“Water Has Memory: Pseudoscience & Theology," A Sermon on Matthew 3:13-17

Matthew 3:13-17
“Water Has Memory: Pseudoscience & Theology”

Recently I heard of the concept that “Water Has Memory.”

Okay, full disclosure: I heard it from the Disney movie Frozen 2. The only problem is, I also referenced Frozen 2 in my sermon last week and while I told you that you all needed to go see if because it was full of sermon example after sermon example after sermon example...I wasn’t planning on referencing it two weeks in a row! But it was so fitting for this Baptism of our Lord Sunday. So excuse me as I bring up this children’s movie two weeks in a row.

But in the movie, Olaf the magical snowman, is sharing random facts and he says that the water we drink has passed through at least 4 different humans and animals and somehow, through it all, the water retains the memory. It seems like an aside but actually becomes one of the main plots of the movie as the characters uncover the past through magical water, freezing into still-frame ice sculptures of the past -- because the water has memory.

Now, after the movie I thought...does water really have memory? After a quick, google the answer is “no.” The idea that water has memory was actually introduced by a French scientist whose name I can’t pronounce in 1988 - proposing that water molecules still retain a sort of memory of other substances they have come in to contact with - even after being heavily diluted. But the real fact is that this just isn't’t true. Despite homeopathy using this pseudoscience to support their actually unsupported claims, the scientific community has rejected the concept of water memory. Molecules just don’t work in this way. So despite being incorrect science, the concept still makes for a good fairy tale.

And, actually, while it may be a false scientific statement, I would argue that the concept that Water has Memory would be a true theological statement - I’m not talking about how molecules work or anything about the actual water, really...but I am talking about how we understand water as a theological concept - specifically, the waters of our baptism.


Today is The Baptism of Our Lord Sunday, the Sunday every year in the Christian calendar when we recount Jesus’s baptism and have a service of remembrance for our Baptism. Jesus was baptized to align himself with us, with humanity, with sinners - and as a voice from heaven says “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased” when Jesus came up from the waters of the Jordan - we know that in our baptism, we are aligning ourselves with Christ in our baptism and know that in it, God claims as as beloved children of the Divine as well.

Now, in our Baptismal rite, there is a beautiful part of the liturgy where we recount the memory of the baptismal waters. We give thanksgiving over the waters as we recount the many wondrous deeds and salvific acts of God through water.

We remember.

We remember when nothing existed by chaos and God’s Spirit swept across the waters of the deep and brought forth creation.

We remember the waters of the flood and the promise of the rainbow in the sky.

We remember the parting of the Red Sea and God’s people being brought out of slavery, through water, and into freedom.

We remember crossing the waters of the Jordan and entering the promised land.

We remember the waters of the womb in which Jesus, God incarnate, was nourished

We remember the water in which John baptized Jesus.

We remember.

And we ask the Holy Spirit to pour into the baptismal waters before us and through the gift of water and the power of The Spirit to help us remember - to remember that in our baptism we are claimed as God’s beloved, that in our baptism, we have been offered grace, and in our baptism, we become a part of the greater story of salvation - remembered through the waters.

And, for at least this moment, the moment where we as the people of God, the Baptized, are gathered together, where the Holy Spirit is present, and where we are remembering...this water holds all those memories. The Baptismal Waters have Memory. And they remind us - they tell us - of God’s saving acts, of our title as Beloved Child of God, of our alignment with Christ.

For our Baptism is a participating in the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of our Lord -- we align ourselves with Christ fully - something we also remember as we share the bread and cup in Holy Communion--- we believe that the Baptismal Waters, full of the Holy Spirit, Full of the Power of Memory, well, they fill us with the reality of what it means to share in the body of Christ - that we are a part of Christ’s body, a part of the mystery of the incarnation, called to the ministry of the least and the lost, alongside Jesus, that we are one in Christ, the only body Christ has in this world, that we, with Christ, have died to sin and death and that we, with Christ, the first fruit of the Resurrection, await the resurrection of the dead and God’s Kingdom of Peace.

Woah.

If my sermon just took a hard turn into the mystical, I hope you’re still with me. Because, yes, the theological concept of water having memory, of what happens in Baptism, it is mystical, it is mind boggling, it’s why we call the Sacraments a Mystery - because God works in holy and mysterious ways. And, it is beautiful. It is soul-nourishing and strengthening. And these Baptismal waters remember - and help us remember - we are beloved children of God, we are one in Christ, we are co-laborers with Christ in the story of salvation.

So today, you will be invited to come and remember your Baptism and then to share in Holy Communion. To dip your hands in this water, to bring the water to your forehead, and let its power, it’s memory - wash over you. You will be invited to take a stone from the water as well if you wish, to carry with you as a tangible way to remember your baptism. Then you will be invited to join in Communion, to remember Christ’s salvific acts, to taste, see, and remember the Goodness of the Lord.

And you are invited, when you leave this place, to remember the power and memory of water. We who live on the shores of Lake Erie know the power of water - it’s why after a hard day many of us may find ourselves at the water’s edge: letting the sounds of the waves wash over you, bringing memory, comfort, and peace. When you look at the waves of Lake Erie, when you are nurtured or sustained by water, when you wash yourself with it, when it falls from the sky, nourishing the earth - let the memory of water wash over you, too. Let it remind you of God hovering over the waters, God guiding God’s people to freedom, Jesus, nurtured in the waters of the womb, baptized in the Jordan. And let it remind you of your baptism - that you are beloved, that you are a child of God, that you are part of the Body of Christ.

Because Water Has Memory.

Amen.