Called to Walk Wet
- davidwperk
- Mar 28
- 7 min read
Devotional Reflection, Friday, March 28, 2025
The week of the third Sunday in Lent
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key verses for reflection from today’s Romans reading:
3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.
You will find the full text of today’s Romans reading at the end of this reflection.
Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 954)
AM Psalm 95[*] & 88; PM Psalm 91, 92
Jeremiah 11:1-8,14-20; Romans 6:1-11; John 8:33-47
Today we celebrate the Feast of James S. Russell. (See below.)
David's Reflections
I can recall being quite puzzled by this passage as a teenager and as a beginning seminarian. Phrases like "died to sin” (v. 2), "old self was crucified with him” (v. 6I ), "died with Christ” (v. 8), simply did not compute with my experience. My old self was very much alive and I felt very alive to sin. What could this all mean?
Paul saw Christian baptism as the sacrament of our death with Christ and our resurrection with him. Early Christians baptized by immersing the entire body in water, an option that our prayer book actually prefers. The rubrics (those italicized instructions for worship leaders) on page 307 in The Book of Common Prayer read: "Each candidate is presented by name to the Celebrant, or to an assisting priest or deacon, who then immerses, or pours water upon, the candidate." Note that immerse is the first option named. In The Book of Common Prayer, if the italicized rubrics offer two options, the first named is the one preferred.
Many of us have never seen baptism by immersion in an Episcopal Church because most of our churches were built before liturgical renewal restored baptism to a place of prominence and immersion as the preferred mode (a development paralleled in Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism). They lack immersion pools. So, the symbolism of death and resurrection with Christ that this reading speaks of remains remote from the experience of many in the baptismal rite. Buildings, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopal, and others, constructed in the last several decades often have immersion pools and fonts in the entrance area.
For one example of an Episcopal immersion, see this link. The Episcopal Cathedral Church in Philadelphia has one of my favorite worship spaces. Each Sunday, when the Very Rev Judith Sullivan served as dean, the congregation processed to the font at the end of worship for the closing prayer and blessing. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=598383096101174&set=pb.100077884650288.-2207520000&type=3 This link will take you to a slide show of baptism at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Ashburn, VA. You can see the flowing font and the immersion pool below it. https://www.sdlife.org/worship. Scroll down the page to find those pictures.
In Holy baptism we experience a rite of passage, a liminal moment (lumen = threshold in Latin). Liminal moments transform us and our lives; once we pass through such moments life never again can remain the same. High school graduation, marriage, getting one's driver's license, becoming a parent, retirement--good examples of moments of passage over thresholds that one never can reverse or undo by stepping back over.
By faith we come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, a relationship that brings us into a new world of spiritual experience and frees us from the entangling grip of evil. Never again can we have the same relationship to the old life, to old practices, to a world driven by values contrary to our faith. Even the moments when we lapse into sin or find ourselves entangled in evil are temporary, moments too uncomfortable and unnatural in which to remain.
And we have the full assurance that we shall be risen with Christ and live eternally in the presence of God. In that new existence, our death to sin will have become ultimate and final. We will no longer be living in two realms at once, because this present realm of evil will have ended. Note verse 5 above. “5For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
This means we have more spiritual freedom available than we may have dreamed. The Spirit of Christ is bringing the realities of the new world of Christ's risen life into our experience. We are called to embrace that by faith, to count on it, and to hunger for greater freedom. As retired bishop Theodore Eastman of Maryland once put it, we are called "to walk wet," to live into the realties of our baptism throughout our lives by living into our baptismal promises.
Collect of the Day, The Third Sunday in Lent
Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 218)
Collect for Friday in the Third Week of Lent
Grant us, O Lord our Strength, a true love of your holy Name; so that, trusting in your grace, we may fear no earthly evil, nor fix our hearts on earthly goods, but may rejoice in your full salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Weekday Eucharistic Propers, p. 32)
Today we celebrate the Feast of James S. Russell, priest and educator (died 28 Mar 1935 CE).
Collect of the Feast of James S. Russell
O God, the font of resurrected life, draw us into the wilderness and speak tenderly to us, so that we might love and worship you as your servant James Solomon Russell did, in assurance of the saving grace of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Of the Holy Cross, Especially suitable for Fridays
Almighty God, whose beloved Son willingly endured the agony and shame of the cross for our redemption: Give us courage to take up our cross and follow him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 253)
In the Order of Worship for Evening
Almighty, everlasting God, let our prayer in your sight be as incense, the lifting up of our hands as the evening sacrifice. Give us grace to behold you, present in your Word and Sacraments, and to recognize you in the lives of those around us. Stir up in us the flame of that love which burned in the heart of your Son as he bore his passion, and let it burn in us to eternal life and to the ages of ages. Amen. (BCP, 113)
A Collect for Mission
O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 280, 515, 528, 540)
Daily Office Epistle, Romans 6:1-11
6:1What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? 2By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? 3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. 7For whoever has died is freed from sin. 8But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer
Noonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common Prayer
Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer
Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer
Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer
Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
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