Looming Threats

I'm taking a one-day break from blogging about the Duke Youth Academy. In the mean time, check out my new column in the Reporter, which is on the power of looming threats.

Remember the swarm of killer bees that was down in Texas back in the '80s, ready to wipe out the entire continental United States?

(Okay, so I may be dating myself for some younger readers.)

Remember the Y2K bug that was going to bring all our computers crashing down?

That stuff was scary because it was "out there" somewhere, and we had no control over it. We could only wring our hands nervously and hope the threat didn't affect our town.

Now there's swine flu. That's the looming threat these days. The mass panic that swine flu has caused is touching my own life through the daily regimen we have to follow at DYA and at all of Duke University's other summer camps. Every camper and staffer must be asked everyday whether he or she is experiencing symptoms of a cough, runny nose, or fever. Hand sanitizer dispensers have seemingly sprouted on every door frame on campus, with earnest instructions to use them as much as possible. If a camper is suspected of having contracted H1N1 he is immediately quarantined until his parents can come and get him.

The difference between killer bees and swine flu is that swine flu is a real killer whereas those bees never did much but make honey. Then again, by all accounts, swine flu isn't near as dangerous as the plain ol' seasonal flu that we contend with every winter. It's scary because it's new, it's named after an animal, and we have no control over it. But you know what? It's still a heck of a lot more dangerous to get in your car and drive down the street than it is to skip the hand sanitizer after turning a doorknob.

I suggest in my column that our baptism should help us put all those looming threats out there in perspective. Our fears are just little expressions of the One Great Fear we all have: Death.

But Jesus has been raised from the dead, and that means that, for those baptized into his death, our own inevitable, earthly deaths do not have the final say over our lives. God has that say, and God's word is a word of life.

"Remember your baptism"

This morning we had our first plenary lecture at the Duke Youth Academy. The topic was baptism, and it was presented by Fred Edie (who is also the faculty director of DYA).

Dr. Edie invited our students to consider creation by thinking about images of water - that life-giving substance that all plants and animals depend upon. And from the water of creation, he went on to talk about the water of redemption. Christians cannot think about who we are without thinking about how God has adopted us and named us as his own. That happens in the waters of baptism, where our creation becomes a re-creation.

Dr. Edie lectures in a very invitational style - he asks students to respond to biblical themes that he throws out, and at various points in a lecture he will ask his audience to turn to one another to engage in active reflection. This works great for a high school audience, and they seem to really connect with the interactive style.

In his lecture this morning, Dr. Edie remarked, "You need to stop thinking about baptism as only a moment in time. Baptism is a way of life."

He explained: Through anamnesis (re-membering and re-presenting) and prolepsis (anticipating and expecting) the entirety of God's salvation is offered to you in your baptism - past, present, and future. And because of that, baptism is where we begin in the Christian life. It is from there that we begin to discern our vocation, our calling in life & ministry. And in baptism, we also receive our identity.

Baptism tell us who we are. We are God's chosen children, and the stories wrapped up in baptism - Creation, Noah & the Flood, Moses and the Israelites passage through the Red Sea, and finally the life, death, & resurrection of Jesus Christ - these become our own stories, and they point us toward our future destiny with God.

"Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his" (Romans 6:3-5, ESV).

All of this makes me think of those wonderful words I am blessed to speak to each person who comes forward to the font during a baptismal renewal service:

"Remember your baptism, and be thankful."

Thankful, indeed.