, or at least, we each tend to have an opinion on what it is or should be. Baptism can mean different things for many different people, some even think that a Christian baptism in their specific church is the only gateway to heaven, for children, adults, and even people from other worlds.
Emanuel Swedenborg, the 18th century scientist turned mystical theologian, also emphasized the importance of baptism - not as the only means to Heaven, far from it, but as a spiritual and external marker of someone's internal cleansing and their connection with the Christian church, as well as their commitment to grapple and embody its ideas. He went as far as to say that external baptism allowed a person to become more connected with angelic-Christians in Heaven, allowing that person to be more conjoined, protected, and influenced by that specific type of angel (a Christian person who has died, now living and working within the Lady's qualities in the spiritual realm).
Although my first reaction years ago to Swedenborg's description of how baptism helps connect us with angelic communities was to guffaw (react with surprise and some contempt), ultimately it makes sense even in a more holistic light. All of our everyday practices and actions serve as a reaction to and in conjunction with the spiritual realm, and each of our habits and initiations bring us into closer or more distant connections with spirits of all types, people throughout and beyond this world, at least in Swedenborg's view. A sacrament, no matter our religion, must surely work to do the same - especially to the degree that we honor, understand, and embody said sacrament.
Interestingly, baptism in particular transcends Christian faiths in ways many of us often fail to realize. The Jewish people of the Hebrew Bible sometimes performed bathing rituals that are similar to baptism. People within the Hindu faith perform sacraments that involve bathing, which are also often said to cleanse them and connect them with God and their aim of becoming Heavenly, at one with Divinity, or transcendent. Most Muslims have daily washing rituals before prayers in order to ready them for their most sacred of rites and connections with the Holy One. And sacraments the world over at the time of death include bathing as well.
So, what's the importance of a sacrament, particularly baptism and other popular rites in our faiths? I think they do indeed bring us into closer spiritual community with each other, even with those we may never see in this life. These sacraments often serve to connect us practically, emotionally, and spiritually with ancestors, with friends, family, community members, mentors, leaders, strangers, and God. Studies and anthropologists would say that these connections strengthen our community and personal fortitude and communal joy. And, as we've seen, they may also connect us in our faiths with others faiths as well.
For me, as an interfaith-Swedenborgian Christian, who also relates to other faiths in ways I won't explore here, I appreciate much of the emphasis that Christians put on this sacrament - if not the idea that it is necessary for salvation. I believe that Swedenborg had it right when he describes its only source of holiness as an external representation of an internal reality: our hope of and effort toward internal cleansing.
Baptism should signal our work of accepting the Lord's saving influence within our spirits, the salvation of washing away our hellishness and accepting God's heavenliness (which can happen no matter our tradition). This is the saving process that the Lady Christ hopes to work in all of our hearts, even if our earthly bodies never utter the title Christ without some revulsion, as long as we worship, love, and embody Christ's being in one way, tradition, religion, or another. I can also peacefully say that the historical Jesus Christ may never have existed, and yet I know that Christ's qualities, Divine Personhood, and Being has always existed and hopes to be more at one with us.
When we view certain practices as holy and we esteem them to be representative of our internal selves and processes, we are seeking to receive holiness in our lives. This is the real point of a sacrament, traditional or not: to help us receive the Lord within and without. We and She Herself want Goddess to be more fully embodied, and external practices help tremendously with that! What's the point of connecting further with a spiritual community if we ultimately decide to continue to be hellish, dominating, egotistical, false, lustful, and vastly selfish? Perhaps we serve a purpose, but our personal life ends up serving itself above all, which is "Satan."
That's why I think baptism must be a continuing sacrament in a sense, for those of us who esteem it. Something that we either carry in our contemplation as a continuing, internal process, or a rite that leads us into other spiritual practices that serve the same end. Forgive me, but baptism seems somewhat sacrilegious to me as a holy rite of passage except as an external indicator of a hope and a promise: the hope and promise of a continued commitment to our deepening connection with God, her qualities, and her communities.
What do you think? Please share your thoughts in our comments and connect with us live Sunday evening at 9 pm ET on our Worship page.
That being said, what's the source of this sacrament in the Christian tradition? As alluded to, it seems as though the roots of baptism for Christianity are from the Jewish traditions where bathing is a part of different purification rituals. But clearly, its emphasis for Christians most clearly comes from the importance of baptism in the Christian testament, including the emphasis on Jesus' own baptism by John the Baptist, Christ's commandments to baptize the nations, and the text's commentaries and conversations about the practice.
Most of us may know the scene and story: John the Baptist, who has proclaimed that he is but paving the way for the Holy One in his efforts of community renewal, repentance, and cleansing, finally meets someone he believes is the Christ. But Jesus insists on also being baptized by John, saying that that is the correct order of things.
Fascinating, right? Perhaps shedding light on this scene is the fact that "John" means Jehovah has been gracious or shown favor, and "the Baptist," of course, means one who baptizes or one who cleanses of spiritual impurities. Ultimately, we're told in tradition after tradition that only the Grand Spirit can actually cleanse our hearts and minds, although it often seems as though the strength to do so comes from ourselves.
If we relate the archetypes of this ancient story to our own living, perhaps John is the favor the Lord shows us by initiating our spiritual rebirth. What can be more favorable and gracious in our lives than such a baptism, as the meaning of "John" indicates? But this John is but the stage that paves the way for "Christ:" this change in orientation is but a small beginning compared to the life, "the anointment," that is to come. Christ is the incarnate Divinity we start to accept, worship, and realize thanks to our internal baptisms / cleansings, and their resulting impact on our lives.
I think this is why John says, "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." The promise and hope of our external sacraments are internal sacraments of Holy Spirit and fire, through which the Holy One and her manifest gifts become clearly present with us. Fire is a transformational process, one that entirely changes its fuel into new substances, and as his name indicates, the Holy Spirit's fiery passion hopes and strives to catalyze our spirit.
As we hear in this story, at the moment of Jesus' anointment in water, the Holy Spirit descends bodily like a dove onto him. In this vein, I think external, sacramental practices allow Divinity to become embodied in a way that cannot be done with only internal change. The mark of the Holy Spirit is from our cores to our toes. She wants to cleanse our being for her work in this world and for our own joy by renewing our hearts and even our hygiene. And what could make more of an effective, accessible, and universal symbol and metaphor than being washed by another with water? I think this calls each of us to allow ourselves to be cleansed and renewed by community (earthly or spiritual) and Divinity in order for the Holy Spirit to truly descend on us bodily, like a dove.
The Christian gospel goes on to not once describe Jesus Christ as ever baptizing anyone with water himself, saying that such work went to his disciples, including John and his followers. God may only truly baptize with the fire of the Spirit, the rest of our cleansing is in reaction to our spiritual transformation within. Let us be cleansed in the fire of the Goddess' passion and life no matter our external sacraments. May we each strive to be baptized and to baptize others in the name of the Divine Presence, as she commands. Amen.
CLOSING SONGS
Baptize
RKCB
Clean Up
The Canton Spirituals
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