Sunday Reflection: "Have You Been to the River?"

Pete:  "Well I'll be a sonofbitch, Delmar's been saved."

Delmar:  "That's it boys, I've been redeemed.  The preacher's done warshed away my sin and transgressions.  It's the straight and narrow from here on out."

line take from "O Brother, O Brother where art thou"

I'm feeling a bit brave today as I look at the water and reflect upon my days of childhood.  I grew up in a religous centered family.  The little church was the social center of the town and our life pretty much revolved around the activities of the church.

My Daddy had not yet become an ordained minister in the Baptist Church at this point,

so we were attending the Trinity Tabernacle Church located by the railroad in the center of our small southern town.  I don't remember all the names of people, so where I use a name....well I've made that up.  

Let me forwarn you, while the church was not one of them...snake handlin' kind of churches, some of the ways they worshipped were very energetic and charasmatic.  Today, I'm much more comfortable in the confines of my ordered Presbyterian worship.  I always know what to expect there.  As a kid....well let's just say----sometimes church was more like a session in "fear factor God"...I never understood some of the rituals, but

then I don't understand them in the Presbyterian church either.  The church is still there and it is still workin' for folks...so that being said, Let's get on with the story or else this post will be way too long for folks to read....

Once upon a time in my life...... 

 It was the late in the evening hours, and somebody had been "saved" as the church called it---that means that they had accepted Jesus in their heart.  So right after the service, the people who just got saved, decided that they wanted to be baptized immediately.  Well in some places, that would be quite easy, but in our little town in this little church, that meant goin' to the lake in the middle of the night....and this was a cold wintery night......Here's what I remember........

The Pentecostal Holy Rollers gathered along the banks of the muddy river on that icy cold night. The women were in their high stacked beehive hairdo's and long straight cut skirts down to their ankles and the men stood in their solid colored pants with their white starched collared shirts.

I was but a kid, but I stood there with my hand in fatmamma's 'cause number one: I was afraid of the dark and number two: I was equally scared of some of those Holy Roller women and what they could do with their jumping and screaming as the Holy Ghost jumped into them.

I still remember their off-key nasally singing, if I close my eyes,

I swear it is almost like i was back there:

"Shall we gather at the river...the beautiful, the beautiful river....gather with the Saints at the river that flows from the throne (sang....Thro one (long o ) of God."

As they sang, Maggie Sue and Mary Bell lined up and headed with the preacher Bro. James down to the muddy banks of the river.

It was a cold, cold night. If I blew out my breath it kinda looked like I might be smokin' one of them long camel cigarettes that the deacons would light up on the way home from the baptizing....

They started walking,

the preacher first,

then the women holding hands.

The crowd started humming....

and

then there was dead silence as

I watched them stand there in the cold water

in the light of the full moon.

The preacher started talking...

something about being washed in the blood of the lamb,

and

my mind got to thinkin' about that and how that didn't sound so good

and

next thing I knew

Bro. James

had

one of his hands on Maggie Sue's back with his other hand raised to the sky....

"I baptize you, my sister Maggie Sue, in the

name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost"...

then

he put a white handkerchief over her mouth and nose and

dunked her down all the while

saying,

dead, buried and resurrected....

the crowds started clapping and a saying Amen, hallelujah and the shouters, they held their hands in the air and spoke in them scary tongues that was a jabbering language that only God understood.

Maggie Sue came up holding her hands up and trying to catch her breath....

same thing for Mary Bell.

The night was freezing and I kept thinking that they probably was gonna get sick but they didn't.

The crowd started singing Amazing Grace

and they all came out of the water.

Bro. James prayed and  we went home.

That is the story of the first baptizing that I remember....

Now as an adult....we don't baptized like that in the church I've been attending. So what is that thing...that baptizing thing..... does it really wash away our sins,  wash us in the blood of the lamb, clean us up, shine us off, renew, restore,resurrect us?

Rituals of all kinds serve their place....

initiate us if you will into some kind of special group or and make us feel accepted and part of......

I still don't understand it...

I've been baptized,

water from ancient ancestors has rushed over me,

water that flowed over Jesus.....over my fatmamma, fatpa, littlepa, littlema, mama and daddy and finally over me and was sprinkeld over the heads of my own children....

and

it still flows...

that water,

that renewing water....

over time...

and

each time we step into it,

each time we gather around the river or local lake,

be it the banks or baptismal font,

God comes too us,

atoms of water,

cool renewal,

and

congregational acceptance.

Shall we gather at the river?

I'd do it again,

would you?