Sunday, January 11th, 2026

Meditation

When we think about cleaning, almost always water is part of the equation. In the bathroom, we wash our hands before leaving, we use water to brush our teeth, and water is used in baths for our children and showers for us. In the kitchen, water is used to tackle a counter full of dishes. And in our laundry rooms, water is used to wash load after load of dirty clothes and sheets. When we think of cleaning, we usually encounter water.

But at the same time, water itself is so common that it borders on unremarkable, especially in this state. Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes, actually has 11,842 lakes of ten acres or larger according to the Department of Natural Resources. This does not include the many rivers and their tributaries, and the 9.2 million acres of wetlands, which themselves make up nearly a quarter of the state.

So on one hand, you have water, which we use to clean what is dirty, but we also have water that is so common that we call it ordinary. And it is with these two ideas in mind that we look at baptism and its many blessings today. We see that God uses baptism to wash away all our sins, making us clean and pure in His sight. But far from a one-time occurrence, this baptism is something that is alive and active in our lives every day.

And we see that God uses one of the most common and ubiquitous things in life, which is water. This does not have to be a special water, sourced from so far away or inaccessible a place that necessitates an arduous journey; instead, God can and does use ordinary water, the type that flows from a kitchen tap, to do this remarkable work. Baptism, then, is the perfect combination of ordinary and extraordinary in our lives and the lives of believers.

Prayer

Almighty God, we thank you for the gift of Holy Baptism through which you wash away our sins and make us one of your own. Strengthen us in this work you have done in our lives and let us always look to what you have done to save us and not what we do to save ourselves. Amen.