Burial At Sea



Ophelia, John Everett Millais

Colossians 2:12-14

...buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.  And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

Many cultures and subcultures throughout history have practiced burial at sea. If not the actual sea then the closest body of water (this includes flushing your goldfish down the toilet). Maybe you've seen films featuring a Norse Viking ship burial. Or maybe you've read about Hindus immersing the ashes of the deceased in the Ganges River. Obviously the Navy is the military branch that practices sea burial the most often. You may also be aware that many Christian groups allow for burial at sea. But what if I told you that all Christians (minus Quakers) experience a watery burial? If you are considering becoming a Christian you may be presently preparing for that specific ritual. The ritual of a waterborne burial that I am referring to is the rite of Baptism. It may sound strange to describe this Christian introductory ritual this way but that is exactly how St. Paul refers to it in the second chapter of his letter to the Colossians.

It is with great excitement that I introduce art from the Pre-Raphaelites to this blog. This art movement produced some of the most subtly beautiful depictions of humans and nature ever put on canvas. The Pre-Raphaelites were a coalition of painters, sculptors, art critics and poets founded in founded in 1848 by John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti (or as I refer to them Kelly, Michelle and Beyoncé) to create beautiful music... I mean painting. The Pre Raphaelites goal was just what their name states: they wanted to bring art back to a time "pre-Raphael." They wanted to wash off some of the influences of certain academic and compositional concerns of later Renaissance and Mannerism. It was part of an effort to find an earlier, purer painting. This art may seem academic and detailed to contemporary viewers but it was all a campaign of un-learning: an attempt to regain a lost innocence in Art. The Pre Raphaelites concocted something new, different and beautiful. As one of the founders of this movement Sir John Everett Millais' paintings embody all of the aesthetic triumphs of the Pre-Raphaelites. As one of these Englishmen with re-focus on the greatest era of European painting, he turned his gaze to creating a painting that illustrates the greatest writer in the English language: William Shakespeare. Millais' painting Ophelia is a masterwork that honors the intensity of naturalistic painting, illustrates the narrative detail of Shakespeare's tragedy(Hamlet) and displays the complexity of Ophelia's anguish. The anguish that led Ophelia to commit suicide by throwing herself into a river.

It is with great trepidation that I attempt to discuss Hamlet. My mother-in-law (who I am friends with and occasionally reads this blog) is an English teacher who has devoted many years, movie tickets and conversations to the subject of Hamlet. So I'm probably risking good standing with my in-laws by exposing my amateur grasp of this great play. Hopefully they give me credit for linking the Wikipedia article (because you can trust eveerything that Wikipedia says... Right?) So the following is my synopsis of the play. Hamlet was the son of the King of Denmark (his father was also named Hamlet so I guess that makes the main character Hamlet, Jr.... or Hamlet F. Baby). Hamlet's father was slain and appears to his son (as a ghost) and tells Hamlet that he must avenge his father's death. To add to that the slain King's wife (Hamlet's mother, Gertrude) has been deceived into marrying his murderer... who happens to be his brother Claudius... who is now currently serving as the King of Denmark (this script was originally written to be a telenovela). Hamlet is overtaken with a zeal for vengeance. Hamlet has a lover/girlfriend/courtier named Ophelia. Blinded by rage Hamlet mistakenly kills her father (mistakenly thinking that he was Claudius). This leads Ophelia to madness and she later plunges herself in water to take her life. Eventually tragedy begets tragedy and in the end everyone is dead (like the end of The Departed). Strangely enough the story of Christ has a parallel with the tale of Hamlet.

Is anyone surprised at this point that I am making comparison between Christ, Hamlet and Ophelia? If so then you are probably a first time reader of this blog. Maybe it's actually more of a contrast... but I honestly do see a connection between those three when I read Colossians 2:12-14. Follow my reasoning for a minute... Jesus was the son of the King of Heaven. His Father (God) is eternal and made revealed to Jesus that he must embark on his own mission to give his Father's gift of eternal life. The eternal King's wife (Israel, Jesus' motherland) has been deceived into being led by the killer of his prophets. This is where St. Paul's reasoning in Colossians steps in. Jesus' ministry was marked by opposition to Pharisaic legalism. It's actually what got him killed. St. Paul (who was a former Pharisee) held the same opposition to the overt legalism in Christianity. Through many of the blog entries concerning Paul you have seen his letters to churches around the Mediterranean arguing against the claims of the Judaizers (ancient Christians who argued that all followers of Christ, Jewish and non-Jewish, must practice all of the Law of the Old Testament). This included male circumcision and other practices included in the 613 Mitzvot of Scripture. Paul and Jesus never argued against the practices of Jewish law (they both were circumcised, fasted, attended synagogue and temple, celebrated the Holy Days, etc), rather they argued against being obligatorily enslaved to them. The commands of the Law, like the Sabbath, were made for Man not man for the Sabbath. They are spiritual aides to lead one to focus on the goal, which is God and godliness: they are not the goal in and of themselves. To put these practices on those that are not required to is to make these spiritual aides a spiritual burden. Like Hamlet, Jesus was overtaken with a zeal inspired by his Father. But this was not a hunger to exact vengeance but a longing to show mercy. He desired to show mercy to all, free and unfettered by religious practices that become misunderstood. So that brings us to Ophelia. Like Hamlet, Jesus also had a lover and future bride. Her name is Ecclesia... don't get all scandalized on me, Ecclesia is the Greek word that refers to The Church. It means "the called out ones." Like God was married to the people of Israel, Christ waits in expectation for his beautiful bride in the Church (all gathering of all believers over the ages, both Jewish and Gentile). Like Ophelia, Ecclesia has plunged herself in water ending her life. When we as the Church plunge ourselves into the waters of Baptism we do so not as an act of suicide but to attain new life. St. Paul writes in Colossians that we are "buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead." Baptism represents our identifying with Christ in his death and resurrection. We symbolically die in our sinful nature and rise to new life in Christ. Just like Hamlet, in the end everyone dies... but Jesus rose from the dead. proving that we have hope of eternal life in Christ

Baptism is not magic. Water Baptism only works if we are also baptized with the Holy Spirit. Now I know that there are a few different understandings in the Christian community of the concept of being "baptized in the Spirit." I am not referring to tarrying until a miraculous act (like speaking in tongues) occurs to prove that the Holy Spirit resides within us. Even though I have the utmost love for my Pentecostal and Charismatic brothers I do not believe that this is the promise of the baptism of the Holy Spirit that Christ promised to all believers. John the Baptist, like many other Jewish prophets and rabbis, practiced the Mikveh (think Jewish baptism). He became the most popular practitioner of this rite. John the Baptist practiced water baptism as a sign of repentance. Upon seeing Jesus, John announced him to be the one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit. Jesus did not personally perform baptisms (he had his Disciples performed that rite), however Jesus' sacrificial death is what allowed the Holy Spirit to come into the hearts of believers... all believers. Some believers spoke in tongues on the day of Pentecost and performed miracles, some believers acted as missionaries spreading the Gospel throughout the far territories of the Roman Empire, some believers fought as Abolitionists to end slavery worldwide, some set up convents, poorhouses and orphanages to care for the forgotten, still today some visit the sick in hospitals and feed the homeless, while others smuggle Bibles into oppressive regimes under the threat of death. Jesus baptized all of these believers throughout the ages in the empowering Holy Spirit and the evidence is their faith and works. True baptism (in water, in the Holy Spirit and in a change of heart) isn't just a religious bath: true baptism acts as a spiritual Luffa sponge... it scrubs off the old dead man and allows him to be washed away. Baptism allows our selfish, sinful past and spiritual coldness to be buried at sea.



Chill October, John Everett Millais

Drowning

The Drowning Artist, Linnea Strid

Psalm 69

Save me, O God!
For the waters have come up to my neck.
I sink in deep mire,
Where there is no standing;
I have come into deep waters,
Where the floods overflow me.
I am weary with my crying;
My throat is dry;
My eyes fail while I wait for my God.
Those who hate me without a cause
Are more than the hairs of my head;
They are mighty who would destroy me,
Being my enemies wrongfully;
Though I have stolen nothing,
I still must restore it.

O God, You know my foolishness;
And my sins are not hidden from You.
Let not those who wait for You, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed because of me;
Let not those who seek You be confounded because of me, O God of Israel.
Because for Your sake I have borne reproach;
Shame has covered my face.
I have become a stranger to my brothers,
And an alien to my mother’s children;
Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up,
And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.
When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting,
That became my reproach.
I also made sackcloth my garment;
I became a byword to them.
Those who sit in the gate speak against me,
And I am the song of the drunkards.

But as for me, my prayer is to You,
O Lord, in the acceptable time;
O God, in the multitude of Your mercy,
Hear me in the truth of Your salvation.
Deliver me out of the mire,
And let me not sink;
Let me be delivered from those who hate me,
And out of the deep waters.
Let not the floodwater overflow me,
Nor let the deep swallow me up;
And let not the pit shut its mouth on me.

Hear me, O Lord, for Your lovingkindness is good;
Turn to me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies.
And do not hide Your face from Your servant,
For I am in trouble;
Hear me speedily.
Draw near to my soul, and redeem it;
Deliver me because of my enemies.

You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor;
My adversaries are all before You.
Reproach has broken my heart,
And I am full of heaviness;
I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none;
And for comforters, but I found none.
They also gave me gall for my food,
And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

Let their table become a snare before them,
And their well-being a trap.
Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see;
And make their loins shake continually.
Pour out Your indignation upon them,
And let Your wrathful anger take hold of them.
Let their dwelling place be desolate;
Let no one live in their tents.
For they persecute the ones You have struck,
And talk of the grief of those You have wounded.
Add iniquity to their iniquity,
And let them not come into Your righteousness.
Let them be blotted out of the book of the living,
And not be written with the righteous.

But I am poor and sorrowful;
Let Your salvation, O God, set me up on high.
I will praise the name of God with a song,
And will magnify Him with thanksgiving.
This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bull,
Which has horns and hooves.
The humble shall see this and be glad;
And you who seek God, your hearts shall live.
For the Lord hears the poor,
And does not despise His prisoners.

Let heaven and earth praise Him,
The seas and everything that moves in them.
For God will save Zion
And build the cities of Judah,
That they may dwell there and possess it.
Also, the descendants of His servants shall inherit it,
And those who love His name shall dwell in it


Sometimes you just can't stay afloat...

That's what drowning is. For one reason or another you find yourself overcome by the current and you cannot save yourself. Why am I talking about this morbid subject? Well because in this Psalm David talks about drowning. He actually writes about a lot of things in this lengthy Psalm but he talks about drowning twice. When he repeats the drowning motif you realize that this is a song and he is establishing a "hook." You know, that's the young folks word for a chorus. And when you look at it again in the terms of the hook I realized that the whole song was about drowning. Ironically a hook is what David could have used. Specifically the hook on the end of a shepherd's staff. No doubt he had used it many times before, in his former life as a shepherd, to save sheep who had slipped into the deep. Now the former shepherd was a king and he needed saving of his own.

I'm Erasing You, Linnea Strid

King David was drowning. Psalm 69is not just about drowning in water but about drowning in "mire." What is mire? Well ask your nearest elderly deacon and he will tell you that mire basically means mud... and slush... things that lead you to sink deeper and deeper. Land that betrays you and reveals its liquid tendencies. Mire is that mud on the banks of a river that a sheep may have stood on to get a sip from the water. Then they realize that this seemingly stable ground had ensnared them. It's like that quicksand episode that every cartoon and family sitcom from the 70's and 80's had to include..."Oh no Scooby and Shaggy, apparently you've stumbled into quicksand for the 415th time!" But when David speaks about drowning in water and sinking in mire he is alluding to an even more vile danger: Sinking into sin. Not just any sin but drowning in addictive sins. Becoming engulfed by iniquitous relationships, like the adulterous one that he orchestrated with Bathsheba. Falling into problems that shame you and ensnare those who surround you, like David's plot to murder Bathsheba's to cover us her and David's child. Maybe you've been there. Maybe you were lucky enough to have had a spiritual Indiana Jones there to save you from this sand pit. Maybe you are still there slowly sinking until you find yourself fully submerged in it. 

Transforming, Linnea Strid

If you do find yourself slowly being submerged then the answer is to surrender and be immersed. The first step of faith in Christ is belief but the second step is immersion. I am obviously alluding to baptism. And why wouldn't I? As a Baptist I belong to a group that named itself after the act. If you look through this verse about sin, shame and drowning you may also notice verses that Christians look to as foreshadowing of Christ's crucifixion and death. Even though David's iniquities came hundreds of years before Christ's sacrifice, his hope for mercy would be intertwined in Christ's actions. That is because all of God's mercy in history past and history future was tied to Christ's taking upon humanity's collective sin... Soooo, what does this have to do with baptism? Well St. Paul will later identify our Christian rite of baptism with Jesus' sacrificial death. As you hold your nose and are lowered by a minister into a pool of water, Paul says it parallels Jesus' being lowered into the grave... both are done to wash away sins. You may have heard it referred to as the "liquid grave." As you arise from the water you parallel Christ's arising from the dead, both having shed the dirt of sin. Paul spoke this way because Christians didn't invent baptism per se, they just imbued it with renewed meaning. And no, the Baptists didn't invent baptism either. This is another ritual that we inherited from Judaism. In Judaism it is referred to as a "Mikveh", a purification ritual. It is heavily practiced in Orthodox and Conservative Jewish congregations. There are several reasons to have a Mikveh performed, but the one that closely resembles Christian baptism is for conversion to Judaism. In biblical times the most famous proponent of Mikvehs for conversion was a desert prophet named John the Baptist (who also happened to be Jesus' cousin). His argument for this spiritual cleansing however was to people who had probably already converted to Judaism. They actually had probably been Jewish from birth and some of them were Pharisees and Priests in the temple in Jerusalem. John the Baptist's notion was that they were converted externally but not internally. Conversion is not just a matter baptizing the body but also baptizing the heart. Even if you have been baptized there are times when we must analyze our ways and thoughts to discover if we are truly spiritually cleansed. If we are honest with ourselves we may realize that we are often far from purity. We may realize that just like David, we are adults who have gone through all of the religious rites required of our youth but have now sunken into sin. We have gone from being immersed in baptismal waters to engulfed in sin. 

If that is your case then take confidence in the fact that you have hope in Christ. This hope cannot be drowned because this hope floats. This is the hope of spiritual breath that relieves on of sin's suffocation. No, baptism is not a magic bath. As a Baptist I don't actually believe their is any salvific power in the act of baptism itself. However their is power in the internal spiritual conversion that it symbolizes. A conversion that you may need to have repeatedly to varying degrees several times over in your life. Baptism is an outward sign of an inward change. It shows that you personally relate with Christ's sacrificial act. If you haven't made this internal change then you may have pulled the wool over your own eyes. Even if you didn't realize this at the point of your baptism, there is still time now to make an actual spiritual conversion. This is the hope of Christianity: that you can always surrender to the Holy Spirit's baptism of your heart. This is the hope of wayward sheep who long to be saved by the Good Shepherd.